LED bulb failure mode (2025 Update)

I had 2 fail within a year. Also had early failures on CFL's.

My observation on the CFL's was that if they were in places like bathroom fixtures where they were constantly being switched on and off that this is what led to premature failure.

Maybe same applies to LED's. Switching on and off probably stresses components thermally leading to early failure.

Name brand or no name Chinese junk? If you got them at Lowes, HD, etc I'd take them back and/or contact the company. Another possibility is they got done in by a power surge, but if everything else is OK, that seems doubtful. Unless the fan motor created enough of a spike to do them in.

I'll check the brand tonight. I still have the box, might be able to return them. The fan has not been turned on since the bulbs were installed so it's not a surge.

I wish there were an easy way to replace sockets on ceiling fixtures and fans with higher quality models. I have a German pole lamp with some of the highest quality sockets I've ever seen. (I completely disassembled it thinking I had a bad connection, and it turned out to be two bad bulbs, the one in the lamp and the new one I put in to replace it. But it was interesting to see how it was designed and built, basically bullet proof.) The only problem of course is the E26 vs E27 standard. Bulbs have low enough quality control you can find one that works, but there's luck involved.

The main issue with LEDs is not the bulb (diode) themselves, but the driver. LEDs can last a lifetime but if a manufacturer uses cheap drivers, they will die soon. Stay with quality brands and you'll find these units may outlive you.

If it was that, you wouldn’t be able to get them to flash briefly by wiggling them.

That has to be a bad contact somewhere or a dry joint or cracked trace.

Ditto.

There usually is.

And the best of them are ceramic so will last forever.

You can buy them all now.

I went all LED about 2 years ago, about 20 bulbs. Haven't had a single one fail.

The first one I bought was probably 8 or 10 years ago, and it was expensive enough I only bought 1. It's still working. I still have a few CFLs from that period too. It seems ones I've bought recently, both CFL and LED, have not held up as well. That's why I've started writing the install date on every bulb.

I started my switch-over about 5 years or more ago with some chinese G10s which failed quickly and often. I switched over to brand name stuff and have not had a failure since - have the whole house except the bathrooms switched over to LED - including the garage and yard-lights 4 4ft tubes, 4 par38s, 4 "tri-lights" 5 candelabra, and the rest standard bulbs or specialty fixtures (integrated LED)

I've been slowly switching over the church - have replacedall the basic incandescents - have a few floureschents and compact flourescents that will be replaced with LED as they fail, and a few Halogens that will likely remain halogen for the forseeable future as they are halogen specific fixtures that I have not found LED retrofits for. The 6 high-bay "compact" flourescents will be a challenge when the time comes too - 400 watt Mogul base inverted with fan forced cooling onthe ballasts - considering an adapter from single Mogul to 4 or 5 E26/E27 and just install regular LED bulbs but I don't need to make that decision untill after we install the last spare (only one has failed in 6 years and I managed to find 2 replacements at about $115 US each - - -

My first CFLs wouldn't last 4 months - didn't matter what brand. The last one I pulled and replaced with LED was over 7 years old and still working.

Some of my first LEDs didn't last a month. The oldest one in the house now is over 5 years old and I have not had a single failure other than the first batch of MR16 and G10 ChinaCraps that I bought off FleaBay.

I currently have some Philips, Feit, Noma, and a lot of TCP. The direct fit tube replacements were whatever Costco had on sale a couple years ago. They are half the price now.

They are GE 60 watt equivalent dimmable. I don't remember why I bought dimmable, as there are no dimmers in my house.

The package says 5 year warranty, just return them to GE with proof of purchase. Well, that's long gone.

I tried them in another lamp. Same symptom, by screwing in and out I got the occasional flash but couldn't reliably repeat it. I took the CFL out of that lamp and put it in the bathroom fixture the LED failed in, and it worked fine. So, it's the LED not the fixture.

There's nothing obviously wrong with the LED bulb - no cracks, corrosion, arc traces, etc. I don't know any way to test these, it's not like you could put an ohmeter on the filament, there's electronics between power and LED.

TimR snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote

Then there is a cracked pcb trace or dry joint in the bulb itself. Making intermittent contact as you apply pressure to the bulb.

Yes.

You don’t get arc traces with cracked pcb traces or dry joint with LEDs.

You should be able to use a meter in various places to see where the cracked pcb trace or dry joint is and may well be able to fix the problem by soldering the dry joint or bridging the trace crack if you can get into the electronics without wrecking the bulb.

Where did you buy them? Pay with credit card? If so most places can give you a "duplicate" receipt.

I've replaced most of the bulbs in my house with LEDs and for the most part, they have lasted. I think only one has failed and one was mechanically broken. But, in the gateposts in the front of the subdivision, there are 2 very large light fixtures with 2 bulbs each. We were going through incandescent bulbs at the rate of about one 60 watt bulb per 3 months. When I replaced them with LED candle bulbs from Lowe's, I was still getting failures. I changed brands and they are now working for 3 or 4 years. Lowe's quit selling that original brand, I suspect for obvious reasons, as they always made good on the returns. I think, out of the 4 lamps, there is still one of the original "bad" bulbs which seems to have held up.