JWP_EE
Enlightened
I bought it in DEC 2007 but it was out before then. I am running it at 600ma. At that current the curve says 60 lm/W, so the output is about 120lm.
Has any here hit the 50,000 hour led life span?
- Thread starter Rasto36620
- Start date
Help Support Candle Power Flashlight Forum
AnAppleSnail
Flashlight Enthusiast
Yes. This is one of the reasons quality lights meant to last a long time are more expensive. You know, before the cheap capacitors started being used, computer PSUs just didn't break without being subjected to personal lightning storms. Nowadays, well. I have to admit I haven't blown capacitors on any lights before I rebuilt them anyway.
JNewell
Flashlight Enthusiast
Example from real life: SureFire L4 (KX4 bezel, IIRC).
Some of the older hands here might recall reports of the LuxV exhibiting a visible decrease in brightness after as little as 500 hours of use. Apparently those were driven hard enough to get HOT in some lights.
Edit: And if anyone expects 50,000 hours of runtime from LEDs at 'CPF' drive levels, I have a 500,000 hours MTBF (i.e. 57 years) hard drive to sell them.
Sub_Umbra
Flashlight Enthusiast
I have some LEDs on a fan controller in a computer I built that have been powered up virtually 24/7 for over ten years. I suspect that I have dimmed more than they have...
StarHalo
Flashaholic
Power or 5mm?
I've been pondering over this for some time now; that if you take into account the longevity of non-power LEDs, you're going to find several examples in every household that have been on for a very long time. Consider the LEDs on your surge protector that have been on nonstop since you plugged it in, or the indicators on your cordless phones, or your television equipment, your computer equipment, etc. Even a cursory glance around your house will turn up a number of indicator LEDs that have many thousands of hours of runtime on them..
Sub_Umbra
Flashlight Enthusiast
5mm - blue. They were very bright when new and they still put out quite a bit.
Justintoxicated
Flashlight Enthusiast
I think I'm getting close on the Royal Blue Luxeon III's inside my computer case.
Last edited:
DJSPEC
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2012
- Messages
- 5
50,000 hours will come after the end of the world... until then i will be buying the next coolest and brightest LED out there... that i can afford.
edpmis02
Enlightened
I had an red LED alarm clock last for 30 years! 1978-2008.
Hitthespot
Flashlight Enthusiast
That really made me laugh. Ain't the truth, ain't it the truth....
StevenLVNV
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2012
- Messages
- 138
Many people have the new LED outdoor coach lights on their houses here in Las Vegas. I have them, underneath there is multiple neutral white , looks like cree xpg leds and they are mounted to white aluminum blocks for the heatsink. Mine are wired to an electric eye so they turn on before dusk and off at dawn so they run for hours at a time at a really bright level night after night, they are also not covered at all, they hand upside down in the light fixture but i can touch them if i want to and so they are exposed to as low at 17 degrees this winter and 112 or so in the summer and direct sunlight. I am curious how long they will last before the leds fail.
kj2
Flashaholic
Cree leds are rated at 50.000hours. But that's just a rating. No one, I know of, ever tested it if it reaches 50.000
importculture
Newly Enlightened
+1 I have a box of dead l4s somewhere as well as some working ones. But those l4s get almost hot enough to burn you after a few minutes. Great flood beam but the output is soo dated now. It's interesting to see how far we've progressed. I also have an old Felix that's been used every night since I bought it. Don't know how old it is but I have it hanging over the bed and use it as a night light on low and bump it up to medium for reading. I use it to fully drain my primaries taken from my work lights. I'll have to find and pull out an unused Felix from the same batch to compare brightness but I don't think it's necessary cause the turbo output is still comparable to my newer lights. Probably cause it hasn't seen much time on high or turbo. On the other hand I did have an original zebralight cr123 the very first model they put an electronic switch into that was nearly at half brightness on high when I gave it to a police officer a few years ago. I had it clipped to my work shirt pocket and surprisingly he thought it was one of the smallest brightest lights he had ever seen. It was a good excuse to start using a newer aa zebralight. That zebralight saw heavy use on high and got pretty warm at times. So probably just outlived its useful life
importculture
Newly Enlightened
Never really though about that! Good job for pointing that out! Now that I think about it I have a ton of things running LEDs nonstop for years on end. I guess it's all about how hard they're driven. I don't think any of my surge protector indicators have dimmed. Some of those are nearing 15 years or older. Ha ha! I think it may be time to upgrade those! Thanks for reminding me and possibly avoiding a possible fire hazard. Thanks again!
thedoc007
Flashlight Enthusiast
If your surge protectors are fifteen years old, it is definitely time to replace them, regardless of the LED status.
Excerpted from dansdata.com:
"The technical side is simple enough. No ordinary cheap powerboard ("cheap" definitely includes "a hundred US bucks") actually provides very good protection from line current gremlins. It may protect you once from a big-ish spike, or several times from smaller ones, but it won't last forever.
Cheap surge filters are all based around components called Metal-Oxide Varistors (MOVs). MOVs pass current only when the voltage across them is above a set value, and they react to overcurrent in microseconds. A circuit breaker or fuse can take tens of milliseconds to trip or blow; that's much too slow for spike suppression. Unfortunately, MOVs will only work a few times, at best. The more work they have to do, the closer to death they come. A surge/spike powerboard with a toasted MOV is now... just a powerboard.
Better surge/spike boards are meant to tell you when their MOV's died via a little light or even a buzzer, but they commonly, actually, don't. A surge/spike filter that's been in use for some years and still reports its MOV as perfectly healthy is, probably, lying."
Sorry for being a little off topic, but I thought it was worth sharing.
Glock27
Enlightened
I have ran an SC60w now for 31,000 Hours! Most of them have been on L1 or L2, but I have had at lest a 1,000 hours on H1 or H2. It has been our "Pool light" the last 3 years, and edc'd every day. It's on it's third O-ring.
I can't tell any difference in brightness from new ones ( I have 3 others).
G27
I can't tell any difference in brightness from new ones ( I have 3 others).
G27
WalkIntoTheLight
Flashlight Enthusiast
My guess is that if you run a LED on low, then it will last much longer than its rated lifetime. My [completely uninformed] opinion is that without heat or much current, there's no stress on the LED or phosphors.
