LED downlights - and why you might not want to fit them

[RogerS]

Don't get suckered in believing claims on sites, such as TLC-Direct, that LED downlights from companies such as LEDLite that they have meaningful 3-year guarantee. When the LEDLite downlight fails - (which it will - frequently) - a replacement product is no longer available. DAMHIKT :evil: They change the product line so frequently.

Sure, they will give you a refund. Big deal. Now you either have a hole in your ceiling or a mismatching replacement from another range - both in terms of physical appearance and colour temperature.

I'm in the process of replacing all the LED downlighters with halogen.

 

[RichardG]

A friend had a load fitted and was surprised when the electrician left him 6 spares. He’d sited exactly the same reason as you’ve found. However, he also pointed out that a new lamp of the same type will still appear slightly different when installed but at least the body matches.

Richard

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Probably cheaper to replace all the lights than pay the electricity bill for halogen lamps. If I've paid for sets of lights I put a couple of spares away - it's like insurance, I've never needed them.

 

[RogerS]

Probably cheaper to replace all the lights than pay the electricity bill for halogen lamps. If I've paid for sets of lights I put a couple of spares away - it's like insurance, I've never needed them.

I did buy some spares. They all got used up. These LED downlighters are a con !

 

[porker]

It's a very valid point. I'm about to replace a load of old halogen with LED after a Refurb but will be going with unit with replaceable lamps for this reason.
It's not always obvious that these units are effectively sealed and need to be replaced as a unit. I have been looking at the JCC hybrid as they have a replacement lamp and bezel. Still relies on them being around though for the next few years.

 

[Doug71]

We have a little shop with lots of downlights in, they originally had halogen bulbs in but we changed them all for LED bulbs.

I'm sure the LED bulbs don't last anywhere near as long as claimed, I seem to be constantly replacing them.

 

[MikeG.]

Definitely buy those with replaceable lamps, or yes, there are real issues. Buy decent name lamps and they can last for many years. I have some in my kitchen which are 5 years old. I had some others (no-name cheapies) which didn't last a year. In Roger's position I wouldn't be swapping to halogen, I would be swapping to fittings which used replaceable LED bulbs.

 

[RogerS]

Definitely buy those with replaceable lamps, or yes, there are real issues. Buy decent name lamps and they can last for many years. I have some in my kitchen which are 5 years old. I had some others (no-name cheapies) which didn't last a year. In Roger's position I wouldn't be swapping to halogen, I would be swapping to fittings which used replaceable LED bulbs.

Any recommendations, Mike ?

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Definitely buy those with replaceable lamps, or yes, there are real issues. Buy decent name lamps and they can last for many years. I have some in my kitchen which are 5 years old. I had some others (no-name cheapies) which didn't last a year. In Roger's position I wouldn't be swapping to halogen, I would be swapping to fittings which used replaceable LED bulbs.

Any recommendations, Mike ?

As I agree wholeheartedly with Mike's point I'll pretend to be him for one moment

Any GU10 LED bulb from Philips or Osram in a standard GU10 fitting.

I think that many fire-rated downlights have a problem with heat dissipation - LEDs generate much less wastage as heat, but it must be dissippated. The old problem of heat with halogens was you tended to scorch things if you weren't careful! e.g. https://manceelectrical.com.au/dangers- ... ownlights/

The cheap no-name brands of lamp or lamp/luminaire combination are a waste of money IHMO. Five years ago I bought 18 GU10 LED lamps from Philips (99 Watts) to give the same quality and quantity of of light as 50W halogens (0.9kW) in my kitchen. I've replaced one in that time.

Cheers, W2S

 

[MikeG.]

Definitely buy those with replaceable lamps, or yes, there are real issues. Buy decent name lamps and they can last for many years. I have some in my kitchen which are 5 years old. I had some others (no-name cheapies) which didn't last a year. In Roger's position I wouldn't be swapping to halogen, I would be swapping to fittings which used replaceable LED bulbs.

Any recommendations, Mike ?

As I agree wholeheartedly with Mike's point I'll pretend to be him for one moment

Any GU10 LED bulb from Philips or Osram in a standard GU10 fitting.........

As I completely agree with W2S on this, I'll pretend to be him for a minute....

Mike would have said precisely this if he hadn't been in the workshop repairing someone's chairs.......

 

[AES]

I'm just a late-comer to this thread, so I'm not pretending to be anyone else ;-)

Agree 100% about not using halogen as a replacement Roger. Fit decent quality LEDs.

Fortunately those halogens that were fitted when the kitchen was done 10 or more years ago were all of the single replacement "bulb" type, and I've used Philips or Osram LEDs as replacements.

