Failed LEDVANCE Floodlights

[Oliver]

High failure rate of LEDVANCE floodlights. Quite an interesting watch.

https://youtu.be/vfxRkSojRng?si=XtVwEHyTfDrlQE69&t=1233

[FrontSideBus]

Ironically, I've had no issues with the old one that had been up for years.
Its the new one that I had trouble with!
https://youtu.be/qXZjmN-FT7Y?si=RfHnyW2n7fzVtv7e

[Slyspark]

Was always Luceco ones I've had issues with - those are crap. They ALL fail literally days out of warranty.

[Kev]

Yeh I have binned off a load of the larger osram LED floods. I have some to replace on one of my schools soon.

[Alex]

The problem is that these are engineered down to a price. The circuit is simple: an array of LEDs, a linear regulator, and, if you're lucky, a bit of capacitance for smoothing. The issue is that there are shortcuts everywhere. The heat-conductive grease is the cheapest and applied sparingly. Aluminum is a good heat conductor but also expensive. Therefore, the housing is kept small, reducing the amount of heat that can be dissipated. There is virtually no heat reduction through the glass compared to the back. The back is often cramped against walls where air cannot circulate freely, reducing cooling efficiency.

Then there’s the entire water-related problem. Fitting an internal junction box like with old halogen lights is too expensive. Since short cables are used—sometimes copper or aluminum-coated copper—the design isn't really waterproof, but silicone helps. The glass is siliconed in. The problem with this approach is that if water somehow gets in, it can't escape and will cause moisture to damage the electronics. With old halogen lamps, they didn't care much about humidity; if water came into contact with the lamp, it would shatter and could be replaced.

[Kev]

Meanwhile I still have GRP SONPAKS out there in nightly service