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Re:Oh right, about those LEDs by ryao on Wednesday November 30, 2016 @09:45AM (#13071107)
I have gotten some good Chinese filament LED bulbs from eBay, but it is very hit or miss. I did not analyze them for the quality of the output beyond "it looks good to me". The total cost is lower than CREE and other brands even if I consider that I had to throw away half of them due to a poorly manufactured batch that had an audible electric whine and failures of the higher output models after a month or two.

If you are willing to buy multiple times what you need to make up for the quality issues, you can get a decent deal with the cheap Chinese ones. The ones that whined and the ones that did not whine had a fabric covering the wires at the base of the bulbs. If I had some way of knowing which eBay merchants were selling those, I would get a much better deal.

By the way, Nichia is a Japanese company.

Re:Oh right, about those LEDs by jdietrich on Wednesday November 30, 2016 @10:05AM (#13071282)
Buy cheap, buy twice. Even if you get a good one, no-brand Chinese bulbs just don't last. They're badly engineered and use cast-off LED chips that nobody else wants. I made the mistake of buying some Chinese LED lamps for my utility rooms and outbuildings; they all died within 18 months.

Philips and Osram LED lamps just aren't that expensive. Cheaping out just isn't worth the hassle.

Re:Oh right, about those LEDs by foofoo55 on Wednesday November 30, 2016 @12:59PM (#13072968)
"Buy-twice" methods like this further convince me that a stronger incentive is needed to ensure such junk is not manufactured but is integrated into what many are calling a "circular economy". I wish it was the responsibility of the manufacturers to take back all failed and end-of-life products and recycle the materials such that their waste output was minimal. Likewise, the I wish the wholesaler and retailers were responsible to take back the product from the purchaser or consumer and send it back upstream (and not drop it in the dumpster like Costco does).
Re:Oh right, about those LEDs by azinman2 on Thursday December 01, 2016 @06:51PM (#13084723)
I wish there was some drop dead easy way for this. Like you just hand these items to the postman or the like. Dead batteries, outdated electronics, broken electronics, etc.
Re:Oh right, about those LEDs by ryao on Wednesday November 30, 2016 @08:19PM (#13076255)
They are around the 12 month mark now. I will know if they make the 18 month mark 6 months from now.
Re:Oh right, about those LEDs by Sharlin on Thursday December 01, 2016 @08:10AM (#13079095)
Buying a lot of crap and doing your own QA has some horrible negative externalities... This sort of throwaway economy is the last thing we need.