Reliable LED bulb brands?

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Aug 26th, 2019 3:42 pm

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Aug 11th, 2019 10:49 pm

tablo13 [OP]: Deal Addict; Aug 30, 2011; 1850 posts; 582 upvotes; Edmonton

Aug 11th, 2019 10:49 pm

Reliable LED bulb brands?

Two of the Sylvania LED bulbs in my sister’s room have failed recently. These are the first LED bulbs to fail since our conversion from CFL to LED around 2016/2017. Granted she might be one of the heavier light bulb users in the household, turning the lights on longer than other family members. Other LED bulbs still working in our house include Philips, Cree, Feit, and ECO Smart (Government of Alberta retrofit brand). I contacted Sylvania and they said they will mail a voucher. In the meanwhile I have bought a 4 pack of Philips non-dimmable 60W equivalent LED bulbs from the Home Depot.

Is Philips a reliable brand for LED bulbs? I always thought Osram Sylvania stuff is second or third best next to Philips, so Sylvania failing first was a surprise to me. Cree doesn’t sell LED bulbs to general Canadian consumers anymore, and GE I swore off after their CFLs failed pretty early. Feit I think is okay, but I noticed their cheaper stuff have PWM flickering. Also, will Energy Star certified LED bulbs last longer than ones that aren’t certified? Or does Energy Star not give certification to non-dimmable LED bulbs, that’s how I remember it.

12 replies

Aug 11th, 2019 11:11 pm

rfdrfd: Deal Guru; Jun 26, 2005; 10002 posts; 1878 upvotes; Toronto

Aug 11th, 2019 11:11 pm

Reliability is never easy to predict.

The most important is the warranty. Pick a brand that has the longer warranty.

Then call them for a coupon when it fails.

+1

Aug 11th, 2019 11:11 pm

jackrabbit000: Deal Fanatic; Dec 28, 2007; 7884 posts; 4519 upvotes; Alberta

Aug 11th, 2019 11:11 pm

I replaced all my bulbs with Noma ones from CT when they were on sale. In just over 1.5 years I've replaced about 6 of them already in 3 different styles. The ones that look like flood lamps flicker when dimmed. All the other ones dim and are good and don't flicker. The chandelier style bulbs we have get super hot like normal light bulbs. Go figure, I didn't think they gave off so energy. As for warranty, I didn't bother because I got hem so cheap. Just threw them in the garbage a replaced them with spare ones that I bought.

Aug 11th, 2019 11:17 pm

tablo13 [OP]: Deal Addict; Aug 30, 2011; 1850 posts; 582 upvotes; Edmonton

Aug 11th, 2019 11:17 pm

rfdrfd wrote: ↑ Reliability is never easy to predict.

The most important is the warranty. Pick a brand that has the longer warranty.

Then call them for a coupon when it fails.

I looked up Feit’s warranty and theirs is only 1 year.

Now I know what brand not to buy. Philips and Sylvania are 3 years.

Aug 12th, 2019 1:11 am

engineered: Deal Expert; Feb 11, 2007; 16870 posts; 18616 upvotes; Oakville

Aug 12th, 2019 1:11 am

jackrabbit000 wrote: ↑ I replaced all my bulbs with Noma ones from CT when they were on sale. In just over 1.5 years I've replaced about 6 of them already in 3 different styles. The ones that look like flood lamps flicker when dimmed. All the other ones dim and are good and don't flicker. The chandelier style bulbs we have get super hot like normal light bulbs. Go figure, I didn't think they gave off so energy. As for warranty, I didn't bother because I got hem so cheap. Just threw them in the garbage a replaced them with spare ones that I bought.

In contrast, I love my noma bulbs, including the Edison style ones. Good light and never a problem or failure.
I think it's down to random luck, despite the brand. Also, you don't want any LED brand bulb in a completely enclosed fixture as heat will build up, and degrade the electronics.

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Aug 12th, 2019 8:42 am

Kevin711: Sr. Member; Jan 7, 2006; 598 posts; 313 upvotes; Toronto

Aug 12th, 2019 8:42 am

In the past 4 months I had 3 noma led bulbs die, all from the spring of 2017 in different parts of the house. It's the 60w equivalent A19 3000k (might be 3300, forget) style. I took them back to crappy t, they said I need a receipt for warranty so I tossed them.

I have around 20 at home.

Aug 12th, 2019 8:59 am

iEyeCaptain: Deal Fanatic; Aug 10, 2011; 9529 posts; 2127 upvotes; Somewhere

Aug 12th, 2019 8:59 am

Do not buy Noma. I replaced more than half of them that I bought during the $1 government rebate promo.

I have some Phillips that never failed, but they're pricey.

