Lowes Deal Alerts & Discussion Thread

Curiosity got the best of me. On the way home from an appointment I stopped at a different Lowes. I wanted to buy a 2 pack of that identical bulb that instead of 1.8 year life had 4.57. I wanted to open one up and absolutely verify they were identical. If they were, I could then just replace the one I opened up with a 97 cent one and get my $4 back for the twin pack. I found that twin pack easily enough but when I started hunting for the display of 99 cent bulbs I came across this.

Wowzer!
75W equivalent, 1100 Lumen bulbs on clearance for $1.74 each. So I grabbed 2 trays, a total of 24 and went on my way hunting for the 99 cent bulb. When I couldn’t find them I decided to go back and get the rest of the 1100 Lumen ones. When I went up to the register and the girl started ringing them up they were $5.93 each! I stopped her, but then I noticed that there are 2 kinds of bulbs here. Notice the picture above, the bulbs on top have a massive heat sink with fins. The bulbs on the bottom have no fins and are actually more like the 99 cent bulb. Light weight and not much heat sinking. Only the massive heat sinked ones are on clearance, they rang up at $1.74.
The older cheaper bulb is on the right, the newer more expensive bulb without the massive heat sink is on the left.
They are both rated at 16.4 years!?

Turns out, after I brought all the higher priced bulbs back, there were “only” 16 of the $1.74 ones :frowning:
In the parking lot I checked and found that there was another Lowes 4.6 miles away and it was on my way home. The Lowes app told me they had 9 more. :slight_smile:
When I got there I searched the store but could not find them. I did come across this though.

40W equivalet, 450 Lumen for 87 cents and they have the massive heat sink, good for 16.4 years. They had 37 and I grabbed them all.
BUT, when the girl scanned them, they rang up for 42 cents :slight_smile:

Like I said, why does this only happen to me?

dchomak —-Globe you removed makes a perfect diffuser for a flashlight

Do we know if the 40W ones with the better heatsink are better quality? Its the only ones my local lowes has on clearance. The older ones show 16.4 years lifetime
I picked up a couple of those and a couple 2 packs. Wanted to give them a once over before running back out for more

Thoughts?

You’re right!. I plan to reuse the globes as difusers when I use 4 of those bulbs to make a work light. I got some of these on clearance and plan on using the Aluminum for a base plate and heat sink. then screw the stars from the bulbs and reglue each difuser onto the plate around the star.

That plate of aluminum is 13 inches square, I will only use a piece of it 6 1/2 inches square or 1/4 of it.

Here is a partial teardown of the 40W equiv that I got on clearance. There is way more heat sinking, but don’t forget the 99 cent bulb is 750 Lumen, this one is only 450 Lumen.




Here is the 450 Lumen star next to the 750 Lumen star

Going g to try and find these at my local Lowes tomorrow. What would you say is/are the ones to go for?

The first $0.99 ones at 750 lumens, and perhaps the finned 75w 1100 lumen bulbs?

All stores should have the 750 Lumen bulbs at 99 cents. I doubt you will find the 1100 Lumen bulb on clearance at $1.74. I checked online a number of stores across the country and could not find another store with both stock and a clearance price. If your store still has them but they are $6.98, keep an eye on them and see if they do not go on clearance. You may actually have to ask for a price check. Look at what happened with the 450 Lumen bulbs that I found. The clearance sticker price was 87 cents but the actual price was 44 cents (then I got an additional 2 cents off for using my Lowes card)

All of the 99 cent bulbs are gone :frowning: I checked all stores online and they are out also. The web site says there are plenty, 1000 or more in each store but they are not available (at 99 cents?)
I did find these though

I scanned it from my Lowes app and set to that store

Notice that it was $1.24. 62 cents is exactly half of $1.24. This bulb has been on clearance for some time. Original price was probably $4.98 and it went to $2.50 to $1.24 to 62 cents. It was then that I came along and it met its demise :slight_smile:
I checked other stores in the area with my app and some still have them at $1.24

My point here is that there are various clearance sales and deals going on right now.

A few days ago ImA4wheelr mentioned the LuxPro 280 Lumen light for $12.97> I bought one 2 days ago, even though they were marked $24.97. It rang up for $12.97 just as he promised. Now 3 days later, they are STILL marked at $24.97. I scanned one with the Lowes app and it came up 12.97


De domed :bigsmile:

No hollow pill! Maybe the reason for the 13.7 year lifetime

Comparison to the heavy heatsink version of this bulb. Same 6 emitters on a smaller star.

Don't know how Lowe's online stock-remaining app works but my store still has plenty. Just picked up a dozen 99 centers.

ETA: maybe you meant in your region of the NorthEast.

In my local store the display is gone. Another store I was in last night said they sold out. What is confusing is that in those stores and others when you look up online for that product the stores around here have on average 1000 each. But if you try to buy them online for local store pickup, you can’t put them in your cart as they are “unavailable”
Tonight I will go back to my local store and ASK them about it.

I went to my local Lowes today and they didn’t even have the 99 cent display at all.

