Customer Reviews

ecoBrites Dimmable 7x1w Hi-Performance PAR30 LED light (replacing 60w incandescent/halogen PAR30L). Warm White (2700k) "Flood" Light Output in 120-degree Wide Angle Beam Spread with Built-in Diffuser

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a first time user to the LED light bulb. I had a few goals in mind for why I chose ecoBrites LED lights. My electric bill was roughly $130 a month, so doing the math and the amount of watts I could reduce... I decided to look into LED's more. These lights are saving me roughly 600 watt hour with only 10 lights changed out!! As a general contractor and a finish carpenter with an eye for detail... I needed lights that gave off plenty of light, low watts, ecoFriendly and cost effective. I have recessed dimmers in my ceiling and I wanted to change them out to LED's. Home Depot does not even carry par 30's with the type of profile I was after here in Vermont. I also needed them to not only be dimmable BUT to work with Lutron and Levitron dimmer switches. Believe it or not not all LED's have developed their lights to work with dimmers of both kinds. ecoBrites does in fact work with all the major dimmer types and they have a nice variety of choices to match any existing type of bulb you want replaced. Another situation I recently came across was that my current recess housing was not IC rated. I wanted to have cellulose blown into the ceiling bays and around the lights. CFL which were currently being used would easily start a fire without the proper fixture housing. So rather than a costly change out to 5 IC approved light housing boxes, these ecoBrites have virtually NO heat output, which makes upgrading the easy choice without worrying about a fire hazard for other tenants, and they last for 50,000 hours. I highly recommend going with these LED's. You can order all sorts of brands try them all out like I did, or just go with these lights and save yourself the trouble and shipping costs when you send them back.

First, as one other reviewed noted, mine arrived previously opened and with no insert describing the bulb specifications, warranty, or otherwise.

I wonder if many people that consider these "warm" and "bright" are comparing them to other LED's rather than PAR30 halogen bulbs. I just replaced 4 of 6 Par 30 bulbs in my kitchen recessed lighting. The 4 bulbs that they replaced were Philips Halogena 50 watt flood bulbs.

What I don't like in the comparison:
***The ecoBrites are longer and stick out of the recesses in the ceiling about as much as the Par 30s were actually recessed (~1/2").
***The ecoBrites appear BRIGHT when you look at them. It hurts your eyes. The Par 30 appears soft when you look at it.
***The ecoBrites appear DIM when you compare how much light actually makes it to the floor (~9 ft). The Par30 Philips bulb makes large bright spots on the floor even though they are "floods". ***The ecoBrite makes much less light on the ground but it is more diffused and spread out.

What I like:
***They have some of the best reviews and yet are currently cheaper than other LED bulbs.
***They look modern.
***They are dimmable.
***They give an even "flood" of light. If it is bright enough for you and you aren't looking for accent lighting, the overall quality of the light is good.
***They are cool instead of hot.
***They use much less electricity than halogen.
***Hopefully, they last a long time.

ADDED 12/3/11: one bulb has already failed. ADDED 1/8/11: a Second bulb has failed (less than 4 months old). NOTE: I would have removed two stars but when I complained to ecobrite I got a near instant reply on a Sunday saying they will replace them. ADDED 1/23/2012: Ecobrite sent me 4 new bulbs to replace the two that failed. They replaced four because of an "improved design" and "warmer color temperature" for the bulbs coming out now. THE NEW BULBS ARE WARMER LIGHT FOR THOSE THAT LIKE THAT. The company has EXCELLENT customer service and stands behind their product.

I bought a number of LED bulbs to replace my 50W recessed can spot bulbs. I was looking for a bulb with lower heat output, size that fits, color of similar quality, and about the same amount of light. It also needed to be dimmable.

Of the bulbs I bought, this has by far the best color match to the old bulbs. Not quite as warm as the old incandescent bulbs, but close enough for my needs. It is very bright, somewhat more so (by my perception only) than similar PAR 30 bulbs. It also has a diffuser (some others do not) that softens and spreads the light somewhat. Finally, it fit my cans, which some others did not (some others were either just too large, or had the "neck down" in a location that hit my taper, necessitating the use of a bulb socket extender).

Only downside is the cost, which is considerable. I pay for my power at least twice, from the watts used and the Air Conditioning pulling out the heat, so that will offset the cost somewhat.

If color is not critical, or you just prefer or need a colder color, some of the cheaper bulbs would work just fine. If not, this is the best choice I have seen so far.

I purchased this light to replace a 75w halogen bulb. The color is as warm as the light it replaced. Fully dimmable from 100% to 0%. I plan to replace all of the recessed lights in my home with these.

Also, the ecoBrites customer service is outstanding.

