Hate these things hope it will be replaced with something nicer?

Suppose it’s done well for a cheapy unit. Half of the time on these, the earth conductor isn’t connected inside the fitting! Most of the ones I’ve seen fail tend to revert to disco mode.

All I know is it was on when I went to bed, and not when I woke up, so could have been in disco mode for a while in between. I've replaced it with another 10w LED, a higher quality one but still Chinese so who knows how long it'll last. It's also a horrible colour of about 5000k, the old one was warm white. I might swap the COBs over as they're both 10 chips in series type that run on about 30vdc

The ones that go to "disco mode" do that either as the driver supply voltage (12V derived from the primary side) drops out, or as protection tripping over output voltage out of range. Both could be result of the COB itself burning out, not anything in the driver. The ones that go to dim mode gotta have a driver of a different design

As for the light, its got nothing to do with the K temp. You could use a Fluorescent or Mercury lamp with same temp and it wouldn't look anything bad

Not entirely accurate, most LED floodlights with the typical LED COB in operate at around 30v (10 LEDs in series & about 3v per LED) at a constant current. Flashing can be the COB, but is usually the driver. Failed caps or diodes is a common one. And yes the same colour temperature in a different light source may appear slightly better, but it's still a cold colour which personally I don't like. I much prefer warmer whites typically 2700k - 3500k

The drivers are controlled by a switchmode power supply control chip on the primary side. This chip gets its own supply (typically 12..15V) for first start through a voltage divider, and after the driver started running, from a secondary winding on the transformer (not the secondary that powers the LED, but another one). The transformer throughput is controlled by feedback from the "real" secondary (a current sensing circuit), the chip supply secondary gets what it gets (it is designed so, within the expected range of loads, it will charge the capacitor faster than the chip drains it, so keep it charged up. The excess is bled by a Zener diode)

If the load on the driver output is low (and for a constant current driver this means, low voltage drop), the power going through is regulated accordingly. When the load is too low (out of spec), a point is reached when the secondary for powering the chip can't maintained the capacitor charged either. At this point it will shut down, and only the initial-startup voltage divider remains to charge up the capacitor. This takes about one second or less

When this happens every time, there is the disco....

The reason why the load voltage gets suddenly low, is as diodes on the COB are shorting out, its forward voltage falls. For example, take one die with 10Sx5P diodes. One shorted. Immediately virtually all the current for the entire COB will go through that row of 10 diodes, and more of them will start shorting. After only a few working diodes remained, the voltage is low enough for the driver to start the disco. As it does, the COB does only get power intermittently, so it heats much less, so further degradation freezes

If 10 watts of LED was ample light for this area, would it not have been better to use a normal outdoor wall lantern with a 10watt A60 in?, or did you want a flood for a specific reason?

It's lighting up quite a large area so need the large flood of light, hence why it's mounted high up too (the window there is upstairs)

Stick a nice SON flood up there

50w MBF flood

11W PL-S flood

Someone should make an LED outdoor lantern that houses GU10s, (but not like the tube type ones that have one at the top and bottom), like you see used on nearly all pubs and restaurants around here! , I mean a more street lantern type, where you can change the lamps!

50w mbf would be good but I just can't justify the running costs & I prefer a yellow, warmer light. Not sure 11w pl-s would be bright enough, the previous fixture here had a 20w CFL in it that was just about right and provided similar levels of illumination to the 10w flood. I'll probably change the COB in the current flood for a warm white and see how it goes.

Get a floodlight and 18w SOX it

Get one of those fluorescent sign lights that take either 2 or 4 9w PL lamps. Can stick warm white in it then. I have to admit tho, I like the idea of 18w SOX!

Got 18w SOX on a part night cell on the side of the house! What running costs?