LED downlighters - get spares

[RogerS]

I've mentioned this before and fortunately I practice what I preach. Just as well. In the kitchen we have three zones of LED downlighters - six, three and two lamps respectively. They come with a 3 year warranty which is about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

One failed. Manufacturer has discontinued them. This is what TLC-Direct are suggesting as an unobtrusive replacement. Yeah..right.

So the moral is...get spares when you buy them. Luckily I did. But not enough if the failure rate is anything to go by.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Are these 12V or 240?

They don't take a lot of current either way. You might consider a parallel resistor, to drop the voltage slightly at the lamp end - wouldn't need to be too high current. You might also parallel more lamps up to achieve the same result.

I tried to swap the halogens in the bathroom for LED units recently, only to get 50Hz flashing as the "transformers" had trouble with the small loads. It's marginal - one driver unit doesn't cause flashing at all (so far!), so I'm going to try fixing the problem by paralleling up more lamps and using fewer drivers. If I can't get at the wiring to do that safely, they'll get parallel resistors.

 

[RogerS]

Are these 12V or 240?

They don't take a lot of current either way. You might consider a parallel resistor, to drop the voltage slightly at the lamp end - wouldn't need to be too high current. You might also parallel more lamps up to achieve the same result.

I tried to swap the halogens in the bathroom for LED units recently, only to get 50Hz flashing as the "transformers" had trouble with the small loads. It's marginal - one driver unit doesn't cause flashing at all (so far!), so I'm going to try fixing the problem by paralleling up more lamps and using fewer drivers. If I can't get at the wiring to do that safely, they'll get parallel resistors.

240v...fed from dimmer

 

[Eric The Viking]

That's a pity...

 

[suth82]

I have 13 of the LEDLite Downlighters (top pic) in my Kitchen / dining room, all 13 have failed over the past 4 years (lucky they have 5 year warrenty), to be fair to TLC they have replaced them no issue but what a hassle having to replace one every couple of months combined with a trip to the post office. Its not like they were cheap!!

 

[RogerS]

I have 13 of the LEDLite Downlighters (top pic) in my Kitchen / dining room, all 13 have failed over the past 4 years (lucky they have 5 year warrenty), to be fair to TLC they have replaced them no issue but what a hassle having to replace one every couple of months combined with a trip to the post office. Its not like they were cheap!!

That is a seriously poor failure rate. You are fortunate in that that product line would appear to be still available.

I agree with you also re the hassle of going to the post office particularly if one has no other reason to leave the house and the round trip is an hour.