Hi @plonkster, 

Taking the photo direct in front of the 10w LED light, that is as bright as it can be, and it flickers.

Is this the same problem you had?

 

Yup. LED chip fails.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

i bought a batch of 10w led's of which 50% failed within the first few days with the same issue, once again depends on the Chinese quality

This light of mine lasted a few years, paid wot, R85.00 for it.

I lean now towards pointing in a very vague direction at someone who must have jinxed my light, for I never knew they had chips that failed until someone brought it up here on the forum, and now my light failed for the same reason. 

lol. I bought 6 x 10W flood lamps from a supplier called Afrison, three years ago. Of the six, only one remains operational. Four of them died somewhere between 18 months and two years, with the last one failing about a month ago. I repaired one of them by replacing the LED chip. It failed within hours. The LED survived this time, so I assume the SMPS died this time.

So really there's two ways to go with this. Get a lamp that is really cheap, so it pays for itself by the time it dies (these Afrison ones qualify), or buy an expensive lamp that's (hopefully) not going to die.

7 hours ago, plonkster said:

So really there's two ways to go with this. Get a lamp that is really cheap, so it pays for itself by the time it dies (these Afrison ones qualify), or buy an expensive lamp that's (hopefully) not going to die.

This sums up just about everything these days, either get china made cheapies or quality at a premium. my stance on this is if you use it a lot and rely on it go big, else go china.

9 hours ago, Weasel said:

... quality at a premium.

I am finding more and more quality items, after having paid a premium for them, that the quality is not worth the premium.

Two examples:
LED lights. I have had premium ones, then I went for the not so premium ones and then the blatantly cheap ones. You can strike a luck with the dirty cheap ones better quality then the premium ones, and lasting longer.
Cellphones ... they used to last years, today they tend to last the length of the contract, give or a take a few months ... and they are not cheap.

3 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

I am finding more and more quality items, after having paid a premium for them, that the quality is not worth the premium.

Two examples:
LED lights. I have had premium ones, then I went for the not so premium ones and then the blatantly cheap ones. You can strike a luck with the dirty cheap ones better quality then the premium ones, and lasting longer.
Cellphones ... they used to last years, today they tend to last the length of the contract, give or a take a few months ... and they are not cheap.

I've had a lot of luck with cell phones. My first Samsung Galaxy S (what people now call the S1) died a month or two after contract expiry. I have this thing where I go slightly over the end of the contract because there are no phones that I like for prices that I like. That phone died because the internal flash went bad. Because Android is just Linux, what should have been /dev/mmcblk1 (the external flash) became /dev/mmcblk0 (the internal flash). Now you can actually get it to work, by flashing the OS onto that, but then the camera breaks (because the Camera wants to use external flash). So that phone... barely lasted longer than the contract, and it was actual hardware failure.

So far, that has been the only one. After that I got a Sony Xperia. Used it for three years, rooted it towards the end of that, it's still kicking. Now I have a 3-year old Galaxy S4 mini, also still kicking... running Cyanogenmod of course.

We also have an old HTC Hero, also still working well. We have a Galaxy S2 Note, also working perfectly fine despite its age. I'd say that I've had better experience with cell phones than LED lights... :-)

Samsungs in our household ... max 2.2-2.5 years at BEST, every single one of them, aFTER batteries where replaced in all of them. They just stop working properly.

Versus my Nokia's having lasted me on average 4-5 years before I replace them just because. Then M$ bought Nokia (and are now selling Nokia again) which made the prices stupid for me.

So my latest Chinese no-name (branded as Pinnacle) ... it works. I can phone, SMS, browse the www if I have to (for I hate phones and www), get directions in Afrikaans and Whatsup via the phone, using my Pc, and I can get emails on the phone, all for R799 once off. So I am not too unhappy at present. 

37 minutes ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Samsungs in our household ... max 2.2-2.5 years at BEST, every single one of them, aFTER batteries where replaced in all of them. They just stop working properly.

Just the other day one of my kids made a comment about everything in our house being Samsung and then I thought about it... 4 x air-cons, 3 x tablets, 2 x phones, 4 x flat panel TVs, 1 x DVD player, 2 x computer monitors, 1 x washing machine - all Samsung.  

Must say I've had better luck than you with my phone; S3 mini more than 3 years old, still on its original battery, still lasting for about 5 days on a charge - touch wood.

My house is pretty much becoming a Bosch/Samsung split. Samsung phones, microwave, television, DVD player, PC monitors, and the wife's work laptop is a Samsung too. Bosch washing machine, dish washer, stove, fridge.

Our house has a more diverse product range, General Motors (very old) and Ardo fridge, bosch washing machine, AEG dishwasher, Smeg stove, Dell PC Screen, Panasonic projector, Samsung & iPhone.  

I love this. 

Must say we don't only have Samsung appliances as the little one said, but most of them are...

AEG electric hob & oven, Defy gas hob, AEG dishwasher, Bosch refrigerator, Defy chest freezer etc. etc. etc.  

Guys, it is time to update your signatures.