The Cheapo LED Bulb Scam

dilettante

dilettante

Well-known Member
Location
Michigan
Not all of the LED bulbs you can buy now are equal. Bargains may be no bargain when used in many fixtures.

Sneaky Reason LED Bulbs are Dying Faster than Advertised
 

It doesn't seem like a scam to me as long as they put the warning on the label. No fraud or deception is involved there.
They did the same thing with fluorescent bulbs. Some can be used with a dimmer, and some cannot, but they put it on the packaging. Quality is usually linked to price.
 
bobcat said:
It doesn't seem like a scam to me as long as they put the warning on the label. No fraud or deception is involved there.
They did the same thing with fluorescent bulbs. Some can be used with a dimmer, and some cannot, but they put it on the packaging. Quality is usually linked to price.
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Yet earlier LED products did not have the overheating issue at all and some are made properly and don't create so much inefficient waste heat.

Warning on the label? Yeah, right, whatever. So everyone was already aware of this issue of early failure in common usage, and we aren't being told these can replace incandescents?

Why is the "warning" in such very tiny print if they aren't trying to hide something this important? Surely important enough to be called out in large print on the front of the package so people can select what they need?

Or could it be that we have a dramatically cheapened product on our hands, not fit for purpose. One that should offer an extended life but instead sees failure much sooner than the estimate provided prominently on most packaging? One that consumes more electricity than required to produce a given amount of light?

It seems pretty anti-consumer to me. "Let them eat cake" is a pretty poor attitude.
 

dilettante said:
Yet earlier LED products did not have the overheating issue at all and some are made properly and don't create so much inefficient waste heat.

Warning on the label? Yeah, right, whatever. So everyone was already aware of this issue of early failure in common usage, and we aren't being told these can replace incandescents?

Why is the "warning" in such very tiny print if they aren't trying to hide something this important? Surely important enough to be called out in large print on the front of the package so people can select what they need?

Or could it be that we have a dramatically cheapened product on our hands, not fit for purpose. One that should offer an extended life but instead sees failure much sooner than the estimate provided prominently on most packaging? One that consumes more electricity than required to produce a given amount of light?

It seems pretty anti-consumer to me. "Let them eat cake" is a pretty poor attitude.
Click to expand...
Well, they may not be Dilettante approved, but I'm still saying it's not a scam if the information is on the product.
You may not approve of the fact that ingredients on a food product are in small print, but it's not a scam if they disclose information that customers don't read.
 
Most of my own LED bulbs designed to fit into older incandescent sockets (about a dozen in residence), were bought for a buck at Dollar Stores, and are still working fine after years. Over the last couple decades have maybe lost 4 or 5. Note in order to reduce energy use, I only turn on lights where I am at and given inherent low wattage, don't expect any are overheating. My expectation is most inexpensive LEDs are fine, but less so in hotter environments, because they tend to be made by robotic machines resulting in consistent quality. So the YouTube video that seems vague seems to also be overstated.
 
You probably need to look at what's inside them.

Unlike incandescent lamps, the incoming mains power is completely foreign to low-voltage DC LEDS that have no inherent self-regulation. Because of this electronic circuitry is required (usually stuffed into the screw-base and/or lower-half "bulb" or even amongst the LEDs on an aluminum plate).

This "adapter" circuit varies wildly, but in earlier products far more robust techniques were used. They produced less waste heat, RF interference emissions, didn't drive the LEDs as hard, and had a better Power Factor. So they ran cooler and were far more efficient converting input power to light, and also had less 50Hz or 60Hz flicker.

This is also why some are dimmable while others not: different power adapter circuitry inside.

What has changed is that cheaper and cheaper more minimal designs are being used in the adapters inside cheaper LED bulbs.
 

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