Forum Discussion

Almot's avatar
Almot
Explorer III
May 17, 2023

Better/brighter interior bulbs?

Long time ago replaced interior incandescent bulbs with SMD LED boards with 10mm wedge base, ~20W equivalent, ~320 lumens. Was happy, now want something brighter but can't find anything more powerful in this form-factor. Here is a typical offer, scroll down to specs with 24 LED: board 4.4 cm diameter, 370 lumens: 24-5050 SMD

Double pancake dome light would probably accommodate a larger diameter board, but I can't find any. Don't want to overpay for a whole new fixture when just the "bulb" needs replacement. Or should I give up the idea of a wedge base fixed rigidly to the SMD, and look for a rectangular board like 48-5050, with wedge base dangling on the wire. Can such a board be drilled through, to attach it to the dome fixture, did anybody try?

I prefer a board, not a "cob", because a cob would have 30-40% of LED diodes illuminating the ceiling behind them. Any suggestions are welcome.

PS: would be nice to find a source with proven quality. Ebay is huge same as the China itself and full of cr-ap, with some more reliable sellers like the one in the link.
  • profdant139's avatar
    profdant139
    Explorer II
    May 17, 2023
    We've had great luck with m4 -- they are located in the US and they answer questions quickly and correctly. More expensive than "straight outta China," but much more reliable and trustworthy:


    m4 LEDs
  • Almot's avatar
    Almot
    Explorer III
    May 18, 2023
    Thanks, people. m4 LEDs is a nice store, I like how they grouped and specced everything there, no guesswork. Double sided tape should work, yes.

    With trailer being that small and with low ceiling I think I will upgrade different "pancakes" in a different way, in some will put more powerful square SMD boards and some would be nice to replace with flat panels like this one: Dimmable 1800 lumens 12" panel. Dimmable and changeable color temp, imagine that.
  • C_Schomer's avatar
    C_Schomer
    Explorer
    May 20, 2023
    Superbrightled.com is also good. I recently read that 5050 leds are old tech and 2835s are brighter. FWIW, I gutted my 3 ceiling fluorescents and used hi density led tape with a hot-wire dimmer. The tape is, total, 5k lumens and 5k color. There's no shortage of light anymore and my old eyes need the bright white.
    You might need a different fixture to get the lumens you want.
    I also just bought a double sided under counter light, 4500k color and 750 lumen for $12.
    I've had good luck with Amazon but led shopping is very brain damaging and it takes time to cipher different mfgrs. specs! Craig
  • Almot's avatar
    Almot
    Explorer III
    May 20, 2023
    C Schomer, LED shopping is VERY time consuming. Most sellers don't bother with full specs, some quote watts or a number of diodes instead of lumens. Some LED come in different wattage like 2835. It can be either brighter than 5050 or dimmer, depending on wattage.

    Incidentally I am looking for a complete under-cabinet fixture too, ~1000-1200 lumens spread over 2-3 ft length, preferably with matte lens to avoid casting shadows in pots and pans. With a switch on the fixture so that I won't have to look for a remote. My current light is 700 lumens double dome, I could add another dome but this is inconvenient, 2 switches. Amazon has interconnecting 300 lumens 1ft panels but interconnects are cables, not rigid end-to-end connectors, and switch is in-line on cable. Can you give a link to your under counter light?
  • C_Schomer's avatar
    C_Schomer
    Explorer
    May 28, 2023
    Yeah, I was also looking for a 5k temp, 3 foot LED under counter fixture but they are very rare so I ended up with the double sided 5k/750 lm fixture. My range hood is nothing but a head basher and I have a max fan right above the stove that works 100 times better than the range fan ever thought about so I’m removing the hood and putting in a light instead. I wanted a long light bar to span the hood and the adjacent single light, but I will just put up with two switches. Craig.
  • Almot's avatar
    Almot
    Explorer III
    May 28, 2023
    C Schomer, I hear you about head basher hood.

    For under cabinet (not under counter) I found 20" bar 20"x1.5" 8W, "should be" ~1,000 lumens, now need to choose btw this or this 20"x6.5" 1400 lumens. The latter is much pricier but also much wider, good to illuminate the counter from low height.

    Edit: corrected typo - it's 8W LED bar, not 8A of course.
  • StirCrazy's avatar
    StirCrazy
    Moderator
    May 29, 2023
    in my camper, I got rid of the old 1991 brake light fixtures and installed these nice color temp and 0.3 amps per working side. so, the doubles you could be pulling 0.6watts if both sides are on. The old fixtures with big bulbs would pull 1.5 amps and while the color temperature was close they were half as bright.
  • jodeb720's avatar
    jodeb720
    Explorer
    Jun 03, 2023
    I purchased these back in 2021.
    I had replaced my OEM incandescent bulbs that came with the 5er - in 2010 and it was a huge upgrade; However, they weren't very bright.

    I did some research and ended up with the ones linked below. They are much brighter (Lumen output) don't put out much heat and have held up well for the last couple of years (no failures at all - running on Generator as well as battery).

    Because my original replacement LED's were double sided taped into the fixture, I left the old ones in the fixtures and put the new ones in. Last month I was was cleaning out the gnats from the light fixtures and connected the one of the old bulbs and the new one and the output of the Lumens was staggering. I've forgotten just how much brighter the new ones are compared to the old ones.

    Oh, one more thing. The ones I picked were more yellow than blue in color blue (warm white). When I clicked on the original link, I needed to select Warm White - or you'll get the 6000k ones.



    Amazon-LED-Light

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