LED lights get dimmer over time?

bob · 2012-04-19T01:18:23+00:00

I have two different sets of white LED night lights, both bought from costco. All of them worked quite well when new, but become noticeably dimmer over the course of one to two years. Some are so dim they are useless as a night light.LEDs are supposed to last a long time. Could this be caused by overdriving the LEDs? It's very disappointing.Now I'm thinking of buying LED flood lights from hardware store eqivalent to 60W incandescent blub. Would they also become noticeably dimmer after a year or two? If so, I'm not buying.

Apr 19, 2012 23 Replies

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miso 14 years ago

This could have consequences in the LCD backlight market. We were all given the impression that CCFT was bad technology and LED backlighting is forever. Also to be considered is the "war" between plasma TV and backlit LCD.

Thus far, anything white LED based that I bought that has failed has been powered by the mains. I haven't had any LED flashlights fail. The LED devices on that mains that failed did so in a binary fashion (no freakin' light), not dim. I think we would be doing good to have the Chinese LED light drivers last long enough to wear out the LEDs themselves.

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upsidedown 14 years ago

Did you open the failed LED lamp ?

Sounds that only a current limiting capacitor was used. This works OK for a pure 50/60 Hz sine wave mains voltage. Any mains voltage peaks (containing high harmonics) will pass the capacitor easily and a large current peak will flow through the LEDs, killing it, if no additional protection is used.

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miso 14 years ago

I look like a bar bouncer. I just went in and requested a refund for the crap they sold me, hauling in the dead product. I didn't have to get too mean since there was a recall on the product. ;-)

There is an advantage to buying locally. You can get ugly in their face if need be.

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Robert Baer 14 years ago

You mean that those 1920's 'lytics that lasted (and worked) into the

1960's lasted as long? When the heck did you buy those LEDs?

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