Advice on quality of LED's on different websites

[KATOOM]

I'm getting some LED's for my TH (types 921-912 - one amber colored, 2099, 211-2 for the fridge, and maybe some strips to replace the larger florescent bulbs). After checking around on the internet the prices seem to range from a wide range of costs from super expensive to fairly cheap. Is there some brands I should stray from and some I should consider or are they all basically the same? I'm looking at ordering from Amazon simply because I like their service and reliability.....rather than dealing with some unknown Chinese website. Any advice or opinions?

[JiminDenver]

The LEDs wont damage anything. The converter charging at higher voltages may damage unregulated LEDs or so some have claimed. Many do not have that issue and the difference in cost can be ten fold.



There are a few threads that will help and in them you will find links to sellers that multiple people have used successful. You will also get the basic info needed to understand what you are looking for. LEDs come in every size, brightness and color so a bit of reading will make it easier.

this is my thread from when I converted with images and links from where others have gotten what works for them. my thread

This is a larger, more complete thread My LEDs

For us the difference in comfort and power usage is big. Before the LEDs we would barely use the lights and only where we needed. Now we light up the whole trailer with the four double fixtures on the ceiling with less power used than one incandescent bulb. They go on at dusk and off at midnight or so. In between we turn on and off the rest of the lights as needed and if I happen to leave the big porch light on overnight, it wont drain the battery.

You mentioned solar and extra battery and I have those too. Most of the time we don't need to conserve at all and that would be true even without LEDs. They sure did make a difference when the clouds came on a cold weekend and we needed the furnace day and night. We didn't need the generator but had we been using incandescent bulbs we would have.

[KATOOM]

Huntindog wrote:

KATOOM wrote:
Well sad to say.....and nothing against everyones fantastic help here either since I'm very grateful for your help.....but I'm once again scared away by the unknowns. :? I was under the impression that LED bulbs were going to be plug and play but if there's truly converter issues, attention to regulated verses non-regulated, and other potential concerns I'll need to watch out for then I'm thinking I'll just invest my time and money into batteries and solar and use less lights at night. Yes, the added efficiency of LED's is attractive but not at the cost of damaging something and still not justifiable to me to spend hundreds of dollars for that gain. A couple quality batteries and 200 watts of solar will probably be all I need for a week or boondocking.

As has been mentioned... There is no conclusive proof of the problems you cite... Many of these may have their roots in people who spent the BIG bucks on LEDs, and now want to diss the cheaper ones... This happens here all the time on various subjects.. Now since I boondock a LOT in very REMOTE locations, and I enjoy a project that solves a potential problem (as long as the cost is reasonable) I chose to install voltage regulators in my LED circuits... Failures in the boondocks for me need to be kept to a minimum as there is no RV store around the corner.
But keep in mind that many here not using regulators report no problems.
I suggest that you buy ONE LED panel and install it. See what happens. Carry your old bulb with you for backup, if it fails. I would very much like to see your results. It won't cost hardly anything, and then you will KNOW for certain. You may well find that you end up buying a lot more LEDs.

I appreciate the encouragement. Maybe I'll keep LED's as an option. As you put it too.....as long as the cost is reasonable.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

pugslyyy wrote:

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
"So Solly. Transportation disrupted. Promise to have item to you 20 January. Here is 20% discount offer to you."

A person reported he paid for a 5,000 watt inverter. They sent him a 220 volt 50 hz inverter instead of a 120 vac 60 hz. Three hundred dollars to ship back to ahsoland.

All these products come from 'ahsoland', but it sounds like you are better suited to buy at 400% markup from a US distributor.

I've had very good luck with dhgate and alibaba. You have to be patient on the shipping, but it is a huge savings over US retail.

with respect, I'm not sure I believe either of these two anecdotes you shared with us so generously.

With all due respect, questioning my honesty is just a tad foolish. I do not tell whoppers. Wanna see a cut n paste email from light in the box? Read below...

Dear Customer,

We appreciate your kindly understanding and patience. Please be advised that you can use the coupon as a discount for your next order.

Here is the $10 coupon code: 44601691c5

Please find the Coupon Using Guide in the following link:
http://www.miniinthebox.com/knowledge-base/c1172/a2140.html

Note:
1. Please use the coupon before 2014-11-1
2. The total product prices must exceed the coupon value.
3. Coupon couldn't be made to cash.

We hope you can receive the package very soon. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience caused. Thank you for your patience and support.

Sincerely,
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MiniInTheBox Customer Service


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[Huntindog]

KATOOM wrote:
Well sad to say.....and nothing against everyones fantastic help here either since I'm very grateful for your help.....but I'm once again scared away by the unknowns. :? I was under the impression that LED bulbs were going to be plug and play but if there's truly converter issues, attention to regulated verses non-regulated, and other potential concerns I'll need to watch out for then I'm thinking I'll just invest my time and money into batteries and solar and use less lights at night. Yes, the added efficiency of LED's is attractive but not at the cost of damaging something and still not justifiable to me to spend hundreds of dollars for that gain. A couple quality batteries and 200 watts of solar will probably be all I need for a week or boondocking.

As has been mentioned... There is no conclusive proof of the problems you cite... Many of these may have their roots in people who spent the BIG bucks on LEDs, and now want to diss the cheaper ones... This happens here all the time on various subjects.. Now since I boondock a LOT in very REMOTE locations, and I enjoy a project that solves a potential problem (as long as the cost is reasonable) I chose to install voltage regulators in my LED circuits... Failures in the boondocks for me need to be kept to a minimum as there is no RV store around the corner.
But keep in mind that many here not using regulators report no problems.
I suggest that you buy ONE LED panel and install it. See what happens. Carry your old bulb with you for backup, if it fails. I would very much like to see your results. It won't cost hardly anything, and then you will KNOW for certain. You may well find that you end up buying a lot more LEDs.

