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Comment by BizarroLand | Hacker News Reader

I spent probably $150-$200 for 7 packages of "high CRI" "long lasting" phillips brand LED bulbs last year, for a total of 28 bulbs.

6 of them have failed in less than 9 months, either flickering so badly it could cause an epileptic seizure or just straight up dying on me.

It's maddening.

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Look at the fixtures you're putting them in and consider if they're getting adequate cooling. If your average "long lasting" (they all claim this, but not at what temperature...) LED bulb is uncomfortably hot to touch, it's on the fast track to failure.

Mine are hanging in thin air over my bathroom mirror. The GE Reveal bulbs say they're good for bathrooms, but I suspect they don't like the humidity. I have four at a time in the fixture and six of them have died in the last two years. Once this box is empty I'll get something else.

Ah, probably not a heat problem, then.

Oh, it's a good point to look out for. I'm just really annoyed at these.

If you still have the receipt you can file a warranty claim.

I had similar issues with Phillips. I bought six over a year for the relatively excellent quality of the light, but they'd start flickering after a month or two. I had first suspected an electrical problem, but then tried them at entirely different locations in entirely different sockets and found the same. Haven't considered buying Phillips since and won't, ever. Nice light, shit construction.

The Phillips bulbs I bought have a ridiculously high failure rate. About half have failed within 6 months. Much worse than the supermarket own brands, or cheaper ones from Amazon.

Meanwhile I replaced around 40 halogen bulbs with Philips branded bulbs around 5 years ago, and have not had a single failure.

It's possible the quality has changed, but i'm also wondering whether the mains voltage might be a factor - there is quite a wide range of possible voltages allowed whilst still being in-spec, so maybe i'm lucky at my properties and mains voltage is on the low end of the standard and maybe you're running hot. It's all most frustrating!

BTW, I went with Philips on the basis that there was a good chance that if I did need to replace a few after a year or two due to failures i'd be likely to be able to source the same bulb, as it's really annoying if you find one bulb a different colour than the others...

The Philips Hue bulbs somehow never burn out. I have about 30 of them in my house, and the oldest ones (5+ years old now) are working as well as the new ones that I have bought recently. They are the only "smart" thing that I have in my house, because they're the only thing I've ever hooked up that worked with 100% reliability. They don't require an internet connection, etc. I never have connection problems, never have to reboot the hub, the switches work for me 100% of the time.

Same. I have half a dozen hue bulbs from 2016 and none hav failed. The ones I have from Innr have not failed either. 4 of them are outdoors.

With Philips spinning off the lights division, I don't know the current quality.

On the other hand, I've had others (non smart ones) starting to flicker or otherwise just dying after as little as one year.

I've got a couple burnouts on Phillips hue bulbs

The best i have found are unbelievable from Ikea, the’ve been in daily use for almost 2 years already.

Best case there is to never buy again, name and shame the specific model places like this discussion, and use the warranty!

PITA I know.

If the warranty expires, buy the same ones from $BIG_BOX_STORE and return the broken ones. The companies send them back to the mfgs for credit. They'll get the hint eventually.

If the bulb lasts past the warranty and then dies, you recommend that we defraud the manufacturer of the bulb?

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