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AJB's avatar
AJB
Explorer
Aug 04, 2013

how long should halogen bulbs last?

I have a 2014 Thor Challenger about 3 months old and have already had 5 bulbs burn out. I'm thinking they should last longer than that. Was planning on changing to LED's but figured I had some time before I had to worry about that, I guess I was wrong.

6 Replies

  • mlts22 wrote:
    Looks like you have a good excuse to change to LED bulbs now. If you boondock, the fact that LEDs take a fraction of electricity than other bulbs will be a nice thing.

    And thus the heat output of the LEDs is much less!
  • I had to replace at least six bulbs in my rig after a year. I guess the installer just shoved the bulbs in there with oily fingers and that's what caused them to burn out.

    My converter died after just under two years so it's possible I was getting high voltage for a while.
  • I always handle them with a Kleenex or paper towel so my fingers don't touch them. This also includes halogen headlight bulbs. There should be a warning about touching them with bare hands somewhere in the packaging. As mentioned if you do touch them clean with denatured alcohol.
  • Looks like you have a good excuse to change to LED bulbs now. If you boondock, the fact that LEDs take a fraction of electricity than other bulbs will be a nice thing.
  • It COULD also be the way they're being installed. Halogen builbs don't like oil from your fingers. Clean them with alcohol after installing them and see if their life span doesn't improve.
  • Hi,

    Check the voltage from the converter. It sounds as if it may be too high. The other culprit is lack of air circulation. I'd dump the halogen's right away for LED's. Make sure to get led's that are voltage tolerant up to 30 volts.