I tried a few LED bulbs before settling on the ecoBrites. Originally tried the Feit bulbs from the local Costco and I also tried EcoSmart from Home Depot. But both of these bulbs have a color temperature of 3000K - in my kitchen, this was way too white since the kitchen cabinets and counters are yellow/brown toned, and the white color makes everything look sterile/unnatural. I then tried the ecoBrites 2800K from Amazon and while the color was still on the whiter side, I figured I'd stick with them since they were the most yellowish of any LED bulb I'd seen.

Three months later and one of the bulbs starting flickering - light would either dim or just start turning on and off randomly. Since this was outside the normal Amazon return period, I thought I'd order a replacement and unknowingly ordered this 2700K bulb vs. the 2800K I had in the rest of the kitchen. What a difference 100K makes! The 2700K is noticeably more yellow and closer to incandescent bulb color.

I went to the ecoBrites web page and contacted customer service about the flickering bulb - within the hour, a service rep replied to my query and told me they would ship out a replacement bulb immediately - and indeed, the replacement bulb arrived two days later (they asked for my Amazon order number to confirm that I had ordered bulbs in the first place).

But now I had 7 2800K bulbs and 1 2700K bulb in my kitchen and I really wanted to have all 2700Ks... so I contacted ecoBrites again and asked if I could swap out my 2800K bulbs - again, got a very prompt response indicating that they could do that.

So while I was disappointed that one of the bulbs had a flickering issue, I'm happy with the customer support. These bulbs have a 3yr warranty and hopefully the flickering issue is something that happens early or not at all such that defective bulbs will get replaced before warranty expires.

Pros
Closest to incandescent bulb color of any LED bulb I've seen.
Excellent customer support.
Cost - equal or less than other brands.

Cons
Flickering issue that hopefully manifests itself within the 3yr warranty period.

You know the clichéd scene in the movies: the protagonist finagles his way into the morgue because he has to confirm the ID on one of the corpses. The bored, chain-smoking attendant reluctantly shows him in, the lights flicker on, a drawer is pulled out, a bag is unzipped: the corpse looks, well, corpselike.

This is how everything in my kitchen looked after installing these lights, fine if you're lighting a scene for a zombie movie, but most unappealing for food preparation; things just looked wrong, as if there's something missing from the spectrum. I'll probably get shot (with lead-free bullets) by my Green friends, but the old incandescent R30 45W bulbs are back in place.

On the plus side, the LEDs worked fine with my legacy dimmer switch, and fit the ceiling lighting cans perfectly.

Length:: 1:13 Mins

Showing the brightness of the LED lights. They are just as bright if not brighter than the 60watt CFLs they replaced. They have an instant on even when cold and they dim down very low with no flickering without a special dimmer switch. A bit expensive but you get you pay for and hopefully they last for a long time unlike the CFLs they replaced that lasted less than a year.

I replaced a 65W incandescent flood with this. It is on a dimmer circuit, which takes most CFL and LED lights out of the equation. Also the housing is quite tight, so comments here about how this is nearly the same size as a standard incandescent flood were very helpful. It really is almost exactly the same size, and came with a socket extender just in case, but I didn't need it. Fits perfectly inside the housing, instant on, bright light, no noise (no humming or other noises as I've seen with some dimmable LEDs). Quite impressed. Obviously the cost is still ridiculous, and I'll only know over time if this is going to pay off based on how long the lightbulb lasts, but this early review is very encouraging.

When I ordered this bulb, I wasn't sure if it would be worth the money but I was very pleasantly surprised when the bulb arrived and lived up to its description on Amazon. The quality of light is pretty good for an LED which are admittedly a bit harsher than halogen bulbs. It's very bright (can it really only be a 7-watt bulb???) and the quality is white without being too sharp. For an LED it casts a relatively warm light that is only slightly harsher than our existing halogen spots. The dimming feature is excellent and it dims much better than other LED spots I've used. I'm sure LED technology will continue to improve, but this bulb is a big improvement over other LEDs I've purchased.

I posted lots of pictures to show how these ecoBrites are doing the best at coming nearest to the advertised replacement lumen and doing it at the same spectrum. Other LED bulbs I have are very white. These are so much like "regular" bulbs my wife couldn't tell the difference even after I told here they were all LED. Another Plus is the customer service that stands behind the product. Have contacted ecoBrites several times and they have always resolved my issues faster then anyone else, I would put them up there with Amazon customer service. Another note would be that I am up to over 30+ leds in my house and have been getting all sorts of brands trying to find "the one". I also have had 8 of the non dimmable ecoBrites in my kitchen since April. Sadly they are the most expensive but without a doubt they are the best at making LED light bulbs.