I recently bought a few AmazonBasics ones that they have not failed so far. But it's only been maybe 6 months.

+1

Aug 12th, 2019 10:39 am

lurkknight: Sr. Member; Oct 3, 2011; 583 posts; 377 upvotes; OTTAWA

Aug 12th, 2019 10:39 am

I have like 18 bulbs from feit I bought during the green on campaign a few years ago from lowes... 3 of them have had ridiculous run times in the 12-18 hours a day range, The rest are just in areas of the house where I don't use the lights often.

I have had the most failures from phillips and rona's uberhaus brand in the candelabra size.. about 33% failure rate in the first year.

+1

Aug 12th, 2019 10:43 am

callernamet: Deal Addict; Mar 10, 2018; 3865 posts; 859 upvotes; centre of universe

Aug 12th, 2019 10:43 am

rfdrfd wrote: ↑ Reliability is never easy to predict.

The most important is the warranty. Pick a brand that has the longer warranty.

Then call them for a coupon when it fails.

Remember the CFL were introduced with 7 years or warranty or so? Anyone remember how many of their CFL bulbs lasted for 7 years?

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Aug 12th, 2019 9:19 pm

jackrabbit000: Deal Fanatic; Dec 28, 2007; 7884 posts; 4519 upvotes; Alberta

Aug 12th, 2019 9:19 pm

engineered wrote: ↑ In contrast, I love my noma bulbs, including the Edison style ones. Good light and never a problem or failure.
I think it's down to random luck, despite the brand. Also, you don't want any LED brand bulb in a completely enclosed fixture as heat will build up, and degrade the electronics.

Actually I don't mind the Noma bulbs at all. None of them are in enclosed fixtures but have had 6 failures out of the 120 that I changed out.

+1

Aug 12th, 2019 11:40 pm

Zero Hope: Deal Addict; Jul 7, 2007; 1299 posts; 900 upvotes

Aug 12th, 2019 11:40 pm

tablo13 wrote: ↑ I looked up Feit’s warranty and theirs is only 1 year. Now I know what brand not to buy. Philips and Sylvania are 3 years.

Really? The ones I bought back in January 2015 had a 5 year warranty and they were used for my outdoor lights which are on (auto-timer) 8-10 hours per day depending on time of year. One of the 5 bulbs failed in March 2019 and I called CS, they had no issues with shipping me a new one. I still had the receipt they didn't ask for it, only asked for the serial number on the actual bulb.

All my 30 interior par20 led from luminus bought from Costco are still functioning. Bought them back in Oct 2014.

Aug 13th, 2019 12:33 am

tablo13 [OP]: Deal Addict; Aug 30, 2011; 1850 posts; 582 upvotes; Edmonton

Aug 13th, 2019 12:33 am

Zero Hope wrote: ↑ Really? The ones I bought back in January 2015 had a 5 year warranty and they were used for my outdoor lights which are on (auto-timer) 8-10 hours per day depending on time of year. One of the 5 bulbs failed in March 2019 and I called CS, they had no issues with shipping me a new one. I still had the receipt they didn't ask for it, only asked for the serial number on the actual bulb.

All my 30 interior par20 led from luminus bought from Costco are still functioning. Bought them back in Oct 2014.

Both their website and Lowe’s website says 1 year warranty.

https://www.feit.com/wp-content/uploads ... cSheet.pdf

https://www.lowes.ca/product/led-light- ... ack-714746

The actual warranty will obviously depend on the product you actually purchased, but seems like 1 year for their current non-dimmable offerings.

Also I finally figured out the difference between non-dimmable, non-Energy Star certified bulbs and dimmable, Energy Star certified bulbs. The lifetime is almost twice, and that makes it twice as expensive. The cheap, non-dimmable bulbs are 10000-11000 hours and the expensive, Energy Star certified bulbs are at least 15000 hours and I’ve seen it as high as 25000 hours with the Sylvania Ultra and Feit. I personally don’t have dimmers in our house for A19 bulbs so I always bought non-dimmable ones except for Cree.

Aug 26th, 2019 3:42 pm

Supahhh: Deal Addict; Aug 12, 2007; 4685 posts; 811 upvotes; Waterloo

Aug 26th, 2019 3:42 pm

iEyeCaptain wrote: ↑ Do not buy Noma. I replaced more than half of them that I bought during the $1 government rebate promo.

I have some Phillips that never failed, but they're pricey.

I recently bought a few AmazonBasics ones that they have not failed so far. But it's only been maybe 6 months.

of my original switch out from CFL to LED, I dont believe any of the philips ones have failed ( even tho i got the cheapo philips ones with the odd shape )

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