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Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

They're repairing many LED lights. A more fundamental question - why are LED lamp units failing way ahead of schedule? Usually it's the power supply. Power supplies fail for known reasons. Usually, either overheating, bad capacitors, or bad solder joints. It's not rocket science. This ought to be fixable.

Whatever happened to those PhD theses I used to see from China on how to build LED lamp power supplies without electrolytic capacitors?

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Not sure if you noticed but the economy optimizes to toss and replace versus fix.

Fixing things is a drag on next quarter profits. Buy the upgrade with the ten cent fix at 10% markup over the original because it’s “new and improved”.

We’re just circling old inputs like an LLM trained on itself.

There is a video about led bulb model variations made in Saudi Arabia which last “forever” compared to the regular models. Worth a watch.

Edit: https://hackaday.com/2021/01/17/leds-from-dubai-the-royal-li...

Thanks for this great link [I remembered having seen it but would not have recalled the countries).

TL;DR: some countries require manufacturers to underdrive the diodes allowing them to last for decades [not "designed obsolescence"].

Dubai is not Saudi Arabia

> Dubai is not Saudi Arabia

when it comes to LEDs, is a good way to remember it, Dubai vs "don't buy"?

That's... quite the understatement :)

Mixed them up, but does not matter, the point is the engineering differences

The ones without caps usually have terrible PWM, not really great.

Just take ones that have a decent temperature rating and you're good. Except those cost 5 cents more and the lamp lasts forever which they manufacturers hate :(

LEDs fail due to heat. A related failure is manufacturers driving them at their max limits. An LED driven correctly with good airflow can last a century.

https://www.ledsupply.com/led-heatsinks

1. Consumers will not pay extra for a longer-lasting bulb. Most will just get the cheapest available. Heavy duty bulbs exist for the commercial and industrial sectors, but are more expensive.

2. Edison-screw fixtures are designed for incandescent bulbs. They trap heat inside the fixture, accelerating the death of LEDs. Integrated LED fixtures tend to be more reliable, but installing them is not an option for renters and unskilled homeowners.

I dont know if I went to the store and there was some “happy life” nonsense alibaba brand vs a trusted brand for twice as much I would probably get the good one. The reality is we never have the choice, its Amazon crapshoot or expensive brand at the store (that may not be any better). I will say Ikea always seems to last way better than Chinese brands.

I will pay more for a longer lasting bulb. I'm so tired of buying junk. But I won't pay for something sold by Walmart which claims to be longer lasting but in reality is either just lying or has a host of disclaimers and no warranty. And it's impossible for consumers to tell the difference, and I haven't discovered any companies posting engineering shibboleths (like an actual datasheet or real no-BS warranty) that make me believe them any more than I believe Walmart.

My team has installed a lot of LED lights in tugboat engine rooms. They fail often. They don’t seem to handle heat and vibration very well.

why are LED lamp units failing way ahead of schedule?

Planned obsolescence. Because LEDs would otherwise last for decades, they deliberately drive them as hard as they can to get a little more light at the expense of decreased efficiency and massively decreased lifespan. YouTuber bigclivedotcom has made many videos about this.

Fwiw I have near 10 year old hue bulbs still going strong. Well built ones do seem to last

Low quality components fail early.

Maybe LEDS are low quality? and therefore fail prematurely?

Higher temperatures cause electronic components to fail earlier in life

sort of the newfangled ballast of the future.

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