3 ms·

There's two main failure modes: thermal and interference. Thermal should be obvious. The components in the bulb's internal power supply can only withstand so

There's two main failure modes: thermal and interference. Thermal should be obvious. The components in the bulb's internal power supply can only withstand so much heat. Interference is harder to track down. Old dimmers designed for incandescent bulbs will destroy LEDs very quickly. Since the problem seems so endemic, I suspect you have a more serious issue with your electrical service. Your AC voltage may be too high or low, or there's some equipment nearby or in your house that's putting a bunch of noise into the AC lines. Likely causes are old, improperly filtered inductive loads. That'd be anything with a big motor in it: washer, dryer, fridge, HVAC, pumps and fans. If you have any old dimmers anywhere in your house, remove them. You can also call your electric utility to see if they can send someone to check it out. They're usually pretty serious about interference like this because it can spread.

marcosdumay 3y ago
Hum... AFAIK, if the LEDs are controlled by a resistive load, any harmful interference should be easy to remove by just adding a varistor between its pins. (Those "filters" for electrical outlets usually have exactly that.) If the LEDs have a switching power supply, they should survive basically any high-frequency noise, and any overvoltage that is small enough to pass unnoticed. Leaving only small average voltages to deal with (like from dimmers). Those should be detectable with a multimeter.
- Syonyk 3y ago
  They're a switching power supply. But you're making a mistake. You're confusing "should, in a competently designed power supply," with "does, in something trimmed to the absolute lowest cost that will mostly make it through warranty on a product in which nobody keeps the receipts and such around to make the warranty claim."
  - marcosdumay 3y ago
    Well, ok, if you insist on iterating on the design until you take the last tenth of a cent from the marginal cost, you'll get something that can't handle transients or small excess voltage. But iterating on the design is expensive too. And that optimization is well within the region where your suppliers will often cheat(?) and add all that quality back without telling you just because some of their customers demand it and it's cheaper to give you high-quality products than to retool their factories. Or, in other words, it's quite possible that you have a bulb here or there fail due to those. But you won't get consistent failure with several brands.
    - ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
      When you make ten million bulbs, saving ten cents on each one puts a million dollars into your pocket. Shaving just one cent off each bulb is still a cool hundred grand.

marcosdumay 3y ago

Hum... AFAIK, if the LEDs are controlled by a resistive load, any harmful interference should be easy to remove by just adding a varistor between its pins. (Those "filters" for electrical outlets usually have exactly that.) If the LEDs have a switching power supply, they should survive basically any high-frequency noise, and any overvoltage that is small enough to pass unnoticed. Leaving only small average voltages to deal with (like from dimmers). Those should be detectable with a multimeter.

Syonyk 3y ago
They're a switching power supply. But you're making a mistake. You're confusing "should, in a competently designed power supply," with "does, in something trimmed to the absolute lowest cost that will mostly make it through warranty on a product in which nobody keeps the receipts and such around to make the warranty claim."
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  Well, ok, if you insist on iterating on the design until you take the last tenth of a cent from the marginal cost, you'll get something that can't handle transients or small excess voltage. But iterating on the design is expensive too. And that optimization is well within the region where your suppliers will often cheat(?) and add all that quality back without telling you just because some of their customers demand it and it's cheaper to give you high-quality products than to retool their factories. Or, in other words, it's quite possible that you have a bulb here or there fail due to those. But you won't get consistent failure with several brands.
  - ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
    When you make ten million bulbs, saving ten cents on each one puts a million dollars into your pocket. Shaving just one cent off each bulb is still a cool hundred grand.