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Comment by tzs | Hacker News Reader

I replaced around 25 bulbs in my house with cheap Walmart "Great Value" LEDs just under 3 years ago and they've all been fine. Previously, I had replaced around 4 bulbs with Cree LEDs from Home Depot, and half of those were dead within a few months.

The Walmart bulbs without any special pricing were way cheaper than the Cree bulbs from Home Depot, but even better, there was some sort of automatic rebate or something like that in cooperation with the local electric company that made the Walmart bulbs $0.17. By "automatic rebate", I mean that the bulbs rang up on checkout at $0.17. No rebate forms to send in or anything like that.

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"Previously, I had replaced around 4 bulbs with Cree LEDs from Home Depot, and half of those were dead within a few months."

Were those the original Cree bulbs with the heavy, finned metal heatsink around the base ?

I currently have a bag of about 14 of those that I bought (with great enthusiasm) and that burned out (or turned weird purple colors) within 2-3 years.

New style cree bulbs appear to have these issues solved. In fact, I continue to buy them as they perform better than other (satco, fein) bulbs that I have. In most cases I get satco/fein as long as they have the color temperature and output I want, but if I am having issues with a dimmer, etc., I get a cree bulb.

Those early Home Depot Cree bulbs were definitely defective. We bought a ton of them and have since replaced nearly all under warranty... twice. The first round they replaced with identical ones, which also quickly failed. (Always the same; started with an intermittent flicker, which progressively got more severe and regular.) More recently we've gotten a new design back, which seem better. Fortunately, after the first ones, it's been as simple as replying to the email thread and telling them how many more replacements I need!

Yes. I have six failed ones I need to send back. Power supply failures on every one of them within a year of installation.

"Fortunately, after the first ones, it's been as simple as replying to the email thread and telling them how many more replacements I need!"

Could you tell us that email address ? I have a box of 14 original Cree bulbs that I would like to get replaced...

I'm in Canada, so I emailed creelightingcanada@cree.com. Looking at this page, it appears the US one is info@cree.com: https://lighting.cree.com/resources/warranties

The Cree bulbs have been a disappointment for me as well. There was so much buzz about then when they came out, but I've had so many where one of the elements fizzles out and kills the whole bulb because they are wired in series and the elements fail closed or very high resistance.

If I cared more I might try to take the bulbs apart in a way that I could get them back together and just bypass the failed LED with a resister to bring the bulb back to life (at 15% reduced capacity or so).

I have been very disappointed in how hot the bulbs run as well. It feels like they must be wasting a lot of energy to run that hot.

That's funny I had 3 LEDs die in a week and they were all great value. I believe I bought them 4-5 years ago. I've also had a cree die. Overall though waaaay better than incandecent or even compact CFL.

I bought about 100 regular incandescents in various wattages at Lowes before they were banned. I wish I had bought a lot more. They were about $0.25 per bulb at the clearance sale prices. CFLs and LEDs are poor substitutes from a quality-of-light standpoint. Also AFAIK there is no hazardous waste in a burned-out incandescent. You can throw it away with a clear conscience.

Can you not still buy halogens? I like the light they give out and while they are nowhere near the efficiency of an LED bulb, they last pretty long by incandescent standards and they are somewhat more efficient than the old argon bulbs.

The guy in the other comment apparently paid led .17$ and they are all still good after 3 years.. What is the percentage of survival of the incandescent light and how much electricity are you wasting until they die?

But you're using huge amounts more energy, I think that would rest on my conscience a little more.

Not if you have electric (temperature controlled) heating.

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