led strip lights (1 Viewer)

[jaygee]

Fitted internal led strip lights to van around 2/3 years ago some white to light up cupboards and others blue for a bit of subdued lighting, over this period of time some of the leds have stopped working mostly in bunches of three. The white ones down to only 50% working.
These are the strips supplied on a reel maybe called tape leds, anyone else had problems? or am i just unlucky with the supplier

 

[Baycott]

They are wired in sets of 3 so that does make sense. I don't think the cheap ones are particularly reliable so you will just have to replace them

 

[jonandshell]

Ours are a bit duller after 3 years or so.

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[robrace]

I have been tempted to change our original bulbs and tubes to L.E.D but can't see the point.In the 7 years we have had the Camper I have only had to replace one tube and no bulbs.So it can't be cost effective.i work for my brother in his lighting shop.If you see how many bulbs we sell you would be amazed!!Long Life bulbs,40000 hours bulbs.LED.It's a con.Get loads back.Problem is a large percentage come from China. and quality is dubious.Problem is it's difficult to buy/sell quality bulbs as you can never be sure who has made them despite what's on the label.

 

[peterc10]

Most people do not replace their old bulbs with LEDs because of the bulb life. It is mainly because they use so much less electricity, which is important if, like us, you rarely use EHUs.

 

[tonyidle]

A problem with LEDs is that they're quite fussy about how much current they pass. So, nominally 12v LEDs will, at 12v, be passing the correct current and working within their rating. The problem is that a MH low voltage system varies between slightly more than 12v up to 14.5-ish depending on the charger and how it has been designed. Certainly it will spend some time above 14.2v and most of the time at 13.8v (all when on EHU). The LED lighting therefore has a pretty hard time.

Some, and only some, 'better quality' LED replacements intended for automotive use have a built-in regulator that ensures that the LEDs themselves only see 12v. But a very substantial majority do not - including those sold as headlight, foglight, brakelight, etc, replacements. My own view FWIW is that cheaper units are cheap to replace and my experience suggests that many last longer than I'd expect given the above. So I buy cheap.

Strip LED, due to the fact that it can be cut anywhere along its length, would need a regulator for every 3 LEDs - so it doesn't have any.

ATEN LED (G4 side pins) 1 off - £5.49
eBay Chinese (G4 side pins) 2 off - £3.68

I mention ATEN because I've experienced their excellent service on behalf of a friend and because they guarantee their products for use in a MH. But you can see the price difference. Strip LEDs I've seen for well under a tenner for 5M on eBay (bought some) and for £20+ from a UK supplier.

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[Bobby22]

Bought cheap lLEDs from our Chinese friends on ebay.....cheap as chips ......they do what they said they would do. They have lasted more than 18 months.........i had bought extra " just in case" and never had to use them.

If they fail tomorrow i would have had my monenies worth.

 

[irnbru]

I have replaced all of ours with the cheap roll. £5 for 5m at local boot sale..

 

[PeteH]

Changed ALL mine, within weeks of Purchase. Yes the "cheap" one may be of dubious quality. But my take is that IF one or two fail in a couple of years, by that time they will be even cheaper!. And in the meantime I have excellent lighting and a Fraction of the consumption!. which on Rally`s means??? I don't annoy you with the generator!.

Pete

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[Jaws]

I have been tempted to change our original bulbs and tubes to L.E.D but can't see the point.In the 7 years we have had the Camper I have only had to replace one tube and no bulbs.So it can't be cost effective.i work for my brother in his lighting shop.If you see how many bulbs we sell you would be amazed!!Long Life bulbs,40000 hours bulbs.LED.It's a con.Get loads back.Problem is a large percentage come from China. and quality is dubious.Problem is it's difficult to buy/sell quality bulbs as you can never be sure who has made them despite what's on the label.

There speaks someone who is rarely off hookup for more than a couple of days
A ten watt bulb draws almost an amp.
The equivalent led unit will draw about .04 of an amp.
To put it simply.. You turn on 4 'normal' lights and you 100 aH battery will be critical after say 14 hours use
Turn the same amount of LED units on and you wil starve to death before the battery runs out !

 

[jaygee]

I would rather pay a few quid extra and fit once but how can you guarantee the quality.
All the tape lighting looks the same as does most led lighting so if you pay a few quid extra how do you know that they are not supplying the cheap stuff?

 

[Badknee]

I fitted these because of the voltage fluctuation.

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[mitzimad]

ive run mine via a little voltage regulator pcb from ebay 5 years and no failures

 

[tonyidle]

ive run mine via a little voltage regulator pcb from ebay 5 years and no failures

That would be my preferred solution if all the lights are fed from one source. I suspect that on my van they are but haven't fully investigated. If I'm right then one adequately-rated regulator could serve the lot.

 

[Gromett]

I got fed up with replacing mine so fitted a regulator. This has improved their lifespan by about 3X.
However I will be making a custom regulator to take the voltage down to 10.5 for the next batch. Unless you can fit them to a metal surface to dissipate the heat they do die fairly quickly. Reducing the voltage fixes it.

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[PeteH]

6 Months in and no sign of failure yet?. I have 6 or so "spares" on board at around 80p a piece, no worse than changing bulbs in the garage where they get abused regularly???.

Pete

 

[funflair]

All of ours inside the van are from Aten lighting and are still working fine after a few years, I did put some cheap stick on tape LED's in the garage and they get used less than any other lights and 50% of them are dead, so on that experience I bought some more on a tape from Aten at Norfolk show, I want them to last as they are all cut to length and joined with soldered on wires to take them to the darkest areas of the garage so its not the cost but the inconvenience of doing the job again.

Martin