Who makes lights which last?

[morqthana]

I'm in the market for some low-profile, round, surface mount LED ceiling lights

220-250mm dia,15-20mm deep, white, 18W or a bit more.

Wall switch operated CCT would be nice, but failing that 3000K.

I have already got quite a few Knightsbridge CPL18CTs, which I thought were an OK make, but less than a year in and they are dropping like flies.

 

[ericmark]

There are some de-rated bulbs for sale in Dubai but for most it is just good or bad luck, price means nothing.

 

[SUNRAY]

I'm in the market for some low-profile, round, surface mount LED ceiling lights

220-250mm dia,15-20mm deep, white, 18W or a bit more.

Wall switch operated CCT would be nice, but failing that 3000K.

I have already got quite a few Knightsbridge CPL18CTs, which I thought were an OK make, but less than a year in and they are dropping like flies.

welcome to the expensive world of LED. Get used to it.

 

[ericmark]

I started with LED when Lidi did some cheap 2.8 watt candle bulbs, I have populated three homes with them now, and I have had some failures, in the main smart GU10's, about 4 failed, and a couple of E14 candle, one 5 foot replacement for fluorescent tubes and a G9 which I dismantled to see how they work, found dry joint, fixed and it is still running, so around 8 failures and bought around 50 between the three homes over around 7 years. And with tungsten expected to swap a bulb every other week.

This house has two SPD's fitted, which may help, and with smart bulbs running to around £10 each I don't want many failures, have lost one power supply for a display cabinet strip lamp, but replaced under warranty. I am a skinflint so all were on the cheap side. And I have 6 G9's which will not work with the Energenie smart switch, but can't really blame the bulbs.

There are things we can do to help, for example having a SPD fitted, I can't prove they help, but each person complaining about loss of loads of LED bulbs have admitted not having one. And of course you can get a bad batch, son had a load of GU10's fail, which he blames on using cheap bulbs, but I also use cheap bulbs, so can't really blame it on that alone.

Also of course not place where likely to over heat, the set he had problems with was in a ceiling with loads of Rockwool insulation.

I have two integral lamps, both wife bought, but the outside one was only £4 so hardly breaking the bank. I have looked at the GX53 as a surface mount LED ceiling light, but never tried any. In the main I aim at bulbs where I can get smart versions, even if not actually using them. So shy away from integral types. The Dubai lamp would be nice, but not available in UK.

 

[sparkymarka]

I'm in the market for some low-profile, round, surface mount LED ceiling lights

220-250mm dia,15-20mm deep, white, 18W or a bit more.

Wall switch operated CCT would be nice, but failing that 3000K.

I have already got quite a few Knightsbridge CPL18CTs, which I thought were an OK make, but less than a year in and they are dropping like flies.

Send them back as they come with 3 year warranty

 

[Murdochcat]

Kingston don’t supply robust equipment. Avoid

 

[morqthana]

Eric - I'm not buying bulbs, I'm buying integral lights. I do have other lights which use bulbs, and no doubt I'll find makes which are reliable and ones which aren't, and if I have a mix it'll be OK unless there's a marked difference in colour temperature.

But for these ceiling lights I want them all to be the same. I could live with 'similar' if I had to, but I've got 13 on one floor, and similar would have to break down into [6 identical] + [5 identical] + [2 not so critical as they are 1 in each of 2 separate rooms], plus there are two in separated locations on another floor.

When we bought the lights we got a spare, in case one failed in one of the separate rooms and left us with nothing, and envisaged what we thought was a worst case scenario of having to move ones from the individual rooms or the other floor if ones in the 6x or 5x locations failed and we couldn't get identical replacements.

Never in a million years expected this failure rate though (6 in under a year).

 

[morqthana]

welcome to the expensive world of LED. Get used to it.

Deep joy.

Can't even rely on makes like Philips/Thorn/JCC?

Send them back as they come with 3 year warranty

2 years according to the people we got them from, and yes, we'll be OK with these failures, but what of future years? I'm strongly minded to get refunds rather than replacements, if I can, ditto for any further failures over the next year or so, and when we've shrunk to less than 5 remaining just junk them. Which is why I want to look for alternatives.

