Last night I was doing some work outdoors after dark, and was using a trouble light. The old incandescent 100W bulb died, so I went to get another. But it turned out that I did not have any handy. Before they outlawed them, I bought several cases of them, but to save on space in the house, I put them in a shed which is well filled with stuff. I was not about to go dig thru that shed last night, when I was in the middle of a job. I had just bought some of those low cost 60W LED bulbs at Walmart, and they were right in front of my face, so I grabbed one of them.
I knew that I never liked any bulbs less than 100W for trouble lights, but this had to do for now.
Besides the (expected) lower wattage issue, I found that the LED bulb did not focus the light in the same way as a convential bulb. LEDs seem to focus the light out of their TOP, where all the light used from a trouble light comes from the side of the bulb. I came to the conclusion that LED bulbs are not the best for trouble lights.
Any light is better than no light, so I lived with it, knowing I was almost done with my outside work for the night. Otherwise I may have gone in the house and grabbed one of the CFL bulbs I have been replacing with LED lately.
Unless they design a LED that focuses the light from the SIDE of the bulb, the common trouble lights wont work the best with LED bulbs. Maybe the solution is to redesign the shields on trouble lights, rather than change the LED bulbs ?????
One other comment: I recently wanted to buy some of the incandescent ROUGH SERVICE bulbs when I was at Walmart. I know those were not outlawed, yet none were on the store shelves. The Rough Service bulbs were always better for trouble lights and lasted much longer. Walmart did have halogen type bulbs in the 100W range, but I avoid them. I've burned myself enough times on trouble lights, using common incandescent bulbs, and halogen burns much hotter. No thanks on a hotter shield near me when I'm working.