[KATOOM]

Well sad to say.....and nothing against everyones fantastic help here either since I'm very grateful for your help.....but I'm once again scared away by the unknowns. :? I was under the impression that LED bulbs were going to be plug and play but if there's truly converter issues, attention to regulated verses non-regulated, and other potential concerns I'll need to watch out for then I'm thinking I'll just invest my time and money into batteries and solar and use less lights at night. Yes, the added efficiency of LED's is attractive but not at the cost of damaging something and still not justifiable to me to spend hundreds of dollars for that gain. A couple quality batteries and 200 watts of solar will probably be all I need for a week or boondocking.

[mlts22]

I bought some LEDs for a buck a bulb a couple years ago, they have been working fine for my needs, and they use a fraction of the electricity the OEM bulbs did.

[JiminDenver]

Has anyone noticed that we rarely hear of the ebay LEDs being bad recently?

As West said, a few posters have tested the ebay panels, one went up to 20v before a failure started. I think most of the issue was the panels would get warmer and the imitation 3m tape would release.

I usually tell people that if they are going to be doing a mix of dry and hook up camping to either get regulated or use cob style that can be exchanged with regular bulbs depending on how you are camping. Others use the unregulated while on shore power no problems.

We never have shore power or run a generator but the solar does get the voltage up. I don't run the lights during the day so it isn't a issue.

I have been running a 1210 48 led panel since April I believe but the power is a steady 12.5v. I did have some running at 17v for a while and had no failures. (finding a wallwart that put out the 12v it said it would was a pain)

I did have a lead come off of a panel and a few of the emitters on the big 120 led for the porch light started blinking after a brutal 5 mile run of washboards. I can't tell the difference on the big light and a few seconds with a soldering iron and the panel went back into service.

The seller I used no longer has what I bought but west and a number of others bought the same from different sellers and seem pretty happy.

BTW the cost of one regulated LED is close to the price of a 10 pack of unregulated LED panels. ($17.99 shipped)

[atreis]

I got mine from superbrightleds.com and have been completely happy. Be sure and get "warm white" color (~2700-3400K). Warm white tend to be somewhat more expensive than Cool White but are much more pleasant to use. It's also helpful if they have built in regulators to prevent issues with battery chargers that produce dirty DC or higher voltages during bulk charging. The regulators also add to the cost.

[RJsfishin]

8 yrs ago I bought 3 chima led lites for $5 each, when all others here were $20 each.
None of the 3 survived the 14+ volts from my PD converter.
Since then I've bought all leds from the big RV show here in Quartzsite AZ, they have a lifetime warranty, not had a failure yet.

[tenbear]

I bought most of my LEDs on eBay from this vender. I did have some early failures and determined that the failures were not the LEDs but were the solder connections on the circuit board in the panel light. The failures were one row of 3 LEDs and was a hardly noticeable loss of light. These failures were with my Magnetek converter that is single stage, staying at 13.8v. I have since changed to a PC9260 converter, 4 stage, that gets up to 14.4v, and have had no new failures.

I like the 36-1210 panels, warm white, and I also have some of the 18-5050 cob lights, also warm white.

I advise anyone to buy a couple and try them before ordering many.

[Thunder_Mountai]

We have a small travel trailer that we use to boon dock during the summer. If we didn't run the generator before bed after using the lights to read, outside floods to walk the dogs before bed and to run the heat during the night, we ran out of juice from our on battery.

I replaced all 36 incandescent bulbs in single and double pancake lights with LEDs purchased on eBay out of Hong Kong. Think the cost per panel was something like $3 each free shipping. They had adapters for the three types of bases. The seller had thousands of positive feedbacks. They arrived in about 10 days.

Camping World is currently running a "sale" on similar flat panel LEDs for $17.48 each. So I could spend $629 or $100.

China LEDs have two seasons of camping, probably a total of 60 days and not a failure. Have plenty of juice to read before bed, run outside lights, run the heat all night.

[Huntindog]

The more expensive LED panels tend to have a voltage regulator built into them... So no worries when the convertor goes into boost mode at 14+ volts.... But that has not been conclusively proven to be a problem,,,,, and some report that these regulated lights interfere with the TV.

I decided to use the cheap unregulated LEDs, and installed regulators on the circuits that I used the LEDS on. It was cheap as the regulators are only about 5.00. It does require some planning to figure out just what circuits run which lights, and to make sure that the amp ratings will work. This likely won't be a issue if all draws on the circuit are LEDs. I did have the kitchen circuit that was a bit of a problem as the exhaust fan was on the same circuit as the lights. It alone was more draw than the cheap regulators were rated for.. I managed to find a higher rated regulator in the 8-10.00 range. A little wiring and it works great. I reduced the fuse sizes on those circuits to 3-5 amps from 15 to reflect the new lower draw.
It works perfectly.

[westend]

KATOOM wrote:
I'm curious what you guys are talking about in regards to the LED lights causing the convertor to put out more charge volts. :h Can someone elaborate on this? Is there some undisclosed risk with LED's and the batteries or charging system?

No risk at all. I believe 2oldman was referring to the LED not surviving the 14V a converter will put out when in it's bulk charging stage. This has been somewhat disproven as a couple of Forum members have tested the typical Asian LED panels and found that they survive at voltages up to 15V. I have not experienced a single failure. I know JiminDenver has had a panel hooked up at higher voltage for some time. Maybe he will post whether the panel is still surviving.

[mena661]

msiminoff wrote:
I bought all of my lights from LED Trailer Lights several years ago. They now have hundreds of hours of use and I have never had to replace one. They are the "warm white" color.

X2, these are best quality of the one's I've used.