Cheap LED Bulbs Die Quickly!

These were installed in my home about 3 years ago, and within 1.5 years about 5 of them had died out of 16. I opened one of the dead ones up and found an obese capacitor. It looked in terrible shape. Is it worth just swapping out the capacitor for a new one? Anyone know what LEDs these are? This was bought from an Australian seller who sold out of his home/online. Sold as 9 Watt bulbs but clearly not. They were one of the more expensive bulbs at the time of purchase which we took to mean as being higher quality. Well we were wrong about that!

Normal problem with LED installations - the emitters are good but the driver components are cheap and poor.

The potted drivers seem to be much more resilient by my experience. But that also means bigger footprints by default. I suspect it may be the heat that’s accelerating the components demise, where in potted drivers the heat is spread more evenly.

I would not change the components - often when I fixed something like this, it only takes a couple of days for something else to go bad. 3x1W drivers are plenty, not so expensive, and saves you the headache.

Those are late-model Cree XR-E LEDs, you can tell because they have the newer EZ900 die with a little red outline around it. XR-E is old news at this point of course. EDIT: and for the record, the XR-E is a 3W LED, whether those three are driven at 3W or not is up to the driver of course.

I disagree about fixing it, you can often replace a dead cap and be done. That’s assuming it was a low quality cap to start with.

Thanks for the differing opinions it’s good to have a balance.

I might just try fixing it and see how I go. Do you suggest an identical 400v 6.8uf but of better band? These are Capxon

Sounds like a plan. If you’ve googled Capxon you probably realize their rep. Any nice brand cap is probably better, but I’ll refer you to the gurus at badcaps.net. If it’s Low ESR you should replace it with another Low ESR cap. Check the datasheet if you care that much. I wouldn’t care that much, I’d just grab any old thing rated for 400v and 6.3uF or close. Kids, do not try this at home :wink: EDIT: 6.8uF, it doesn’t matter that much though. Pretty close is obviously going to work since the cap was able to degrade so much before the bulb died.

I’m a kid, and I will be trying this at home. But I won’t be putting my tongue across it when I turn it on!!

Cheers mate!

It’s not just those LED’s they put crappy capacitors in

In case the repair didn’t work:

12V (10pcs):
http://www.buyincoins.com/item/38664.html

AC (85-277V):
http://www.buyincoins.com/item/27619.html

10W external driver (potted - good one):
http://www.buyincoins.com/item/27901.html

Make sure you maintain 3S config to use these.

I’ve got some capacitors on order and I’ll be changing them and see how that goes. They’re being ordered from a quality supplier (RS Components) so no more cheap stuff.

I actually bought some cheap lights just to see what $4/pce gets you GU10 7W 640LM reinweiße 16 SMD 5630 LED-Lichtbirnenlampen 85-265V Sale - Banggood Deutschland sold out-arrival notice-arrival notice
I saw a youtube video of a gentlemen saying (an identical looking bulb) they’re very dangerous as the heatsink is actually live. Well and truly it is. I measured with a DMM across the heatsink and the LED terminal and got a 10 or 16v reading. I couldn’t see exactly because my eyes were bloody blinded by the light !

This is dangerous right

I remember that voice, is that the same bloke that casually cracked a Trustfire li-ion battery open to see what's inside?

Oh yeah…that guys cracks open ALOT of stuff!

Has a TON of info on his site…it’s just the Australian accent dialect (sounds like all they do is question stuff) drives me up the wall

He does sound pretty annoying, doesn’t he - but rest assured, we don’t all sound like that!

(I’m not sure what your H-Town “accent dialect” sounds like though - perhaps you could enlighten me?)

Cheers

Pick any western :smiley:

Doesn’t mean the guy ain’t brilliant and a genius though…just makes me crazy sometimes listening to him

Hmm, two distinctly different accents there - still not sure.

BTW the thread title would make a decent title for a western ('hey you cheap chinese bulb, this house ain't dark enough for the both of us')

A bit of googling helps.

I found out that H-Town is Houston, so now I know.

The Aussie guy on youtube sounds like most people in Oz, as much as you sound like somebody from Boston (if you get my drift).

Cheers

So… about my question haha

Having 10/16volts across the heatsink is bad isn’t it?

It’s not up to safety regulations. I’ll defer to others on exactly how dangerous it is.

Hmmm... a 9V battery has 9V exposed directly on it's terminals... And it can push out more than 3W...

I think this bulb (as related to the current voltage condition) would be safer than a 9V battery laying on a table. Just sayin' yo. YMMV.

I'm just a couple of hours North of Houston and didn't realize that it was H-Town... I pass through that area every now and then... Doesn't mean I liked it... (other than the good Mexican Restaurant I found there). Tongue Out

used XM Led chip,must be high temperature when working,try to change the bad cap,i think it will OK. :slight_smile: