I have a GU10 4-light fitting in the kitchen, fitted in August last year. Since then I have gone through 6 replacement bulbs, all but one have been in the same position in the fitting. Coincidence or What?
Iain
Probably not. Two possibilities -
Vibration, e.g. people walking around on the floor above. The fitting might amplify this in certain positions, which might line up with one of the lamps.
The replacement lamps you got are shorter life than the originals.
These really are the most awful lights, and usually horribly inefficient - would suggest you get something better and more appropriate to a kitchen.
whatever that might be....
Jim K
Unfortunately SWMBO chose them and I'm not brave enough to tell her that it was a bad choice. Maybe once she notices the heat marks on the ceiling she'll decide to have them changed. cheers, Iain
Jim K put finger to keyboard:
I ripped the GU10s out of my kitchen and put in fluorescent tubes. Very happy with them, no more shadows.
If you must use spotlamps, the 12V ones are much more efficient. However, the EU has it's sights on banning them (probably both types, but not yet decided).
LEDs are getting there, and if your light can take longer lamps then your halogen GU10s and they're not enclosed, you might find some of the larger LED replacements are just about viable now, and this will improve with time. LEDs won't be susceptable to vibration, just to excessively optimistic marketing claims ;-) GU10's spill a lot of light outside the main beam, which you might be relying on for the general lighting - LEDs have more controlled beams so you might want to make sure you get wide angle ones if you are relying on spillage of the GU10s.
Used a friend with a similar fitting (bathroom and always being left on) as a guinea pig for replacement bulbs. Toolstation's cheapy ones lasted a matter of weeks each. Tesco's own lasted better but not by much. Only ones worth having were Sylvania (also from TS.) They were put in probably a year ago and are still going.
Opinions vary, but for me LEDs have already gotten there.
I bought a cheap & cheerful 4 lamp spot bar for the kitchen from Argos & replaced the supplied 50W halogens with
"Long Life Lamp Company GU10 5 Watt Super Bright LED with New Chip Technology, Warm White 50w replacements"
from Amazon.
Initially, I left one 50W Halogen in place for comparison purposes. The LEDs are a slightly different colour, but it's only really noticeable when you do a side-by-side comparison. Brightness & beams width seemed fine to me & the LEDs are the same physical size as the halogens.
No burn marks & (so far) no lamp failures - but it's only been there for about 4 months.
Are GU10 lights all made in Guildford? grin
Brian
I like those, but we're in the process of trying to find good replacements for the two Ikea fluorescent fittings in the landing with plastic film that's perished in the cover. I saw some in the TLC catalogue that I liked but the Planning Committee objected that they looked like office lights. Then she pointed out the bit of the description that said "ideal for offices, hospitals, ...".
My son has entirely gone over to LEDs - he got fed up with the weekly fails, as his kitchen and lounge had IIRC 6 mains halogens each. So far so good...
Andy
Adam Funk put finger to keyboard:
TBH I wouldn't have them on a landing or in a living room. And insects get in and die so the cover needs removing every quarter or so; how long it's going to last I don't know as it is less than a year old.
My kitchen is lit by seven Philips 33W warm white flourescents (individually switched). I've recently tried replacing one of them with a pair of chinese 7W LEDs in a Y-shaped E27 splitter. I'm sufficiently impressed with the result that I intend shortly to begin replacing the others.
Mine too. I told her about the shadows, but did she listen? She even has trouble with a sat nav as she won't listen or be told.
I have four directed ceiling spots in the back room, used as wall/ceiling washers, initially fitted with PAR30 tungstens but with the intention of LED replacement. I recently got two Chinese-made PAR30 7W dimmable lamps, soak-tested them for a fortnight in two ordinary fittings, while I went and got a suitable dimmer and fitted them a few days ago. The beam is narrower, but not by much and they quite happily live on the dimmer along with the remaining pair of incandescents (noticebly different dimming characteristics, though) and will cheerfully send off for another pair from China, shortly. Big difference in price - 18usd as opposed to twice that, anywhere else, and free shipping.
I had no problems with LED GU10 bulbs while they worked but they were very expensive and lasted no longer than the halogens. CFLs wouldn't fit our fittings so we've gone back to halogens :-(
I'd second that. Shed etc ones seem to only last minutes. Sylvania which I got from TLC have the stated life.
I did find CFLs that fitted our standard mains GU10 downlighters on Amazon. I mixed them with LEDS to get a more balanced light colour. They have been in place for five years with no failure.
Jonathan
They might have been low quality LEDs, or the fitting may be unsuitable (e.g. if enclosed with no ventilation).
I used some of the lower power (7W IIRC) Megamann ones in 5 fittings (open back, well ventilated). They were on most of the time for almost 2 years, and no failures.
CFLs in small reflector lamp format are remarkably inefficient though, probably no better than twice the efficiency of a filament GU10, as a large amount of the light emitted from the tube doesn't make it out the front of the lamp before being absorbed in the folds of the tube or in the reflector. However, a requirement for these were to operate as flood lamps, which the LED ones don't, and the filament ones are not fantasic for, so CFL did work best in this case.
Probably the latter since the bulbs were f**king expensive. About £20 each, IIRC.
I need to replace the whole lot, fittings and all. I'll add this to the list - job number 1,989,232 ;-)
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