OT: Anyone ever try and get an LED mfr to make good on their burn hours claims?

[gellfex]

Grrrr. I just pulled a plain 8.8w 800 lm bulb from a 24/7 hallway fixture. I've taken to marking install date on them in sharpie. 4,800 hrs. Their claimed life is 15k. The fixture is enclosed, but like 10" in diameter, and the Feit bulb is rate for enclosed anyway. Seem hard to come up with a better scenario for max life than never being turned on and off, less than 1/3 claimed life is ridiculous. But who's going to pursue them for a $1.50 light bulb? In the buildings I manage I have probably 2 dozen of these 24/7s, so changing each twice a year when they should last 1.5 years is a noticeable annoyance.

[rebelrodder]

I won't even buy anything from Feit Electric. I've been burned too many times by their products.

When I buy bulbs I splurge and get Cree brand from HD. They seem to last pretty close to their expected number of hours.

To answer your actual question, nope! Never tried to get a manufacturer of light bulbs make good on their guarantee.

[gellfex]

I won't even buy anything from Feit Electric. I've been burned too many times by their products.

When I buy bulbs I splurge and get Cree brand from HD. They seem to last pretty close to their expected number of hours.

To answer your actual question, nope! Never tried to get a manufacturer of light bulbs make good on their guarantee.

I get these at Costco, they're usually very meticulous about not selling crap. I guess every rule has an exception.

[chipmaker4130]

If they talk to you at all, they'll just say that the LEDs are fine, the driver is kaput. And there is no warranty on the driver! I've never had the LEDs themselves fail in a lighting application but I've had many driver/power supply failures.

I guess I better correct that. On the 'light bulb' format with strip LED elements set up to look like filaments I've seen a couple of 'filament' failures but COB LEDs and those surface mounted in fluorescent tube replacements are pretty reliable. The drivers not reliable at all.

[gellfex]

If they talk to you at all, they'll just say that the LEDs are fine, the driver is kaput

You think they'd really have the nerve for that? I doubt it. The claim is for the "bulb".

[mattthemuppet]

sadly Feit LED bulbs are cheap crap. They not only have unreliable electronics but they're also less efficient (sometimes by 20%!) than better brands. They're not that much cheaper to be worth bothering with.

[reggie_obe]

Costco may replace them if you are persistent enough, but more likely tell you to contact Feit directly.
Feit vs Phillips or most anything....just crap..

How many Tungsten bulbs would you have replaced in the same time frame? With no savings on electricity.

[J Tiers]

Agree Feit is low end.

Back years ago we got compact fluorescents from HD. House brand. They were made by Feit. Those started failing, and they were not quiet about it, they would fizz and shoot out sparks. At least one melted a hole in the glass tube, other just shot sparks from around where the tube went into the base.

Looking into them, the transistors had failed catastrophically, with fragments blasted around inside the case, and other components had also failed in various ways. I have pictures in a long-ago thread

https://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/fo...lbs#post758083

I just refuse to buy anything they made, or had made for them. Value engineered to be 97% as good as needed would be my opinion..... Maybe they have improved.

I have yet to have an actual failure of a CREE LED bulb. I sure have had failures of others. We used to get a super deal on CREE due to incentives from the local power company, but those are gone now. Their bulbs are still worth it.

[GadgetBuilder]

We had a 100w equivalent Feit bulb (from Costco) in our kitchen fail in less than a year. I called the number on the box and they asked for batch info from the bulb. I told them the bulb was cycled several times per day but they said that didn't matter, it was a bad batch. Feit sent a package with 4 bulbs - said the others might also fail so they replaced them beforehand. The replacement has worked fine for over 3 years now (I write the install date on bulbs too). And the other bulbs from the bad batch haven't failed - but they're in places that don't get cycled so often.

[gellfex]

I can't recall seeing Crees in regular bulb types. I've bought Sylvania and I don't think they were really any different than Feit.

[J Tiers]

I can't recall seeing Crees in regular bulb types. I've bought Sylvania and I don't think they were really any different than Feit.

What do you call a "regular" bulb?

Cree has only ever made LED, but they are in a regular bulb configuration, fir anywhere, etc.

[reggie_obe]

"regular bulb": medium edison base, A19

[chipmaker4130]

You think they'd really have the nerve for that? I doubt it. The claim is for the "bulb".

Nah, probably not. I thought I'd edited that line to say that comment was just my own pessimism talking. Guess I didn't hit the go button on the edit.

[gellfex]

"regular bulb": medium edison base, A19

Zacktly. I just checked out Crees on Amazon, they're like three times the price! Interesting coincidence if they actually last three times as long as the Feit or Sylvania I get at the big boxes.

[J Tiers]

Zacktly. I just checked out Crees on Amazon, they're like three times the price! Interesting coincidence if they actually last three times as long as the Feit or Sylvania I get at the big boxes.

Perhaps it is not that they last 3x longer, it is that they last the promised time or longer, and do not fail by spewing sparks..... The power supplies in the bulbs are based on chips from "Power Integrations", who make very good, very reliable small SMPS chips, some of which I have used in the past.

For many uses, the cost of the bulb is nil, it is the cost of replacement that is the major cost. So a 3x cheaper bulb that lasts 1/3 as long is really perhaps 2.5x more expensive than the more expensive bulb. (Your numbers may vary)

The Feit units seem to be as mentioned, "almost" as good as they need to be to actually work and last. Perhaps a few are accidentally OK.