LED Bulb Mystery

This is puzzling. I installed these 60watt equivalent bulbs in the feed room about a year ago. The feed room lights are on five or ten minutes twice a day at chore time. It's unheated and we have had a couple of -20 degree nights since Christmas, but it's not that cold inside the barn. I noticed one light didn't come on once or twice, then this week, they both failed at once. I thought it must've been the switch so I swapped that out but still no light. I put in a couple of old 100 watt bulbs and they worked just fine.

Any theories on this? The bulbs are Phillips, from HD or Costco, so should be good quality. It seems very odd and not the long lasting solution I had expected.

Peter Rideout said:

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This is puzzling. I installed these 60watt equivalent bulbs in the feed room about a year ago. The feed room lights are on five or ten minutes twice a day at chore time. It's unheated and we have had a couple of -20 degree nights since Christmas, but it's not that cold inside the barn. I noticed one light didn't come on once or twice, then this week, they both failed at once. I thought it must've been the switch so I swapped that out but still no light. I put in a couple of old 100 watt bulbs and they worked just fine.

Any theories on this? The bulbs are Phillips, from HD or Costco, so should be good quality. It seems very odd and not the long lasting solution I had expected.

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You need to wet your finger and stick it in the light socket first, then turn on the switch

Seems to be quite common if you look on the internet, there are a lot of QC issues with these bulbs made in China.

I know that the ones that we have replaced here in our home that were made in Japan have been flawless (knock on wood) but the ones that I have had fail were all made in China. Just saying.

we replaced all of our bulbs 2-3 years ago, with ones from costco, and they are still going strong. they were made in taiwan, rather than mainland china (best prison labor money can buy).

I assume the dont work in a lamp either, probably condensation in the internals.

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Darren Wright said:

I assume the dont work in a lamp either, probably condensation in the internals.

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No, I tested them elsewhere Darren, they're done and I expect you've likely zeroed in on the cause. Just a coincidence I guess, that they both decided to fail at once.

Stu, how did you know my tester's broken? I'm not quite understanding your suggested method though. You'll have to demonstrate it for me the next time I'm there

I bought a bulk pack at Home depot a few months ago. I have also noticed that there is a much too high failure rate. The best thing is to return them to the store and complain to management that they are buying junk to sell to the public.

I have done this before and the store manager really seemed to appreciate the feedback. It is not cost effective for them to deal with poor product. I think we have become accustomed to failure and tend to just eat the cost without attempting to change the system.

I am in the process of of a complaint regarding digital ballasts that are being sold and are NOT FCC compliant. They put out so much radio interference that you cannot listen to a radio when the light is on. This is illegal. But if nobody complains then nothing gets done. The potential side effect might be a corporate decision to pull manufacturing back from cheap labor countries and make stuff in the USA (or Canada) again. If you hurt them in the pocketbook then the cheap labor doesn't look so good.

As you might guess I am not a fan of so called "free trade". Unfortunately, we the consumers have to raise a ruckus to get companies to do the right thing. Don't get me wrong, I am concerned about the poor and the living standard in other countries. I just think we shouldn't settle for poor quality.

I just finally got used to the bulbs that are curly cued. They lasted a long time it seems. Went to buy some new bulbs the other day and just about all I saw was those LED things and halogen. I sometimes wonder why these companies just can't leave something alone. If it works don't fix it. But, they just got to find something that's cheaper to make so they can sell it for more. And, of course they have to make them at the cheapest place possible. But, I guess I'm gonna end up buying some of those before too long or not have any lights. Hmmmph! I was happy with the plain ol' light bulbs.