LED floodlamp - I am impressed

I had picked up a LED flood a year ago to replace a halogen flood on an outdoor lamp pole. The pole is out along my driveway and despite being set back a bit, when my plowing contractor is moving snow, the pole must gets shaken on occasion. Over the years I have lost a couple of Halogen bulbs and I think they fail due to vibration and this time the bulb was completely out of the holder. It sat until yesterday as getting to the top of the pole is always a challenge with a extension ladder as the pole is round. By running the bucket on my unimog as high as it could go next to the pole, I had something to steady the ladder against but its still not one of my favorite jobs. The swap over went quick and last night I turned it on. The claim is its a 50 watt unit with equivalent output of a 300 watt halogen. Compared to the halogen, this floodlamp is much brighter and the throw is a lot father. It only gets turned on rare occasions when I am snowblowing or need to check out anything suspicious on the driveway. LEDs are supposedly not prone to issues with vibration and low temps and this one will be exposed to both so it will be interesting to see how it survives.

The one caveat I have seen on these floods are that they are Chinese manufacture and that the quality control is nonexistent so they are sometimes are delivered dead in the box. I buy them through Amazon so except for the return hassle its worth the risk. I just ordered another one to replace one of my other floods that I use more often and given the amount of light for the watts I am considering putting it on a movement sensor. I paid around $70 bucks a year ago and just paid 29 bucks for roughly the same unit today.

I work on construction sites and these LED floods are replacing incandescents and halogens for work lights as they seem to take more abuse. They are incredibly bright.

I bought the original last year and cant locate a link but here is a link to the one I just bought (but haven't tried)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X5L0ECA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

All I can suggest is that these outdoor LEDs are darn bright and the one I put in is even blinding up on top of pole. I think it would be tough to get even light distribution unless it was a barn.

I have a couple of industrial projects going on in Mass right now that have utility subsidized high bay LED fixtures. They use a different type of LEDs that are distributed over a 3'by 3' grid, they are bright but a lot more uniform, they also have occupancy sensors so as you walk along the floor the lights turn on and turn as you walk, takes a bit of getting used to and if you are stationary too long they shut off.

One minor comment is that to wire these lights for outdoors you need the appropriate box, cover and bushing. I have a bunch of explosion proof cast steel boxes and covers that I acquired years ago that work quite well but be prepared to shell out a few bucks for the accessories to do it right.

Good point on the flexible cord, I assumed it was outdoor but didn't check. Its up on the pole now and that circuit has a GFI on it so I guess I will live with it . I didn't look for a UL rating. The new one I just bought has a CE mark. CE can be an acceptable mark, UL used to be the only game in town but these days there are several National Recognized Testing Labs (NRTLS) that can certify equipment.

I had a few strain relief bushing in my collection with conduit thread for my power cords. I find that most home stores don't stock them. I do have a source through a solar supplier if I am desperate.

I don't see anywhere on the case that I could direct connect a conduit. I made sure that the cable is oriented and looped to reduce the potential for leakage into the case.