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Comment by dleslie | Hacker News Reader

I bought a pile of cheap LED bulbs[0] when they first became available on Amazon Canada, and replaced every light in my home.

They've run cheap and cold for years now, without a single failure.

I suspect that there's some planned obsolescence in newer products.

0: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B01EN9L8YU?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_m...

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Similarly, I replaced all my bulbs around 2011/2012 after buying a new place and I have yet to have a single one fail on me.

These were fairly expensive, about $11 each (the going rate at the time), and were TCP brand, but it was unpleasant to read that newer bulbs might be far worse when it comes time to replace them, even if they are cheaper. I love the fact that they die so infrequently that I don't have to keep any spares around.

I have had good but not perfect luck with the TCP bulbs. I've had two or three die (out of perhaps 40 or so). They also have mediocre color compared to a newer design.

Nobody is going to deliberately sabotage their LED bulbs because nobody really has a monopoly on them. They probably use cheap components that are only rated for the warranty period, but that isn't "planned obsolescence".

That is true. It is not directly "planned obsolescence". But our whole economic capitalist system is based on the idea of consumption. That means that products by default do not need to last.

Nobody is going to sabotage them, but they’re also not going to spend money making them list one minute longer than they really have to. If you’re focused on the short term or think reputation isn’t a big driver of your sales, then your product really doesn’t have to last very long.

I think it gets worse as time goes on, because manufacturers gain experience with the lifespan of their components and learn exactly where they can cut. If you’re not quite sure how long something will last, you’ll probably err on the side of caution and engineer it to last longer than needed in case you got it wrong.

A competing manufacturer can always offer a product that last longer and warranty it, and people might choose to purchase it depending on the price.

However, as the article notes, people may not be interested in paying a premium for a product that lasts 10y instead of 5y or 20y instead of 10y, since the tech can change or maybe it’s susceptical to other kinds of degradation.

For bulbs that are really cheap, people won't keep their receipts and warranty information. I think it will be hard for bulbs to differentiate by warranty.

yea if it fails after a year (vs. a few days) very few people are going to bother with or even remember there was a warrantee

The advantage of buying online.

Or Home Depot. Give them your email address and attach your cards to it and then you will always have the receipt.

If you buy at Costco, you can return them at any time in the future without a receipt. The return desk will lookup past purchases using your membership card.

But when that estimate is based on 3 hours a day, and you actually use the bulb 9 or 12 or 24, the balance shifts significantly.

I can't even trust that the company will be around in 5 or 10 years. Or that they won't come back with some BS why they won't honor the warranty, and how it's my fault the bulb is bad. Long warranties are basically worthless anymore.

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