LED lifetime update


Almost exactly a year ago I posted about switching my kitchen to some PAR20 LED bulbs, talking about the economics of them, given their very long (50,000 hour) expected lifetime, and 5 year warranty.

The bad news – last night one quit on me. :( The good news is, Home Depot treated me very well; the guy from the electrical section just said “well, 5 year warranty and we haven’t even carried them that long. Here’s a new one.” I had no receipt, and they didn’t even bother looking it up.

I had to manhandle it into the PAR20 gimbal a bit; maybe that is why it died an early death? I hope this isn’t common. I paid $25 each (now $20) and expected to never have to change those bulbs again. Check back next year to see how the other 5 are faring. :)

5 thoughts on “LED lifetime update

  1. This has been my experience with all 3-4 of the LED bulbs I’ve ever purchased. They all give out *far* sooner than the time estimates.

  2. Likewise. I replaced most of our halogens with CFL bulbs, but have tried a couple of LEDs. The cheap one was absolute rubbish, but no surprise at the price. The more expensive LED compared favourably to the CFL in output, but failed about 13 months after installation, just out of it’s 12 month guarantee ;(

    Taking it apart, one of the 3 series LEDs had failed. I understand heat dissipation is the usual problem, but mine was as vented as well as a hole in the ceiling can be (not a closed fitting, loft insulation moved well back).

    Sounds like you did well with the Home Depot guarantee. I still think LEDs are the way forward, but with the bulb lifetime being so critical to reclaiming the costs, perhaps there’s a lesson there about buying locally instead of online?

    • This one should not have qualified as “cheap” – it’s made by Lighting Science Group, a reputable company as far as I can tell. Overheating should not have been an issue, because it was in free air on track lighting. The cooling fins may have been just a little loose, because they made the diameter slightly oversized compared to a stock 50W halogen bulb (dumb move, imho) and I had to really cram it into the retaining ring on the gimbal. Maybe that was it? We’ll see …

  3. Coincidentally, I had a 2nd LED bulb fail on me tonight. This one was just within a month of installation, so fortunately looks like it will be painless to get a return/refund via Amazon.

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