Cree releasing 100W LED light bulb equivalent

I used Cree’s customer service several times before finally simply asking for a full refund. I bought a pair of 100 watt Cree equivalent lamps from Home Depot, and all up I went through both, and 3 replacements before calling it quits. Between the maximum of 1000 hours I got out of each lamp (and some lasted as little as 20 minutes), the $6 each it cost to return each of them, and average of 4 weeks it took Cree to replace them, I was really unhappy with the product and Cree. I calculated the payback period was the 21st of never. Cree did refund the purchase price eventually. This seems to have been a problem unique to the 100 watt equivalent lamps. I have had no trouble with the 40 and 60 watt equivalent lamps. The fixture that used the 100 watt lamps now has CFL’s that have been relatively trouble free by comparison. It is likely to be a long time before I try 100 watt equivalent LED lamps again.

A little while back I tried some Philips 100W equivalent bulbs and wasn’t happy with them. They just didn’t seem that bright.
Recently I came upon 3 of these 60-100-150W at a very good price :wink: They are FEIT brand and are 3 way bulbs. 800, 1500 and 2200 Lumens.
This bulb is larger than a regular 60W equiv. and can be converted to a single way bulb by soldering a small wire at the base as shown.
I wouldn’t recommend doing that though, but at 2200 lumen, this bulb is bright!


Compared to a FEIT 60W equivalent bulb

Great tip! I didn’t know about shorting 3-way bulbs, so I had a couple of bulbs that were seriously underperforming. You just got me 2500 lumens.

Today I found these Maxlite 100W equivalents at a regional chain in New England called Ocean State Job Lot.
99 cents each.

I am familiar with the Maxlite brand and they are decent. When CFL’s first started to become popular about 20 years ago I bought quite a few at a Utility Company energy promotion.

I tried this Cree bulb. It is good. But recently I bought a Sansi 17W led bulb (150w equivalent) on Amazon.I didn’t know what to think when I turned it on its so bright,just love it ! Maybe you can have a try if you like bright but energy-saving lights.

Dimmable is good. I rarely want full brightness but it’s nice to have sometimes. :slight_smile:

Hello! I have been crazy about LEDs since I got a LED bulb last Christmas. I got it for free to review and was amazed by its performance.I had replaced almost all my lights into LEDs. These brand name Sansi LED lights have 17W (150W equivalent)and 30W(250W equivalent) which may help you. And I also saw some blogs from other reviewers. “http://gazettereview.com/2017/05/sansi-17w-led-bulb-review/ http://www.theoutdoornerd.com/2017/04/review-sansi-warm-white-15w-light-bulb.html

Hello. Do you work for Sansi? Your profile pic appears to be one of their marketing images and most of your posts have been recommendations for their products.

Be careful question people named Alice...

They could have superpowers!

Always gotta be careful with Alices. Some of them have evil residing inside!

Just a month ago I posted about the 99 cent 100W MaxLite at OSJL

Well now they are on “Crazy Deal” Buy 10 and get a $9.90 Gift Card.


OSJL has been bringing CREE’s in for months now and using their Crazy Deal promotions to move them. The styles of bulbs are changing with time. I am waiting and hoping for the 100W Cree’s

It seems OSJL has aquired all, or most of Cree’s inventory as they remove themselves from the in home light bulb market.

This is what is inside of the MaxLite 100W equivalent.

these are typical 60W equivalents.

Finally 100W equivalents at low prices are starting to become more common. Here is another brand, FEIT, offered at OSJL for 99 cents. This is not a Crazy Deal, just a straight up price.

3000K vs the 2700K of the MaxLite.
At 1600 lumen vs 800 lumen for the 60W FEIT, this bulb is slightly larger

how can they sell those for 1$?
the 30 LEDs in there cost more than that in production

I have about half a dozen of those Feit bulbs, great bulb, but regular price here is $17.99 :person_facepalming:
Fortunately i got them on sale but your price is incredible

Sometimes taxpayers pay for it, sometimes utilities do it as a last ditch effort to reduce consumption because they’d lose less money than if they were forced to buy power from expensive generators, but it’s usually somewhere in between with a dose of pr lies.

The downside is that locals like dchomak could buy hundreds and sell them to me on the other side the country. I’ve been tempted to ask, but won’t because he and his neighbors would pay for it somehow.

