5 ms·
In all honesty, good capacitors. Good caps are expensive, and cheap alternatives are plentiful. Nine out of ten off the shelf LED drivers have cheap ass chines
by Itsdijital 7y ago
In all honesty, good capacitors.
Good caps are expensive, and cheap alternatives are plentiful. Nine out of ten off the shelf LED drivers have cheap ass chinese caps in them.
You also need good overall thermal design, which means good heatsinks, which means chunks of metal, which of course are expensive.
It's entirely possible to make a driver that will outlive any LED it powers, it's just that nobody wants to pay for it.
- irq 7y agoI want to pay for it so bad though. I am sick of LED bulbs randomly dying and randomly making noises. Why isn't there a longevity-focused LED bulb brand?
- dreamcompiler 7y agoLongevity is antithetical to every accepted way of doing business nowadays because it doesn't generate a continuous revenue stream. Good luck getting capital to start a business based on products with longevity.
- chrisdhoover 7y agoEvery? There are are buy-it-for-life producers. Examples, Alden shoes, Snap-on wrenches, Fluke meters. With most Toyotas and Hondas you’ll tire of them before they wear out if keep them minimally maintained. Basic kitchen equipment will not fail over several lifetimes. A moderately priced stainless pan will last. Decent knives will eventually wear away from repeated sharpening but I bet if you bought one today it would be in your estate as long as you don't use it for pry bar or a screw driver
- dreamcompiler 7y agoFair point and good examples. But those are all old companies. How many new companies (companies formed in the last 10 years) make long-lived hardware products?
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoAll the brands you just listed are not examples of "buy it for life" engineering. I dunno about the shoes but Snap On isn't really great quality anymore. The Chinese have closed the gap. Fluke, Honda and to a greater extent Toyota are all steadily moving toward more disposable products. The cheap Chinese kitchen stuff you mentioned is actually the most durable item because in order to stand up to occasional abuse without being damaged it needs to be so overbuild that it can last lifetimes. That's simply a function of the design requirements, not any particular manufacturer's attitude though.
- benj111 7y ago"Snap On isn't really great quality anymore. The Chinese have closed the gap" That doesn't mean Snap On isn't 'buy it for life' though. That means the Chinese are too. You raise a good point though. Its very hard to evaluate a product that's supposed to last a life time, until you've had it a lifetime. So the benefits to a manufacturer are slow to accrue, but they're also slow to dispel, so there's massive temptation to cut corners and rely on that reputation, while lowering costs. It'll be interesting to see how the EV market works out. You have a product that could last for life (with battery replacements). I suspect they'll be viewed, by the manufacturer at least, as disposable when the battery goes.
- acct1771 7y agoSnap On IS the Chinese.
- xfitm3 7y agoI really like Philips LED lights, but finding the right combination of a well designed power supply, thermal management, and high CRI is the elusive trifecta. It’s not surprising to give up one.
- stephen_g 7y agoIf you're looking for installed units, I've been really happy with my Brightgreen LED downlights. Of course, I could have literally bought a box of 10 low-quality Chinese import downlights from the local lighting store for the price of two of these, but the high CRI and really high quality driver made it worth it for me. Not sure what availability is like in the US and other countries though.
- Gibbon1 7y agoMy comment is for LED lighting the power supply and the LED's should be separate units.