Poor reliability of AC powered LEDs

[SUNRAY]

for what its worth, I've put 25W incandescent candle bulbs back in a 5 arm chandelier as it's costing a lot more using LED.

 

[AndyPRK]

What brand is that sunray ?

 

[SUNRAY]

What brand is that sunray ?

Initially cheapies then Energiser. I got through 24 in just over 3 years, prior to that I'd replace about 1 bulb a year. ~£48 for bulbs buys a hell of a lot of 230V.

 

[JohnW2]

for what its worth, I've put 25W incandescent candle bulbs back in a 5 arm chandelier as it's costing a lot more using LED.

Anecdotal experiences obviously vary considerably (as one might expect). I have two 5-arm 'chandeliers' in my dining room with LED candle bulbs in them (i.e. 10 LED bulbs in total) and, although they are only 'cheapo' LEDs, it must be at least 2-3 years, probably a fair bit longer, since I last had to replace a single one.

Kind Regards, John

 

[SUNRAY]

Anecdotal experiences obviously vary considerably (as one might expect). I have two 5-arm 'chandeliers' in my dining room with LED candle bulbs in them (i.e. 10 LED bulbs in total) and, although they are only 'cheapo' LEDs, it must be at least 2-3 years, probably a fair bit longer, since I last had to replace a single one.

Kind Regards, John

My experience in the hall is similar to the lounge, 20 cheapo's in 9 slots and currently used all 3 spare Energisers since Christmas '17 (I think).

EDIT: I lie, I still have one spare Energiser.

 

[AndyPRK]

My energizers have been ok.

I see they have made them weigh less, for the ones in red boxes.

 

[echoes]

More anecdotes: I have what seems like a multitude of SES 'golf ball' style lamps. Some seem to last years, while others definitely don't - even in the same light fixture.

My most recent purchases use a current regulating IC with a current sense resistor and no switch-mode PSU, so in future I'll be buying over-bright models and then 'hacking' them to a lower power.

 

[JohnW2]

More anecdotes: I have what seems like a multitude of SES 'golf ball' style lamps. Some seem to last years, while others definitely don't - even in the same light fixture.

To extend what I wrote above, many things, including bulbs/lamps, have 'bathtub shaped' survival curves, with a lot of fairly (some very) early deaths, then a long period during which failure is rare, and then a time beyond which all start gradually dying.

Hence, in a slightly less dramatic sense than the extreme example I gave before, it's quite possible that nearly half of them die before 1000 hours (a good few dying within 100 hours), but then few deaths between 1,000 and 10,000 hours, beyond which the remaining half gradually/progressively die off - which would, again, be correctly reported as a median 'life expectancy' of 10,000 hours, despite the fact that nearly half had failed prior to 1,000 hours (and a good few under 1000 hours).

My most recent purchases use a current regulating IC with a current sense resistor and no switch-mode PSU, so in future I'll be buying over-bright models and then 'hacking' them to a lower power.

Do any LED bulbs/lamps (even expensive ones) actually have SMPSUs? With the cheapos, all one will usually get is a bridge rectifier and a couple of capacitors.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

I had a replacement for a fluorescent tube fail, and a G9 fail the G9 I opened to see how made, found a dry joint, re-soldered and put back in to service, I started moving over to LED around 2017 and other than the two had no failures, although had one showing signs of over heating, using GU10, E14 candle, B22d, and G9, my problems has been flashing when switched off, and a shimmer when switched on mainly with electronic switches.

I am sure the fluorescent tube replacement used a pulse width modulated chip, but the bulb I opened used two capacitors, a full wave rectifier and a resistor plus the LED's, one capacitor to control current, and one to smooth the DC, and resistor stops it flashing when switched off, the bulb looked like this very cheap and breaks the rules showing not wattage, or lumen on the bulb, but works well, the ones before looked like this and the but is very much smaller and clearly not enough room for the smoothing capacitor but they did allow the fitting of the glass covers, the larger ones will not allow fitting of the glass covers.

But in general the LED bulbs have lasted well, three houses, two no SPD this one has, the base on most at bottom, some BA22d have base at top. Most very cheap, Home bargains, B&M bargains, and Lidi except for the G9 which were from internet.

I suppose it could be over voltage causing failures, but think more likely spikes for a motor or some thing, which a SPD would not really help with that as voltage way below what they would help with. What I wonder is how spikes will effect the current through the capacitor.

 

[SUNRAY]

Do any LED bulbs/lamps (even expensive ones) actually have SMPSUs? With the cheapos, all one will usually get is a bridge rectifier and a couple of capacitors.

Kind Regards, John

I've pulled a couple of cheapo's apart and both hd a PWM driver.

 

[echoes]

Some older ones that I've taken to bits have a tiny transformer and associated circuitry. I assumed this to be a tiny SMPSU.

More recent ones seem to be a bridge rectifier, smoothing cap and a constant current IC.
I've not seen one which was just a simple 'capacitive dropper'.

 

[JohnW2]

I've pulled a couple of cheapo's apart and both hd a PWM driver.

They can't be as cheap as the ones I buy

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

Some older ones that I've taken to bits have a tiny transformer and associated circuitry. I assumed this to be a tiny SMPSU.

Yes, in the early days of LEDs, I did see that, but not for a very long time now.

More recent ones seem to be a bridge rectifier, smoothing cap and a constant current IC. I've not seen one which was just a simple 'capacitive dropper'.

Maybe yours haven't been cheap enough As I said, I've certainly come across a good few that had just a 'capacitive dropper', a bridge rectifier and a smoothing capacitor - and I rather assumed (perhaps wrongly!) that that was the case with most/all of the very cheap ones today.

Kind Regards, John

 

[AndyPRK]

Big Clive suggesting manufactures making them fail early.