8 months ago I replaced a 30w circuline fluorescent lamp with a pendant fixture and a 9.5w FEIT led bulb. The circuline fixture was 21 yrs old. Lamps lasted about 5 yrs. with regular use. The LED bulb just died after 8 months of the same duty. This was the first LED bulb I've installed here and unfortunately I didn't save the receipt, so it's a loss. I'm disappointed if this is going to be the typical lifespan. Now replaced with a Philips 60w with a claimed 22yr. lifespan @3hrs a day/7days a week. We'll see.
Feit isn't known for outstanding quality, but 8 months is far too short. I installed a 4-pack of the same bulb maybe 6 months ago, 2 in an open fixture, 2 in an enclosed fixture (the package said not to, but I wanted to test if I could get away with it). The open fixture bulbs are still doing fine. The closed fixture bulbs lasted probably 3-4 months. They're apparently heat sensitive. I could see a pendant light with a closed top being another location where this particular bulb just can't take the heat.
I do like their color quality though. They are significantly closer in light appearance to an incandescent than any other bulbs I'm using.
I've had two of the Philips budget 8W bulbs in an identical enclosed fixture for about 2 years now without issue. For as cheap as they are, I didn't really expect them to prove heat tolerant, but the low power consumption helps. I think my oldest LED's are about 3-4 years old. One of them spends long evenings on. I wouldn't be surprised if it's close to 10,000 hours by now.
Most of my lights are still CFL's, somewhat to my annoyance. I strongly dislike the color quality, but they just won't die and give me an excuse to replace them. They're all about 5 years old, and I've only had one die that entire time.
When buying LED lights you get what you pay for, make sure the actual LEDs is either a CREE or epistar. Those are the 2 best LED you can buy and have been in the market since LEDs started to take off . If the package doesnt boast about having cree or epistar don't buy with expectations of it lasting very long. I'm pretty sure Phillips uses cree but not sure of many other brands. Some advertise CREE LEDs but are not the real thing but same technology. Do your research and you'll see there is a big difference between quality. Also CREE is one of the only USA manufactures of LEDs.
I pay zero attention to who makes the emitters. If the lamp has an hours claim that is based on LM80 testing, it either passed testing, or they're lying, in which case there's no reason to believe a claim to have Cree emitters inside either. As sportbikerider indicated, it's usually the driver that dies, not the LED's themselves.
Philips does make their own emitters under their Lumileds joint venture. Nichia is another quality brand, headquartered in Japan. Cree is headquartered in the US and does some lamp assembly in the US, but as far as I know, all their emitter manufacturing and lot of their lamp assembly is done overseas.
