One of our LED bulbs in bathroom ceiling went, bit annoying after less than 18m use.
Anyhoo, needed a replacement GU5.3, 4000k, spot, not spread, non dimmable.
Had a look on Amazon, lots of variations, only a couple to match but with iffy reviews. Screwfix? Nope.
Checked B&Q online and we have a match. Brought them home but it just flashes on and off.
Checked online for any chat about this sort of thing and most of it seems to relate to replacing Halogen with LED or using non-dimmable bulbs with a dimmer switch. Neither of which apply in this case.
Went to QD and tried one of theirs and it works fine, albeit 3000k and is wide angle, not spot, so not what I want but will do for now.
So I need to hunt down what I do want, as at top of post, which is what I thought I was getting from B&Q. Can anyone tell me what I’m missing/looking for here, as clearly there’s some kind of compatability issue I’m unaware of it seems!
So this is 12 v bulb? There will be a transformer (actually an SMPS probably) somewhere in the ceiling and my bet is that it’s faulty.
If it were me then I would replace the transformer and the bulb with a GU10 bulb which has 240v input. You can buy sealed units for not much more money and they fit in the same size hole. I have used the brand LAP which you get from Screwfix and they seem fine.
Actually have kind of solved my problem here. I figured to replace like with like, however I couldn’t read the makers name printed on original bulb. By process of elimination, narrowed it down to ‘Crompton’. Tracked them down on t’net and have ordered a couple…
Still, would like to know cause of incompatability with B&Q…?
It might be a clue, but there are numerous companies making LED bulbs and some of the physical differences are just decoration basically.
Apart from LAP which worked well for me when I changed all my daughter’s halogen 12v to 240 v LEDs, enabling me to take out lots of transformers, some of which looked like they had almost caught fire, overheated certainly, I have also found Philips bulbs to be good.
But basically if you aren’t dimming then they should all work initially at least and that’s why I’m suspicious of your transformer. It will be interesting to see whether your new Crompton bulbs are ok.
You could of course swap a couple of your bathroom bulbs around and see whether the fault travels with the bulb.
