3 ms·

LED lights are quite reliable, it's their power supplies which die many times quicker than LEDs themselves.

_Microft 6y ago
From my experience this is not quite correct. About half of them seem to die because of the power supply and the other half because of problems with the LEDs themselves. This surprised me a lot because it seems to mean that the lifetime of both the transformer and the LEDs is pretty similar. The failure of the LED element itself (in the model that I put under a microscope) was an internal wire burning through. The LED elements actually contained two LEDs in series connected by a tiny wire. I assembled a working LED bulb from two broken ones that had failed in different ways. Not that I would ever dare to use such a thing in normal operations.
- baybal2 6y ago
  That's definitely not normal. Normally, the current needed to fry the lead will be many times the current needed for the diode junction to short.
  - _Microft 6y ago
    I guess I didn’t explain well enough: it aren’t ‚huge‘ external leads (if you meant these) that fry but a minuscule wire internal to the SMD LED element that houses two junctions in series, connected by said wire. Here is a bad picture of an undamaged wire, diagonally at the center. The image shows approximately 1.5x1.5mm. https://i.imgur.com/4olUBvd.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4olUBvd.jpg
    - baybal2 6y ago
      Uh! So tiny! Effectively, they ship an LED with a free fuse! Buyers can be sure they will never burn the junction.
oasisbob 6y ago
Same with old incandescent lamps. The glass bulb is quite reliable, it's often the filament that dies many times quicker. (I'm confused why so many people feel the need to differentiate the reliability of the power supply from the LED chip in this context.)
- yarcob 6y ago
  Because it means that if you buy a fixture with built-in LEDs and a more reliable power supply it'll be a very reliable light. The problem is that trying to cram a tiny power supply and a hot LED chip into a small bulb without a good heat sink is inherently unreliable. Especially if you put that bulb into a completely enclosed light.
  - llampx 6y ago
    Is there no market for a properly-engineered solution that takes into account heat and power fluctuations?
Yaggo 6y ago
Light emitting diode as a fundamental technology is reliable and has very long lifespan, if the application is designed and implemented correctly, including thermal management and power supply. Unfortunately many consumer LED bulbs are cheap shit, but you can't blame the LED technology itself for that, it's the usual story with economics/marketing etc.

From my experience this is not quite correct. About half of them seem to die because of the power supply and the other half because of problems with the LEDs themselves. This surprised me a lot because it seems to mean that the lifetime of both the transformer and the LEDs is pretty similar. The failure of the LED element itself (in the model that I put under a microscope) was an internal wire burning through. The LED elements actually contained two LEDs in series connected by a tiny wire. I assembled a working LED bulb from two broken ones that had failed in different ways. Not that I would ever dare to use such a thing in normal operations.

baybal2 6y ago
That's definitely not normal. Normally, the current needed to fry the lead will be many times the current needed for the diode junction to short.
- _Microft 6y ago
  I guess I didn’t explain well enough: it aren’t ‚huge‘ external leads (if you meant these) that fry but a minuscule wire internal to the SMD LED element that houses two junctions in series, connected by said wire. Here is a bad picture of an undamaged wire, diagonally at the center. The image shows approximately 1.5x1.5mm. https://i.imgur.com/4olUBvd.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4olUBvd.jpg
  - baybal2 6y ago
    Uh! So tiny! Effectively, they ship an LED with a free fuse! Buyers can be sure they will never burn the junction.

oasisbob 6y ago

Same with old incandescent lamps. The glass bulb is quite reliable, it's often the filament that dies many times quicker. (I'm confused why so many people feel the need to differentiate the reliability of the power supply from the LED chip in this context.)

yarcob 6y ago
Because it means that if you buy a fixture with built-in LEDs and a more reliable power supply it'll be a very reliable light. The problem is that trying to cram a tiny power supply and a hot LED chip into a small bulb without a good heat sink is inherently unreliable. Especially if you put that bulb into a completely enclosed light.
- llampx 6y ago
  Is there no market for a properly-engineered solution that takes into account heat and power fluctuations?

Yaggo 6y ago

Light emitting diode as a fundamental technology is reliable and has very long lifespan, if the application is designed and implemented correctly, including thermal management and power supply. Unfortunately many consumer LED bulbs are cheap shit, but you can't blame the LED technology itself for that, it's the usual story with economics/marketing etc.