I had two LED bulbs (same fixture) “burn out” tonight. I use quotes because they didn’t exactly burn out; they just became very dim. I was worried it was an electrical wiring issue* but their replacements shone normally. I shrugged and threw the two “bad bulbs”** into the trash.
In the creepy way that is the modern internet, I immediately was offered a video in my YouTube feed about… salvaging parts from LED lightbulbs! I’m not going to use this guy’s methods, but his goal appealed to my nascent hoarder trait.
I was having trouble getting the bulb apart, so I did some YouTube searching and found this guy:
I’m not a big fan of this guy’s janky repairs, but his main assertion intrigues me. He claims that LED bulbs have been DESIGNED to burn out, to prevent them from lasting nearly forever.
I’ve known that LED lights aren’t as durable as they should be… Under normal operating conditions LEDs simply don’t burn out. However, I’ve always heard that LED bulbs breaking was due to using cheaper materials; supposedly, Americans would rather pay $8 every 4 years for a bulb instead of $18 once…
However, this guy makes a pretty good argument that they are being purposefully designed to run hotter than their specifications, by poor heat management and/or setting the operating current too high.
I’ve retrieved the two bulbs from the trashcan. I’m going to disassemble them and take a closer look at them. FOR SCIENCE!
* I actually still haven’t ruled out wiring completely. One bulb blowing out, chance. But two bulbs on the same circuit? hmmmm…
** o/” Bad bulbs, bad bulbs, whatcha gonna do? Watcha gonna do when they come for you!
***Christmas tree lights are the exception that proves the rule. They often fail after a couple of years, but that is due to the cheap connecting wires breaking inside the insulation, not because the LEDs broke somehow…
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