Has anybody tried this new style led bulb?

[kborndale]

First failure today. Two of the filaments stopped glowing. Remainder glowing faintly.
Far from the 15,000 service hours promised.

PS: Ever notice while stopped at an led stoplight how many of the leds aren't lit?
PPS: They do help with powering the house during an outage with a 2,000 watt genny.
PPPS: At least they're cheaper.

15000 hours is very a low life span, most led bulbs are rated at 50000 hours. 15000 is what CFL's are typically rated at.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Seems they do have reliable 100 watt equiv bulbs now,iv only had 1 go bad since buying about 15. Would like to start using 150-200 watt equiv bulbs for work lights but still too many bad reviews on those.

 

[Corey]

I have several of the 'long filament' style in use and they seem to work fine. A few observations - several already stated:

The electronics are so small because the 'filament' is actually dozens, if not hundreds of LEDs in series, so the overall voltage the filament needs is 120V. So no step down package is needed.

Not sure how I feel about dozens/hundreds of LEDs in series...if one dies, does the whole filament die? - though I have not had that happen in several years of use.

I seriously doubt there is helium inside. It would make no sense to go to the cost / expense of adding helium inside when the bulb is surrounded by air outside. Air inside and air outside is essentially the same thermal conductivity.

Due to having no real electronics, there is some notable 60Hz flicker - though I think I am more sensitive to this than some. I particularly notice it when trying to read or do detail work in the light of one. Though these are really more decorative - not reading or work lamps.

They are 'sort of' dimmable. Again, with no real electronics, cutting voltage to the LED does result in less light. A couple of issues - lowering voltage to a LED typically makes the light more blue / cool (just the opposite of an incandescent bulb which gets more orange / warmer) So these take on an odd hue when dimmed - and flicker can become even more noticeable.

The one issue I've had - one bulb was delivered with the spot weld to one filament broken loose from the end support. Not really noticeable, but I'd inspect that portion closely.

 

[Gunfixr]

Well, in my case, the downsides just aren't. The only long filament led bulbs i'm using are in a chandelier, in the dining room. It only gets used occasionally, and only enough light to eat by is needed, it's as much ambiance as illumination.
Which was why they were chosen.
For me, they work for the purpose.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Its nice that LEDs are easily made to look like antique bulbs.

 

[velvetfoot]

Its nice that LEDs are easily made to look like antique bulbs.

Yeah, but the second one went out yesterday! Maybe same batch. Same location, bathroom, but it really doesn't get that moist in there.

 

[begreen]

Its nice that LEDs are easily made to look like antique bulbs.

What I like the most is that LED bulbs have progressed greatly from the early engineering oddities with big heat sinks and odd workarounds to diffuse illumination, often with a cathode cold light. Now they are in almost any form factor and work nicely as incandescent replacements.

 

[Ashful]

I am a big fan of those so-called 'Filament LED' bulbs. The emitters are cooled by filling the bulb with Helium gas (which is excellent conductor). Because the He is (obviously) transparent, tis amounts to a clear heat sink, and higher luminous efficiency....many are 100-110 lum/W, versus the 85-90 of 'conventional' LEDs.

I think they will take over, and the Chines apparently agree....they are making them by the boatload in every form factor, some with frosting on the glass. I have bought many shapes and sizes from amazon, all Chinese made, and had zero problems (over a couple years).

One limitation....the heat rejection is ultimately limited by the (Standard) glass bulb size...and this seems to limit the wattage to <9W, so max 900-1000 lumens.

I thought of them as good bulbs for @Ashful, but apparently he is very choosey about CRI: likes it to be 0.99+

Just saw this. I actually bought three filament type LEDs for one of my three my lamp posts, to give them a whirl. They still don’t quite match the warmth and spectrum of incandescent, but they are damn good. The only issue I have had with them is that my lamp post fixtures tend to fog up inside, or even frost up in winter, without the warmth of the incandescent to bake it out. Not yet determined if I’ll go with them in the other lamp posts, or switch back, giving myself some time to decide.

 

[Brian26]

At work we retrofitted about 10 large 20k+ sqft retail box stores over to all led lighting in just about every form. The bulb failure rate is insanely low. Out of thousands of led tubes I have seen less than 10 fail over a few year period. Perhaps the commercial stuff is more robust but these bulbs have saved a fortune in both energy and eliminated the labor/money in bulb maintenance.

