• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Life of LEDs

Rod

Rod

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The LED down-lighters in our kitchen started failing after about 18months.
They were part of a new kitchen installation and were supplied by the fitter.
When the first one failed I contacted the fitter who told me they were from TLC in Southampton.
I bought a couple at just under £30 each and from the enclosed TLC catalogue read that they were guaranteed for 5yrs.
Ringing TLC they said they needed a receipt which the fitter will not supply as he is now ignoring my email requests!
I've now replaced 6 out of the 8 and am very tempted to use my receipts of the ones I've purchased for the original ones - hoping they are not date/batch recorded.
What's the usual life of these sort of bulbs?

Rod
 
I can't answer the question directly, but three years ago, when fitting my kitchen out, I came across this company.

https://well-lit.co.uk/about/

They talk a lot of sense about quality of components and so I replaced all my GU15s QHs with GU15 Leds. The power saving is significant and the colour rendering is impressive. One bulb started flashing after a few months. It was replaced FOC the next day.
 
And the 7w version have gone down in price since I bought them, and they have added a 9w to the list.
 
it depends on the supplier/ manufacturer.

A lot are over driven to "pretend" they are brighter ..
But LED's don't like that

It's hit or miss from china/hong kong .. but I have some cheap HK LED floods in the workshop that have been going for 5-6 years so far :-)
 
If you want reliability you need to stick to a major established brand. I have 40 x 7W Osram dimmable GU10s in various places indoors and out and no problems at all. They were pretty expensive though at around £10 per lamp!
 
Rod":2t67yi6n said:
These are £23 and guaranteed 5yrs

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/LTFRD12DL.html

Rod
Click to expand...

The brand though is 'LEDlite' which is an own brand label to TLC distributors. No manufacturer info at all so it is something they have bought in that has no market presence already. They may be good products but without a company the size of Osram, Philips,GE, Sylvania etc behind it you just don't know.
 
Sadly the batch numbers of the original ones are different from the new ones so I don't think I can pretend they are the ones I have receipts for.
I'll buy a couple more, then I will have replaced them all and invoke the guarantee when these fail.
At least I've got the paperwork.
I suppose 5yrs is not too bad especially as my wife tends to leave them on all the time when it's dark!

Rod
 
Rod, were the failed lamps generic ie could have been bought from anywhere or are the own-brand TLC? If the latter you might like to contact one of the Directors at TLC who I have found to be very helpful in the past.
 
Yes they are TLC's own.
No problem about the guarantee but they need the paperwork which I haven't got - the fitters won't supply it despite several requests!
I've got receipts for the replacements I've fitted, so if they go again I can action the guarantee.
It's annoying as it seems like I've paid for them twice.

Rod
 
Rod":2hpjplni said:
Yes they are TLC's own.
No problem about the guarantee but they need the paperwork which I haven't got - the fitters won't supply it despite several requests!
I've got receipts for the replacements I've fitted, so if they go again I can action the guarantee.
It's annoying as it seems like I've paid for them twice.

Rod
Click to expand...

That was my point. If you're dealing with customer service then , although they are very good they don't have the authority to go the extra distance. They have their rules that they must follow. There is a link to contact a director and in my experience a well reasoned email usually gets a resolution.
 
I have installed a few of the TLC LEDs for various customers and had no problems with them.

LEDs do not like heat so check that you have not got any stuffing too close when fitted.

I have always found TLC to have very good customer service, they must have come across this situation before. Personally if I had fitted them I would supply receipts but I can understand that some companies would find it too much hassle.

Good luck with Rodger's suggestion.

Kevin
 
I've written to TLC and got an immediate reply to ring their Manager at their Head Office.
Unfortunately I couldn't this afternoon but will try tomorrow.

Rod
 
Managed to make contact and had success - full refund and replacements to be sent out first class post with return packaging for the faulty ones.
Somebody mentioned about overheating - they are sited on the kitchen ceiling with the normal 200/250mm?? gap to floorboards above - no insulation.

Rod
 
Over the past 2 years we have been replacing all our bulbs with LEDs as the current bulbs pop. We have bought all ours from LED-hut when they have offers on. So far none have failed. Just remember that if any of the lights are on dimmer switches you have to buy the correct bulb and will probably have to buy a new dimmer switch that is LED compatible.
 
...and that's why TLC is always my first port of call ...glad you got it sorted. :eusa-clap:
 
I bought some cheapies from various sources and several have failed over the last 5 years, well before the advertised 20k - 30k hours. which if they were used for 8 hrs a day 7 days a week would mean a life in excess of 10 years. I bought some Toshiba 6w GU10 LEDs about 5 years ago, which provide an excellent warm white light, and none have failed.

Warning! I have used an outlet called Yourwelcome in the past and received good service. However, an order placed 6 weeks ago for some more Toshiba's has not been fulfilled, they don't answer emails, and their "contact us" telephone number just has a recorded message to say that "this number does not accept incoming calls"! My credit card provider is investigating and will doubtless reimburse me in due course. ***

*** just checked my account and now done :)
 
3 new bulbs arrived today with a return sticker for the faulty 6 which they will refund, meaning I've been compensated for all 8 LEDs - there's still 2 of the originals to fail.

All in all very impressed with the way they dealt with this issue - well done TLC.

Rod
 
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