Apart from the much higher cost of running halogens (reputedly, I've never done the sums myself) what has always disturbed me about halogens is the amount of excess heat generated - enough to stain the insides of the shelves where some originally-fitted halogen down lighters were installed - not visible with the light fitting installed fortunately.

Ditto in my cellar workshop.

 

[RogerS]

Any recommendations, Mike ?

As I agree wholeheartedly with Mike's point I'll pretend to be him for one moment

Any GU10 LED bulb from Philips or Osram in a standard GU10 fitting.........

As I completely agree with W2S on this, I'll pretend to be him for a minute....

Mike would have said precisely this if he hadn't been in the workshop repairing someone's chairs.......

Much appreciated, Mikes 1 and 2 :lol:

 

[Homers double]

From my experience using Robus Tri led down lighters, I have absolutely no Complaints.
I fitted approx 40 of them 8 years, they were to upgrade from the various halogen ones fitted everywhere in the house.
I did a lot research before hand as led Lighting technology was in its early days.
From memory they were around £35 each back then, I can truly say that they have saved me their purchase cost, due to living with a family that turn nothing off!
In all that time 2 have failed, and that was only towards the end of last year which were replaced at around £10 each now.
I have recently had installed, incepter omni led downlighters for a client, they have a selector switch on the top which enables you to select a colour temperature, they seem to be very good but it’s early days regarding lifespan.

 

[AJB Temple]

An alternative take. I have lately been trialling (past year) the Philips Hue system of smart lighting. This is expensive per bulb - but it has a lot of advantages.
The reputation for longevity is excellent.

• They are LED so very low power consumption.
  All bulbs are replaceable.
  You can programme bulbs individually from a dead simple app to do mood lighting in pretty much any colour and colour temperature.
  They can be used in any modern light fitting (don't buy cheap junk).
  You can do all switching from your phone or a wireless panel or voice command (using Alexa or similar).
  They can dim from near zero to full light (no buzzing or flicker).
  You do not need switch circuits at all.

 

[doctor Bob]

I have 121 LED ceiling downlighters in my house, never had one go. House is now 4 years old.

 

[RogerS]

I have 121 LED ceiling downlighters in my house, never had one go. House is now 4 years old.

Which ones ?

 

[doctor Bob]

LAP i think, 3 small lights in each downlighter. Put them throughout the house with a few stratigic pendants.
I'm amazed non have gone, because I have LED driveway lights and regularly replace those.

 

[D_W]

call me nutty because I know recessed lighting has been the rage for probably 25 years now, but when I redid my kitchen, it had surface lighting (general on the ceiling) and supplemental lighting in the sink area by another switch.

I hid LED strip lights (80 watts worth) under the cabinets and behind a header above the sink on two switches instead of one, and I installed LED surface lighting on the ceiling to avoid problems with recessed cans, etc and overcomplication.

It's more stylish to have all of those lights recessed, but my walls are white semi-gloss and I aim the ceiling lights at the one open wall in the kitchen for reflectivity. total lumens in a relatively small kitchen is about 7000 on a 120 watt draw. No problems with retrofit and fairly little repair work to do after removing the surface fixtures left there previously.

I'd be curious to find out if any of you folks with LED cans and a non-contact thermometer find temperatures up in the can to be higher than expected. I recall early on the CFLs didn't last because they had enough residual heat to still cause problems. I had one outdoors (CFL) in my post lamp that runs 100% of the time day or night year around last more than 40,000 hours and am assuming that some of that is due to the fact that the bulk of the year outdoors here is below interior room temperature. The LED itself may not care much about heat, but I'd bet the circuitry does.

 

[ColeyS1]

An alternative take. I have lately been trialling (past year) the Philips Hue system of smart lighting. This is expensive per bulb - but it has a lot of advantages.
The reputation for longevity is excellent.

• They are LED so very low power consumption.
  All bulbs are replaceable.
  You can programme bulbs individually from a dead simple app to do mood lighting in pretty much any colour and colour temperature.
  They can be used in any modern light fitting (don't buy cheap junk).
  You can do all switching from your phone or a wireless panel or voice command (using Alexa or similar).
  They can dim from near zero to full light (no buzzing or flicker).
  You do not need switch circuits at all.

I gasped when I saw and paid the price. I wouldn't hesitate to replace them with the same though !

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[TFrench]

I've fitted lots of downlights in the course of renovating my house. I've used GU10 fittings from screwfix and LAP bulbs. Not had one go yet and the most recent I fitted were 2 years ago I think.