I’ve used mostly Philips LED bulbs for well over a decade, started with some of the heavy 100W equivalent Master LED ones, then cheaper/lighter ones, Hue bulbs, GU10s and more recently some of the clear ones with ‘filaments’.
A couple of the GU10s are starting to flicker after around 10 years which is a shame as matching ones are unavailable (over 30 in use) in kitchen/open plan area.
The newer ‘filament’ bulbs are starting to flicker/fail quite early after around 12-18 months - has the quality gone down or is the design inherently less reliable for the sake of them looking a bit more decorative?
Plenty of cheap unfamiliar brands on Amazon and so forth.
Which brands are you finding most reliable in recent years?
Yes, I don’t recall any of our Hue bulbs failing. They’re mostly 60W equivalents, must check if they do brighter ones which would be better in some areas.
Got a couple of Wickes branded standard ones the other day as an elderly relative needed new kitchen bulbs - reasonably priced and nice and bright.
I have the same question.
I have most of the house with various LED types, but I’m still on halogen dimmable G9 in hall & stairs. Problem is the halogens are so much smaller/shorter than any LED that I can find and will stick up over the top of my lamp fittings.
I’ll have to live with that, so what’s the best & most reliable.
@Mike-B
Hi
I’ve been using corn bulb led for quite a while.
Warm white.
Actual rating 8W for nice old “big light “ equivalent and for small lamps 4W actual rating.
They run very cool too.
These are about eight years old.
360 light not 180 upwards
Thanks, I’ve not heard of ‘corn’ lamps, need to investigate.
Ahhh www search indicates the “corn” design is not a brand as such but are the designs used by many brands with numbers of small SMD LEDs on a cylinder.
Generally not more or less reliable than other LED types, depends on individual designs heat dissipation.
Much better light dissipation though.
I’ve had these all over my house and where it used to be 100 watts it’s now 8 watts
And where it was 60 watts it’s now 4 watts.
I’ve had them for years and must have saved a fortune and no baked light fittings or heat to worry about.
Nothing lasts forever.
I’ve used leds for all my lighting for many years. It took quite a while to realise that every bulb that went, was Philips. I must have bought them thinking it was a good reliable well-known make, but they’re rubbish. All my other makes like Crompton and the Chinese ones from Amazon don’t fail. They’ve lasted for years and that includes the outsides ones that get all the weather thrown at them. I buy Chinese Amazon stuff now and they’re fine. You just have to accept some of these light bulbs won’t give the claimed lumens.
Corn bulbs have their place. Bear in mind they don’t throw a lot of light out from the end. Also, due to the number of small leds, they do tend to be quite poweful which can lead to a fair amount of heat. This heat can cause stress to the driver and fail.
I tend to use filament type LEDs as they make good replacements for old fashioned light bulbs, and we have a lot of old light fittings.
The vast majority of LEDs (and all CFLs) pump out high levels of electrical noise, especially if they are dimmable or have smart controls etc. so I avoid those, and we don’t really need the fancy features. I mostly use filament LEDs from Sylvania as I found these to be electrically silent and I’ve had hardly any failures.
Hi
Get yer wallet out even if they last as long as an ordinary bulb they cost peanuts to run.
oh remember not all corn bulbs are dimmable.
I don’t have any dimmers.
CHEERBEE 5 Pack 3W LED 325 G9 Lumen Bulbs, Warm White
Super cheap on the bay.
I’m well ahead of ‘whats what’ with LED, I have a houseful.
Dimmable LED’s need the correct dimmer switch (all mine are MK programmable)
I’m replacing 18x G9 bulbs and looking at the www marketplace it raised my question …. whats the most reliable brand, the www vendors are a mind boggling list of brands I’ve never heard of and I really don’t want to start replacing duds anytime soon after the change.
But you did ask the question and didn’t know about corn bulbs.
Only trying to help.
I seen these.
Cheerbee LED bulbs, particularly the G9 dimmable capsule series, are widely used as energy-efficient replacements for 28W–40W halogen bulbs. While many users report excellent brightness and cost savings, some have experienced flickering issues if the dimmer switch is incompatible.
Key Performance Insights
Energy Efficiency: These 3W bulbs consume significantly less power (roughly 10% of a standard halogen) while providing a similar 325LM output.
Dimming Functionality: While marketed as dimmable (0–100%), mixed reviews indicate that performance depends heavily on your specific dimmer switch.
Common Troubleshooting: If you experience flickering, it is often due to an incompatible dimmer; the manufacturer recommends using a trailing edge dimmer for the best results.
Build Quality: They feature a ceramic base designed for better heat dissipation and a stated lifespan of up to 30,000 hours
We have a lot of Tapo Smart Bulbs which are also LED technology. Not changed one in 5 years and some are in lanterns outside. All can be controlled from anywhere by an app. The brightness can be controlled and they can be set to come on and off automatically, including at sunset, which changes automatically via the internet. They’re cheap on Amazon.
I could say the same but they’re all I’ve used to be honest having bought many over the years with several spares. I actually bought 40+ GU10 LED bulbs when we staying elsewhere as there were several dozen 50W halogen rated bulbs which cost a fortune to have on. Those and the Hue bulbs have been fairly reliable, it’s the recently purchased filament style which seem to flicker or fail as well as some of the heavy Philips Master LEDs which got incredibly hot but they are much older so that’s not too surprising..
Cheers - I’ve avoided Tapo stuff simply because I have some TPLink Kasa products and didn’t want to run 2 apps to control things, but probably not a real issue.
I bought a few different filament LEDs a few years ago, mainly in an effort to rid the house of the remaining CFLs we still had. I did the SW radio test on them (as suggested by @Simon-in-Suffolk ) and the Sylvanias were more or less the only ones that didn’t sound like a hornet’s nest. I think I’ve only had to replace two of them, both of which were in the kitchen where the humidity from cooking has likely affected them.
