Quality of walmart 60 watt equiv LED bulbs?

I was a pretty early adopter of CFL bulbs, and they don’t seem to last as long as they are supposed to. I’m ready to move on to LED, but the big differences in price between brands makes me nervous. I could get a philips 60 watt equiv bulb for $2.99 to $3.99, but I can get a Great Value 60 watt equivalent from walmart for $1.61 each. This seems really cheap, but does anyone know about the quality? I am not interested in dimming, only in full light output for long periods of time, some of my lights even get left on all the time. I don’t use any enclosed fixtures, but I still worry about heat some - the CFL’s seem to put out more heat than I expected, are LED’s better than CFL’s for heat output? These bulbs will be used in either shop lights, open air light fixtures with horizontal bare bulbs or ceiling fixtures with hanging diffusers that are open on the sides. thanks in advance for any info!!

I have been using Walmart brand bulbs for several months. I have not had one go bad or overheat so far, but months isn't a long time. Hopefully someone else has used them longer. I have used several brands and the Walmart bulbs, (made by several manufacturers), seem to work fine compared to the other brands.

I only have one, as the Utilitech bulbs from Lowe’s are similar, but about half the price. I’m happy with the one I have, and it has been in use for maybe a year? Performance is comparable to the Lowe’s bulb, but the WalMart bulb has a more mushroom-shaped dome, resulting in a more even distribution of light.

This works well in a lamp with a shade, as the globular dome directs more light downward. The dome design on the Lowe’s bulbs ends up with more light being projected upward, with a pronounced line in the middle of the shade, with light above and dark below.

I don’t really have anything to contribute other than to bump this thread. I’m looking for the same info. I HATE CFL bulbs. My 7 year old daughter knocked her bedside table lamp over and it had a CFL bulb in it. Knowing there was some nastiness inside I decided to Google how to clean it up properly. I was absolutely horrified by all the info I found. Basically if you break a CFL bulb in your house just get everyone out call in a hazmat team and move to another state. :open_mouth:
I was so angry after reading all that that I’ve never purchased another and took them all out of my home except for a few that I want to replace ASAP. CFL was a desperate attempt and never should have been approved for sale. The new LED bulbs are sweet but pricey. If anyone has info on both dimmable and non dimmable I too would greatly appreciate the input. Oh and thanks OL. I’ll probably stop at Walmart and pick up a few today. I’d love the genuine Cree ones from Home Depot but they’re too expensive considering how many I have to replace. I even tried to get Simon to source some for me! LOL Not his thing though. I need mostly 60 watt equivalent but also 100 watt or higher equivalent for basement and garage. thanks in advance to all who add to this discussion. :+1:

If you have Duke Energy as your Electric Power provider, you may be able to get some bulbs for free. At least in my area, Duke has had a program for years, where they send you a box of bulbs for free if you request them on their website. They used to be CFL, but my Dad recently got a box of LED bulbs from them. I’ve already gotten CFL bulbs from them in the past, and I don’t know what their policy is about double dipping, but I thought I might try to get some of the LED bulbs from them. The box of bulbs won’t be enough to do your whole house and/or workshop, most likely, but it will give you a good head start.

That’s just the EPA’s over-the-top alarmism:

I just bought some “Globe LED Life” 60w equivalent bulbs. 3000K CCT, 8.5 watts, 810 lumens. They use about half the energy as CFLs, for about the same brightness. I bought these, even though the no-names were cheaper. But, the no-names life expectancy was much worse, so I presume they weren’t well heat-sinked or used really cheap LEDs. I think that’s the biggest problem with no-name LED light bulbs.

The Globe brand are supposed to be dimable, but they certainly don’t work with traditional dimmers. All it does is flicker at a lower output. I think you need special dimmer switches that work with LED bulbs. No doubt, much more expensive than regular dimmer switches. :frowning:

Anyway, the light from the LED bulbs does look much nicer than CFL light, comparing both of similar color temperatures. It’s not as nice as incandescent light, but that’s tough to do. I bought the LED bulbs mainly for “instant on” in locations where the light is left on quite a bit, or in areas where I don’t want heat (such as a desk lamp). I mainly still use incandescents in living areas, because the light quality is more important than energy usage. CFLs are okay for areas like my basement, where light quality isn’t important, though I’ll gradually replace them with LEDs.

i got 2.one is in an outdoor light that runs from a photocontrol.fine for the last 3 months.
i tore down the other.leds are on a flat board that fires into a plastic reflector to shoot the light sideways.i took it out and reassembled the bulb.without this bit of plastic it does fine in a desklamp.in a standard lamp this sideways distribution is fine.

Been using Utilitech in fixtures for several months. They run fairly cool with a slightly cool tint. Incan dimmers won’t work with LED’s, well some bulbs dim a little then shut down. LED-type dimmers don’t work with every bulb, just some. You have to find a dimmer that works with your bulbs. Prices are dropping as more manufacturers jump in :smiley:

Phil

Amazing!!! Ordering my LED bulbs now! Up to 15 9 watt bulbs with 2 yr warranty. Thanks so much for this DavidEF. How did you find out about this? I don’t think I’ve ever been informed of it on my bill or otherwise.

Been using the Cree bulbs for about 3 years now. The front porch outdoor bulb stays on 24/7 when we are gone sometimes a month at a time, and every night when we are home. I have the Cree bulbs throughout the entire house and never had one burn out.

Purchased these 3000k Arilux bulbs for the outdoor fixtures on either side of the garage doors a month ago from Banggood USA warehouse. They were about $3.50 each. The garage fixtures use 3 bulbs each. With these, I only needed two in each fixture to get the same amount of light.

I got the free CFL’s from Duke too. IIRC there was a flyer and postcard in the bill envelope. Actually they sent me 2 boxes, one here and another to my billing address which is different. There was mention of the campaign in local media too. I didn’t know it was still going on.

@DavidEF- Let us know if they let you get another batch and I’ll try it again too.

Phil

My transition to LED bulbs is about 97% complete. Zero CFLs left, just a couple of incandescents. I have a mixture of CREE brands (so-so tint), dollar store brands, and some FEIT brand ones from Costco, which I like. Many options to choose from, including 5000K ‘daylight’ tint and 90 CRI ones.

I also go for local utilities promoted LEDs. Usually a decent deal.

I haven’t seen any high CRI versions in the stores around here. I might be more tempted to replace my incans if LED bulbs had a nicer light. The (low CRI?) warm tinted ones I use still make colours (especially skin tones) look unnatural.

The high CRI ones are FEIT brand, sold at Costco. They are very warm at 2700K. If they’re between 3000K - 5000K, I would love them even more.

Went to Lowe’s yesterday and found they now had two whole bays of Syvania 40-100 watt dimmable, non-dimmable, indoor, indoor/outdoor and outdoor. Prices from $5 to $14. Label said Osram LED.

I have been finding some LED bulbs on clearance at Walmart stores here in the Detroit, MI area.

I found a couple of GE 75w and 100w equivalent bulbs for a buck each. The 75w on clearance stated they used 14w of energy and the ones on the shelf at full price stated they used 12w, IIRC.
I also found some 40w LED globe bulbs for $1.50.
These bulbs were in the light bulb aisle down a little ways from the LED bulbs. Check the shelf tags and match up the SKU numbers to make sure you get the right clearance bulbs.

I did buy a few Great Value 60w equivalent bulbs that showed they are TCP bulbs on the package. I don’t know the quality of them but they seem O.K. It states these bulbs will work in damp locations, enclosed fixtures and start at –20 degrees F.