LEDs

[JDB3]

A friend of mine is changing his incandescent bulbs to LED (bought at Walmart) . He said that they flicker and/or go off. If he puts in an incandescent bulb, they work fine.
He lives about a 3 hour drive from me. Is it the nature of the bulbs that he purchased a Walmart? He said that no dimmers are installed & this is happening at different locations through-out his double wide mobile home. Help will be appreciated !

 

[synchro]

The bottom of LED bulbs is often wider above the threaded base contact than on standard incandescent bulbs to accommodate the LED driver circuitry. Sometimes this can prevent the center contact at the bottom of the bulb from making a good connection. Typically the center metal tab in the bottom of the socket can be bent up a little bit to make a better contact with the bulb. It may be something else, but something simple like this is worth trying first.

 

[Little Bill]

You need to buy name brand/quality LED bulbs such as Cree, Sylvania, GE, etc. They are all made in China, but some are of drastically lower quality. Also could be as mentioned above with lack of good contact area.

 

[paulengr]

You need to buy name brand/quality LED bulbs such as Cree, Sylvania, GE, etc. They are all made in China, but some are of drastically lower quality. Also could be as mentioned above with lack of good contact area.

Uhh false.

I can confirm Cree makes their LEDs in Durham, NC. They are a customer. Been inside their plant. Not sure where the others are. GE contracts everything out so I highly doubt they make anything.

 

[hbiss]

I briefly talked about this in another thread. Same problem with outdoor fixtures. I expect that the lampholders had some oxidation affecting the shell and center contact so I cleaned them and bent the center contact down to apply more pressure to the lamp. Still no good. As I turn the bulb and wiggle it, it flickers and dims. I can find a "sweet spot" though usually.

The other day I replaced the bulb with an LED for a porch light with the same problem. This time I took my knife and scraped the center contact of the bulb until it was rough. That helped. Seems those idiots plate the base threads and center contact with what looks like chrome. Maybe I'll try sandpaper and a file on the threads next time.

Lamps were made by Feit.

-Hal