Kingston don’t supply robust equipment. Avoid

So it seems.

 

[JohnW2]

Can't even rely on makes like Philips/Thorn/JCC?

For what it's worth, as I've often reported, having 'played the field', I've had more problems (primarily 'early failures') with expensive LED lamps/bulbs from 'very established and reputable (hence expensive) manufacturers' than from 'the cheapest I can find' - so the latter are what I now nearly always buy (although very rarely, since they don't fail that often).

It might perhaps be possible to rationalise that to some extent by noting that 'the cheapest I can find' are far more electronically simpler (often just a couple of capacitors and a bridge rectifier) than are the more expensive ones - hence far less 'to go wrong'.

As I've also often observed, I have a very large number of candle and golfball bulbs in my house and, in the days of incandescents, I was having to buy large batches every couple of months or so and probably, on average, had to replace at least one every week (and not uncommonly had to resent the relevant B6 as well!). These days, I buy very small batches of (extremely cheap) LEDS maybe once per year or so, and often go for months without having to replace any.

 

[ericmark]

I have found same as @JohnW2 cheap seem to last longer and stock does not seem to reduce I have traditionally kept a stock of bulbs. Integral lamps is asking for problems, hard enough to find a bulb with same colour temperature never mind complete lamp. The life expectancy of a fluorescent with an electronic ballast is about the same as an LED, you can get LED replacements for the 2D lamp, and if you want fitting to match, only way it to have some lamp where you can replace the internals, nothing has really changed when we moved from fluorescent to LED, you can still buy the internals without the case if you don't want to do that, then you have to live with the problem of getting matching cases. Even with minimal components one will get failures, this lamp with the LED's I can see the chip has failed

and the chips are likely from same manufacturers even if the bulb or fitting is not, and the capacitor is electrolytic so has a finite life, it will at some point fail, there have always been bulbs which have lasted longer than the rest,

It was first illuminated in 1901, and has only been turned off a few brief times since. It is located at 4550 East Avenue, Livermore, California, and is open to public viewing. Due to its longevity, the bulb has been noted by The Guinness Book of World Records, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, and General Electric.

But one it's light output is now down to a glow, and two it is the odd one out, standard life for lamps is to light 100 and when down to 50 still working that is the standard life of the lamp, so when it says 10,000 hours it means half will be working after 10,000 hours, not they all will work for 10,000 hours.

 

[Jon c]

Personally I've had good luck with Ansell and Fusion (cef own brand) bulkhead lights, they have 2/3 different lumen settings which is great if you're not sure exactly what brightness you'll need, and they're CCT, but internally, not from the light switch.

I'm not a fan of the ones that change colour depending on how many times you press the light switch, I've found if there's more than 1 light being switched they can easily get out of sync and for someone that doesn't know how they're meant to work it'll be confusing why the lights keep changing colour by themselves!

 

[morqthana]

Never had the syncing problem except with the couple that have emergency supplies.

My knowledge of "bulkhead lights" is that they are bit pedestrian-subway-ish.

Maybe I should find the cheapest ones I can and buy a large number - if the ones I have now are typical they don't take any longer to replace than changing bulb(s) in an enclosed fitting.

Bummer though.

 

[JohnD]

Eric - I'm not buying bulbs, I'm buying integral lights.

I think that's the trouble.

After years of complicated and expensive lamps, especially low-voltage miniature ones, we now have the chance to buy standard fittings, and, if you seek miniatures, quite small SES lamps, that you can buy mail order in any high street, in a variety of reputable and unknown brands, that have a good chance of lasting for years. They run relatively cool so plastic parts around them have a long life.

The integral, non-replaceable lamps do not fit my criteria for standard and simple replacement.

 

[jurassic sparkk]

welcome to the expensive world of LED. Get used to it.

Expensive but it pays off.

 

[securespark]

Integral are my go to at the moment, but I have recently bought some JCC Skypak to replace 2 HF Flus in the kitchen.

In the 80s/ 90s, I used to swear by Thorn.