So I ended up getting 10 (5 2 packs) of the 750 lumen 40 watters. Worked out to $1.49 per bulb and I was ok with that.

I also got 2 individual 60 watt bulbs for my living room, and two 75watt ones for my front and rear porch lights.

I noticed that the 75w equivalent units had SIGNIFICANTLY more heft to them as the others did. So that’s promising. I understand that these are cheap, budget LED household bulbs, but I just didn’t want CFL’s anymore.

I’m not used to the 3000k color temp, I’ve had 5000k and 6200k for the past 8 years. But so far I’m pleased, even if I didn’t get them for a buck a piece.

But I got 4 60W equiv Ultilitech’s anyway. $3.98x2, so OK I guess compared to anything else these days. The warm white 3000k looks nice.

I must be getting old since I can remember incans at 4 for $1 in my youth and hearing folks gripe about that being a high price!

Phil

LOL, I don’t know how old you are, but I remember as a kid my parents bringing old burned out icans to the electric company because back then they supplied the bulbs for free.

BTW, I stopped at my local store this evening and asked the manager about the 99 cent bulbs. My app shows that the store has 912 but when I try to add them to my cart for in store pickup they are unavailable. He said they are holding them for Black Friday. Mystery solved. So if anybody wants those bulbs, they will be available once again on BF. I suppose some stores will screw that up though and have them out early.

All that is left to do is sand the domes from the 99 cent bulbs that I got the LEDs and drivers from so that they will fit between the clear plastic shield on the front of the worklight. I will glue them in place which I will do tonight.
I will post a separate build thread in case anyone wants to see how easy it was.
3 x 750 Lumen equals 2250 lumens, plenty to work by. :slight_smile:
20 years or so ago I got plenty of these florescent worklights on subsidy. They were like $5 each, ran cool, no harsh shadows but the bulbs were sensitive to shock. Replacements were costly, but I happened to get a few at Office Depot of all places on clearance for $2. That helped keep them going for awhile but everyonce and awhile a ballast goes. No fixing that, hence this LED conversion.

^

Nice work there. Great concept. I want one.

Check out how much more surface area the heat spreaders (traces in solder resist) cover on the longer life light on the left.

Thanks ImA4. Here is a link to the build thread. Not much response to it though, I guess worklights are not as interesting as flashlights :slight_smile:

Now that you point out the heat spreaders I notice them.
Also, I have run those bulbs alongside of the versions with the heavy heat sinks. Each seem to run at about the same temperature after a few hours.

I have confirmed the 60W LED bulb in the twin pack for $3.98 with the 4.57 year lifespan is the same exact bulb as the 99 cent bulb with the 1.8 year lifespan. It is the same exact bulb inside and out.

That 99 cent bulb will be available again on Black Friday, probably at all the Lowes.

Holy crap this is crazy! I didn’t know any of this was going on! 99¢ led bulb with life of an incandescent?! :open_mouth: This is madness! This is the future of led bulbs! (haha)

Too bad there isn’t any lowe’s close by here; mostly home depots only.

dchomak can you do a flicker test of the cheap 99¢ led bulb? The power supply looks extremely simple (for “decent” led bulbs) so it might flicker. You can look at it closely with a camera to see if it flickers. Or you can shake it or shake something in front of it.

Also here’s something interesting about Lowe’s: I found out that Lowe’s sells mostly Cooper (Eaton) Wiring Devices (switches, receptacles, GFCIs, etc), for the same price as Home Depot sells Leviton!
But I think Cooper Wiring Devices are better than Leviton Wiring Devices. I was impressed with the features on the Cooper receptacles. They have a “Screw-Catch™” and they have a built-in wire stripper and looper and bla bla…
Also the switches are better because they don’t have that problem of tending to want to be on. With the Leviton switches, they feel like they want to be on. Flicking them on makes a nice flick sound, like the switch is enthusiastic about it, but flipping them off makes a quiet flup like they don’t want to be turned off. The cheap generic Jasco/GE switches sold at Walmart are even worse. The old Leviton switches didn’t have that problem but the new ones do. :frowning: Also the Leviton have a derp with the ground screw… they _screw_ed it up. The two nubs that hold the wire loop are too close together making it almost impossible to fit a loop in there, so you either have to bend a nub down or rotate the loop in an improper position.

bla bla bla you get it, The wiring devices lowe’s sells are cooper and I think they are better than Leviton that home depot sells, and for the same price.

This time I got a great deal on some incandescents :bigsmile:
250 Watt Infra Red. (Heat Lamps)

Then I found more of the 75W equiv LED bulbs

50 cents more per bulb than the last store but when you want need them, the extra money is easily justified :slight_smile:

Then I came across this deal. Unfortunately someone else beat me this time.

That’s a 24 inch cast iron pipe wrench that normally would be $24.98. That is a BIG wrench. Here is a picture of the replacement model with my SK68 sitting on top of it for scale. And this picture is in perspective. The head is actually bigger than it appears in this photo. Oh well, I can’t win them all.

dchomak you can sell your earnings and make a profit.
What do you do with all the stuff you get? :stuck_out_tongue: