Customer Reviews

Lights of America Decor LED Accent - 1.5 Watt (40 Watt Replacement Bulbs) 3 Pack

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

PRO's:
- LED lights with a screw-in 120 V base
- Soft white light (not the intense white of typical LED's)
- Light spreads pretty well, considering it's LED's
- Fairly inexpensive for LED lights (about 2 years ago, similar bulbs cost about $120 each!)

CON's:
- Dim to half bright in about two months (~1000 hours)
- Equivalent to 25 Watt incandescent bulb (when new)
- Can't use in-line with power-drawing accessories (e.g. timers, motion sensors, etc.)

So, I have a HUGE fan of high-intensity LED lights since they first came out a few years ago. I had been searching for LED household light bulbs for a few years, since I think this is the way of future lighting. Just about 1-2 years ago, I found a similar LED bulb for a whopping $120! So, when I saw a 3 pack at Sams Club for just $15, I jumped at the deal.

When I first plugged it in, I was pleased by the light distribution and the soft color. The LED's are arranged in a cone shape, where each LED points outwards. So, instead of getting a spotlight effect, it distributed the light somewhat evenly. Also, instead of the typical stark white color LED's put out, it resembled the color of a clear incandescent bulb (~2800K).

I immediately noticed that it DOES NOT put out the equivalent of 40 watts of light. It more-closely resembles a 25 watt incandescent bulb.

The real issues are that the 30,000 hour life is misleading. An incandescent bulb gives you full light until it burns out. These LED lights give you bright light when they're brand new, but quickly fade to a dim light. I used these lights to illuminate part of my deck, and left them on all night. After just about two months (~1000 hours of use), the light is only about half as bright. I noticed this when I put the used bulbs in a chandelier with a new bulb -- the new bulb was MUCH brighter than the used bulbs. The used bulbs barely put out light when compared to the new bulb -- and they're just about 2 months old! It might actually last 30,000 hours, but you won't be able to see any light as you get closer.

Another problem is that since they only use about 1.5 watts each, they don't allow enough power to flow through them to power up in-line accessories such as timers or motion sensors. I put a digital timer on the switch for my deck and the backup battery quickly died since it wasn't getting enough AC power flowing through.

So, these lights are a great first attempt at LED household lighting, but the technology still needs to mature a bit more before we can use LED lights to replace incandescent or CFL's.

I purchased 12 of these lights to replace my CFL lighting in ceiling fans. First thing I noticed is the very poor light output. My wife said she feels like she is in a cave, but for the low current draw we could live with it.
Unfortunately only after about 2 months 2 lights still work. What a waste of money. LEDs should operate for much longer than standard bulbs.
It will be a long time till I try them again.

These bulbs attracted me because of the extremely low power consumption and becuase LED lights will become more mainstream as time goes on. Here is my review as an early adopter.

They are decorative and more pleasant than the Compact Flourescent lights, especially in clear fixtures. However, they fall short in light output. Not even close to the 40W equivalent rating. More like 15W. I used them in a 3 light fixture to replace 3 standard 25W bulbs and there appears to be less overall light output. The low output compounds the "color" of the light. When bright, all lights look White. Being dimmer, these lights have a touch of green to them. Not unpleasant, but since most soft white bulbs are tinted a warm yellow, it is something that you are likely to notice.

If you have a light that is on all night or whenever you are out, this is a good call as the energy consumption is like a night light, yet the bulbs are much brighter and will work for years.

I purchased at least 2 packs of these from Sams. Every bulb died within two months. Some were only used briefly as a night light. I am an Engineer and was excited to try this LED technology. Clearly these had a major defect. I would not buy this brand again.

I purchased these at Sam's club. Both these and the candelabra size have ALL burned out after just a few hours of use. That's six bulbs in the landfill. I'm sure the LEDs are fine but the circuitry can't handle the internal heat. Just too cheap (with a high profit margin for the Waltons) and never tested. If they did test these then they KNOW they're selling a worthless product. These give LEDs a bad name - shame on Lights of America (don't be tricked, they're Chinese) and Sam's Club.

Bought the three-pack from Sams Club and installed two of the three. After about 2 months they both failed. As the other reviewers stated the light output is nowhere near 40w. I think 25w is a generous estimate. Lights of America has a one-year warranty but you need your receipt and pay the shipping to them. Not worth it for what I paid.

These bulbs are "OK" but were not quite what I expected.

About two months ago, I purchased a package of these at a popular warehouse club, and installed them in three, well-ventilated fixtures. One of the bulbs ran for 24 hrs each day for around 60 days, and the other two ran for around 12 hours each day for the same period of time. During that time, the bulbs have become significantly dimmer.

My previous experience with LED technology, such as LED clocks or night-lights, has been that their life expectancy was for all practical purposes--infinite. I have several LED clocks that have been operating for over 20 years. So, my expectation, with a life expectancy of 30,000 hours listed on the package, was that these would be similar. However, this is not the case.

When new, the bulbs produced about the same illumination as around a 30 watt bulb or around 40 watts in the beam accounting for the directional gain of the LEDs being used. However, in the last couple of weeks my wife and I started noticing the bulbs were becoming dimmer. At first, we thought it was just our perception because we had recently installed brighter lights in the other fixtures in adjacent rooms.

Today, I purchased a set of new LED lamps--same exact model from the same store. I used them to complete the set in the fixture. The new ones were almost twice as bright as the old ones. Furthermore, the new ones were the same level of brightness when compared to a standard 60 watt bulb as the older ones were when they were new. This gives them a half life of less than 2000 hours.

In short, I would only recommend these for frequently cycling applications with short duty cycles such as motion sensor lights, bathroom lights, etc.

I purchased several of these bulbs from a different source at roughly the same price. The concept of LED lighting intrigues me and is the future of all of our home lighting, so I wanted to try them. I already use all LED 12 VDC bulbs in my trailer and love them since they consume so little of my valuable battery power.

What I found with these 1.5 watt bulbs is that they claim they are equivalent to a 40 watt bulb, well they are not! Maybe the light output is equivalent to a 20 watt bulb. I am using three of them in one of my bathroom fixtures and they work fine but do not provide sufficient light that I am accustomed to. They also come to full brightness as soon as the switch is turned ON and do not require any warm-up like the CFL bulbs do which is a great advantage. The bulbs state on them that they are not to be used in dimmer devices which was not visible on the package.

So if you have an application where you can live with dim lighting, then I recomend these bulbs. They use very little energy and stay cold to the touch. Like I said, the LED bulb is the light bulb of the future and will replace the CFL bulbs within a few years as soon as they can produce them with more light output and at a cheaper price.

I purchased these led lights from Costco and have been very disappointed in them. First of all, they are not 40w bulbs, more like 25w. Of course, they don't say these bulbs are EQUIVALENT to a 40w bulb, they just say they REPLACE a 40w bulb. I think that is very deceptive advertisement.
My second complaint is they all burned out after just 6 months of service. So much for saving money.

What a disappointment these are!

The claim of 40 watts is an outright lie. The light output could hardly be the equivalent of a 10 or 15 watt incandescent bulb. One would certainly not put them into service to replace a 40 watt bulb. There just isn't enough light output.

I bought 3 of these (1 pack) and 15 (3 packs) of the chandelier type to install throughout the house. They were pricey but I thought I would be saving money in the long run. Boy was I wrong! After about 1 month of putting up with them, I gave up and bought CFL 40 watt equivalent (9 watts and 280 lumens) to replace these.

Not sure what I'm going to do with these.

I'm out about 70 bucks...what an expensive light bulb lesson.

Beware!!!

UPDATE 12/22/2010: I've been using them as night lights for my children's rooms. Works wonderfully for night lights. Get an inexpensive, small desk lamp. Take a green permanent pen and color the glass. Screw in the bulb and you get nice ambient green light for the children. FYI: our pediatrician told us that green light interferes less with REM sleep.