That is true. However OSJL deals mostly in odd lots from closeouts, bankruptcies etc. A manager told me he thinks that with the CREE’s, OSJL worked something out with both the State of Connecticut and CREE where they were able to get them for free.
If there was a way to get some to members here economically I would do it. Shipping is a killer.
I have been passing out bulbs to friends and strangers like Johnny Apple Seed.
BTW, while I am in OSJL I point other customers to the CREE displays and tell them about the “free” bulbs. A question I often hear is “are they bright enough”
It occurred to me that LED’s have gotten a bad reputation in many peoples minds due to the poor quality of light from the first LED flashlights and devices like the solar landscape lights. Most people who have never tried one probably imagine a very dim, purplish light.

Have you noticed that the most Liberal States in the Country also have the highest cost of living?
They also generally have the highest average incomes too.

That is the picture of the insides of the MaxLite and I count 54 LED’s
Here is a picture of the FEIT next to the MaxLite and the FEIT does have 30 LED’s!
How did you know that :wink:

Yes, I remember you mentioning that, and I remember you did get a good deal. I also remember telling me how much you like those bulbs. You are right, they are very nice. 99 cents is a steal.
When I first came across the MaxLite 100W they were not a Crazy Deal. Straight up price of 99 cents, just like the FEIT’s and I bought 1
A month later I decided to buy more at the 99 cent price and I just happened to grab 10. That is when I found out that they too had gone to a Crazy Deal. Buy 10 and get a gift card for the total purchase price. I am hoping the FEIT’s go the same way. In fact yesterday morning when I first saw the FEIT’s I bought 2. One to use and 1 to tear down, destroy :slight_smile:
At the end of the day it occurred to me that maybe they were on Crazy Deal and having only bought 2, the deal would not have kicked in at the register. So I went back and grabbed another 10. It they were on CD, I would pay cash and receive another CD card. If not, I would pay with a CD card I got from buying the MaxLites.
It turns out no Crazy Deal on the FEIT’s yet. I paid with a CD card I had gotten on the MaxLites.
Out of pocket was the 63 cents for the sales tax.

BTW, the only reason I was in the store yesterday was to take part in a special Fathers Day promotion and yesterday was the last of the 3 days. Buy a $50 gift card and get additional $20 gift card.

In effect I can create my own “sale” at any time by using them to buy $70 worth of merchandise for the $50. About 29% off. My brothers’ kid needs 16 of those LED shop lights that are $14.99. 5/7ths of $14.99 is $10.71 :slight_smile:

That’s cool that they’re working on deals to lower costs. SDG&E used to give away CFL’s, and I seriously doubt they got those bulbs for free. I can’t remember if that was before or after deregulation, but either way I’m sure they found a way to pass along the costs.

I have a bad opinion of them due to their poor quality. I’ve had a very high failure rate from Cree and G7, and my first Feit is failing after less than a month in use. I knew LED bulbs weren’t going to last 50,000 hours like some marketing says, but they should have lasted as long as the old CFL’s. The light quality is nicer while it lasts though.

I just bought some 5000 lumen LED sealed headlights that perpetuate that old reputation. They were 6500K, and they sure looked blue and purplish. The beam pattern was so poorly formed that the hotspot was barely 1/10th that of the halogen lights. Maybe they really put out 5000 lumens, but it was in all the wrong places. These were DOT approved too, so I expected much better.

I now work in one of the lowest paid cities in the nation. It’s a very conservative city. If I move, it’ll be back to a liberal state. Cost of living may be higher, and housing costs may double or triple, but my earning potential will far exceed that. I laugh when people say how great the cost of living is here. I don’t give a damn about that. It’s all about discretionary income. Here I might have enough to buy a used motorcycle every year, and in other places it could be enough to buy a new car, even a 6 figure car. I haven’t been at my new job long enough to know if they’ll pay according to my contributions instead of average wages in this area.

Anyone else tried the LED filament style bulbs? I did my whole house using those, mostly the 60W equivalent Utilitech from Lowes.

https://m.lowes.com/pd/Utilitech-2-Pack-60W-Equivalent-Dimmable-Soft-White-A19-LED-Decorative-Light-Bulb/1000125329

So far I have been fairly happy, 6 months in and I have had about 6 fail out of about 24 fixtures. Most of them have been infant mortality though, that is, they failed within a few hours. I think 2 lasted a month or so before they failed. Thankfully lowes has been very good about just giving me free replacements (they do have a 3 year warranty).

Otherwise the light quality is very good, and the dimming is fantastic, you can’t start them too low, but once they are on you can bring them all the way down to just a faint glow. That’s with a standard cheap incandescent dimmer too, none of the fancy LED compatible stuff. I also much prefer the nice even flux geometry of the filaments compared to the chip style LED bulbs.