 

[Gunfixr]

I have regular led bulbs throughout the house, only have the early style filament bulbs in 1 or 2 places, specifically for ambience. They aren't used regularly, like the regular bulbs are.

 

[woodgeek]

I seriously doubt there is helium inside. It would make no sense to go to the cost / expense of adding helium inside when the bulb is surrounded by air outside. Air inside and air outside is essentially the same thermal conductivity.
View attachment 242339

Dude, the gas fill is a key part of the design. A tiny squirt of helium (or another low MW gas) at the optimal pressure (below atmospheric I think) cost nothing compared to the old heavy metal heat sinks. A kids ballon could fill dozens of these things.

Your thinking seems to be that even if the gas in the bulb was higher thermal conductivity that air, it wouldn't help, bc it would still have to dump the heat into the air outside the bulb. That is not correct. The gas fill is spreading the (quite concentrated) heat in the small filaments to the large area of the bulb, and can do it quite effectively. Just like a metal heat sink spread the heat from a small diode to a large fin. You will notices that they spread out the filaments carefully, so they don't heat each other.

Of course, you can poke a hole in one, fire it up, and see if it continues to function for a long time. And let us know.

 

[begreen]

How long can a bulb last vs how long does it actually last? This is an interesting article that explores what may be the first case of planned obsolescence. Interesting to note, growing up I remember my dad's cousin had original Edison bulbs in his basement. These had the long filaments and the pointed glass tip at the end. When I saw them they had already been in service for about 60 yrs. and still glowed warmly.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/dawn-of-electronics/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy

 

[Dobish]

does anyone have pictures of them actually installed in fixtures? we are looking for something to fit in a barn light, and I thought these would be good...

 

[Ashful]

does anyone have pictures of them actually installed in fixtures? we are looking for something to fit in a barn light, and I thought these would be good...

I bought one two years ago, and it just looked stupid. I think I still have it in the lightbulb cupboard, I will try to get a photo tonight.

There were two fundamental problems:

1. They run around 2200K color temperature, and have a more narrow spectrum than a true old-timer bulb. The light they cast is just yellow, almost approaching that of a yellow bug lamp.

2. The filament is just cartoonishly large. The filament on a true old-time bulb might be .030” thick, but these are more like 0.100” thick. From a distance you might not notice, but up close they just look fake.

 

[Dobish]

I bought one two years ago, and it just looked stupid. I think I still have it in the lightbulb cupboard, I will try to get a photo tonight.

There were two fundamental problems:

1. They run around 2200K color temperature, and have a more narrow spectrum than a true old-timer bulb. The light they cast is just yellow, almost approaching that of a yellow bug lamp.

2. The filament is just cartoonishly large. The filament on a true old-time bulb might be .030” thick, but these are more like 0.100” thick. From a distance you might not notice, but up close they just look fake.

thanks!
what did you end up going with on your barn? I feel like my lights are very similar style.

 

[Ashful]

Well, that's just a barn, located 200 feet from the house, so no one is seeing those bulbs up close. There, it's more about having enough light to work in the driveway at night, and getting the right color temperature to make the doors and white trim look nice against the charcoal painted cedar siding. So, no pretty bulbs, there.

I was running 29W Halogen (40W incandescent equivalent) 430 lumen G25's for the first year or two. But I recently switched them over to 2700K LED 40W/G25 equivalents:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W13D1QE/?tag=hearthamazon-20

I don't really want to see a bulb when I look at a gooseneck lamp, and these tuck up inside the hood nicely, on mine. That's all personal preference, though.

 

[velvetfoot]

On balance, I like the soft white bulbs I originally posted about quite well. No other failures since the last. Four are outside. They are motion activated. ALL other fixtures and lamps have them, except the cans. They look hugely better unlit than previous led bulbs I've owned. They can be touched while running. The price is right as well.

 

[Ashful]

On balance, I like the soft white bulbs I originally posted about quite well.

What soft white bulbs? I checked every link you posted above, and they all appear to be clear led filament bulbs.

 

[velvetfoot]

Temperature. Degrees Kelvin. I didn't see a number. Not "daylight".

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I just replaced some dimmable halogen bulbs (50 watt) with dimmable LED bulbs(6 watt) In an over the sink light .Mostly for all the heat the halogens were radiating. Almost identical in price. I was afraid the fixture was going to ignite. THe LEDs are barely warm.