Bathroom LED spotlights behaving erratically - driver problem?

[roofus123]

Hi all - I have a problem with the LED spotlights in my bathroom, looking for some confirmation on likely cause before I go crawling into the tight loft space above (in case I don't have to!).

There are 4x LED spotlights in the bathroom, all 12v connected to a single driver. All 4 are flickering on/off in unison, and continue for flicker for around 10 seconds after the light switch is turned off. I've eliminated the switch as the cause, as there's a shower light and extractor working fine off the same switch (I switched the circuits around in the switch wiring just to check, and the same issue persists). I've also tried removing/replacing the individual bulbs and have tested them in other rooms, they're working fine.

I'm thinking the LED driver is the likely cause and happy to replace it myself - but is there any other likely/possible cause to check for first?

Thanks for any advice,
R

 

[matlob]

I'd remove the driver and just use GU10 lamps. Drivers always seem to fail eventually.
Will need Gu10 lampholders to replace what you have

 

[roofus123]

Thanks - I hadn't considered that, definitely should have gone with those originally in hindsight.

Is there anything other than the driver that could be causing the problems? If not then I'll probably just replace the driver for now, as it will be cheaper and easier than replacing all the fittings and bulbs for GU10s - but will definitely stick to GU10s for future fittings.

 

[Taylortwocities]

What’s the spec of the lamps?
Are they wired in parallel or series?
Is the driver constant current or constant voltage?
I guess this set up worked perfectly for some time?

 

[roofus123]

Yes they had been working fine for 7-8 years until recently. 4x 12v 5W MR16 bulbs wired in parallel (from memory!), 30W LED driver constant voltage.

 

[Taylortwocities]

I’d suspect the driver, as it’s common to all of the lamps.
Unless there is a dimmer in play…?

 

[roofus123]

No dimmer. I'll swap out the driver and hopefully job done. Will come back and update the thread afterwards, if only because it annoys me when people don't report back whether a suggestion worked or not!

Thanks TTC and Matlob.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Is there anything other than the driver that could be causing the problems? If not then I'll probably just replace the driver for now, as it will be cheaper and easier than replacing all the fittings and bulbs for GU10s - but will definitely stick to GU10s for future fittings.

No, it is the driver. Might the LED's have originally been halogen lamps upgraded to LED?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Might the LED's have originally been halogen lamps upgraded to LED?

Yes they had been working fine for 7-8 years until recently.

 

[roofus123]

Update for completeness, for anyone coming across this thread in future - I replaced the driver and everything now working fine. 30 minute job (would have been a 5-minute job were it not for needing to operate in a barely-accessible loft space and deal with some badly-wired junction boxes).