JeffF Posted December 6, 2010 Share Posted December 6, 2010 So... I splurged at the beginning of the season and replaced all 300 of our red C7 bulbs with C7 Retro LED bulbs. Last week my daughter and I went up on the roof to see why two of the bulbs were out and I was shocked to find both of the dead ones full of water. :{ Then my daughter points out that they all have water in them so I started looking and yep, they *all* have various levels of moisture in them. Some just have what I'd classify as condensation but others have actual drops while some even have enough water to make them hummmm or buzzzzz. :{Is it normal for condensation to build in LED "Retro" bulbs(C7 or C9)?I'm gutted to say the least. I have been anti-LED up until this point but I figured out the load differences and just had to try replacing one of our colors(we have three... I was going to replace another color next year).So far the dead count is at 8 but it seems like we are loosing at least one a night now. I'd imagine the loses will slow down due to the weather being below freezing day and night now so the moisture can't really "do it's magic".I wrote the company I bought them from last week and they said to get a count of the dead ones and they'd replace them. Well after I went up and saw all of them had moisture in them I wrote back just to let them know. I haven't heard back yet but I don't really think I want replacements unless they are not defective. Ugh... that'll teach me to try things I dislike.-Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted December 6, 2010 Share Posted December 6, 2010 If they are the Minleon bulbs, I have only ever seen moisture in one or two of them. I'll also note that the Minleon bulbs actually collect water in a place that is not exposed to the LED's or circuitry. The bulb is a double wall casting, with an inner dome. The LED and circuit actually live between the screw base and "inner" dome of the bulb. I can really only see the inner surface of that outer bulb, and that is the only place I have proven moisture to date, and again in only a really small number of bulbs. But so far, I have only seen about 10 DOA bulbs in 2,000 installed green bulbs, and lower numbers of DOA in other colors. (2,00 each of red, white, and blue beyond the 2,000 green already mentioned) I think we have had maybe two that we think died during the course of the show last year, on about 4,000 installed bulbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffF Posted December 7, 2010 Author Share Posted December 7, 2010 Heh, my luck... just heard back from the company I bought these from and it seems their Chinese manufacturer changed the waterproofing epoxy formula without them knowing. :shock:I'm going to be sending some dead and almost dead bulbs so they can forward them to the manufacturer for testing.Now... maybe we can have a pool to see who guesses how many C7 LED bulbs I lose in total this season. So far it's at 8... but I didn't check today yet so... -Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Now I really need to know if those are minleon bulbs, or something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffF Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 Just wanted to update this thread... we lost over 30 bulbs total for the year(out of 300). And with the help of someone here, these were verified as NOT minleon bulbs.The vendor I purchased them from is refunding all my money and is shipping my dead bulbs back to the Chinese manufacturer. It was discovered this manufacturer changed how they sealed the bulbs without letting the vendor know. Needless to say I'm pre-ordering from Paul(CDI) this year. -Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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