New Cree TW high CRI 60 Watt lamps without Neodymium at HD?

I found a new version of the Cree high CRI TW 60 Watt lamps at my local Home Depot (these part numbers end in 2U100 versus the old bluish colored ones ending in 1U100). The full model number on the package is BA19-08027OMN-12DE26-2U100.

Does the lack of the bluish color on the glass mean Neodymium is no longer used? If so what different type of filtering is employed and is it better? Has anyone compared the two?

Thanks in advance!

I noticed those also and I have the same question.

Maybe they're using higher CRI LEDs?

(what a concept...)

I had some. They sucked. Too much yellow in the light, ended up making my blue walls look green. I returned them and got the blueglass ones. The whiteglass ones are a wee bit brighter though.

Thanks. I opened one of the old packages and couldn't see much of a difference. Looks like there may be a slight difference in color, not sure.

I'll probably stick with the new version as I've tested them thoughly with my dimmers. The regular Cree 60 watt (9.5 watt version) sucked with my dimmer.

H-Man said:

I had some. They sucked. Too much yellow in the light, ended up making my blue walls look green. I returned them and got the blueglass ones. The whiteglass ones are a wee bit brighter though.

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They claim to be 93 CRI on the back of the package at 450 Lumens. They are also triple the price of the regular 60 Watt LED Version.

H-Man said:

I had some. They sucked. Too much yellow in the light, ended up making my blue walls look green. I returned them and got the blueglass ones. The whiteglass ones are a wee bit brighter though.

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I think they forgot to add the neodymium. I'm going to fill out the contact form on the Cree site to see if they changed then design to eliminate the blue color.

jthj said:

I think they forgot to add the neodymium. I'm going to fill out the contact form on the Cree site to see if they changed then design to eliminate the blue color.

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They have stickers saying that they removed the blue color. I suspect people complained.

I'll be playing musical bulbs because I can get edison subsidized bulbs at Lowe's.

What dimmer are you using? Would you say they dim down with no buzz? Now that we know they did update the design I'm debating between these vs the standard Phillips 60 watt equivalent that gets excellent dimmer ratings with no flicker or buzz.

etc6849 said:

Thanks. I opened one of the old packages and couldn't see much of a difference. Looks like there may be a slight difference in color, not sure.

I'll probably stick with the new version as I've tested them thoughly with my dimmers. The regular Cree 60 watt (9.5 watt version) sucked with my dimmer.

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Here is the response I got from Cree

Thank you for contacting Cree. You are correct, we are no longer using neodymium glass to achieve the 90+ CRI and the bulbs you purchased are not defective. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

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Leviton Vizia RF+ VRI06 z-wave dimmer. No louder buzz than dimmed incandescents.

jthj said:

What dimmer are you using? Would you say they dim down with no buzz? Now that we know they did update the design I'm debating between these vs the standard Phillips 60 watt equivalent that gets excellent dimmer ratings with no flicker or buzz.

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I also just got a new batch of Cree TW LEDs and noticed the absence of neodymium glass. Found this thread, and tested out the old bluish TW next to a newer white TW - they looked virtually identical. I can't really tell a difference, aside from the fact that the LEDs seem more visible (when looking at the bulbs from the top) with the older bluish TW than the newer ones. Colors look very similar.

Home Depot will only be carrying the TW series online going forward due to lower sales and valuable shelf space in its stores.....all stores are therefor blowing them out the door in the Balt/Washington area,and probably across the country.........40 watt TW is $3.53 and the 60 watt TW is $4.03...........get em before they are all gone! Picked up 7 today,not many left in my stores!

Qship1996 said:

Home Depot will only be carrying the TW series online going forward due to lower sales and valuable shelf space in its stores.....all stores are therefor blowing them out the door in the Balt/Washington area,and probably across the country.........40 watt TW is $3.53 and the 60 watt TW is $4.03...........get em before they are all gone! Picked up 7 today,not many left in my stores!

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That's so strange, given they have 50 rows dedicated to the regular CREE bulbs and can't spare one for the TW bulbs!

Just checked my local Home Depot; their site and internal inventory shows they have 57 of the 40w TW bulbs, but neither I nor the store staff could physically locate the bulbs. For what it's worth, the bulbs are still at the same regular price and are not discounted. I'm in the NYC area.

I somehow missed this thread. I also mentioned the lack of the blue coating. I did a side by side test and both TW bulbs looks really nice. The only way to tell between this white TWs and the regular crees I have is the mA rating on the top of the bulb. I also marked them with a Sharpie in case I ever move them to other fixtures.

And yes, they were discontinued at my Home Depot. I picked a few up for $6 or something like that. Still available in some stores and 6-packs online.

wasafiri said:

That's so strange, given they have 50 rows dedicated to the regular CREE bulbs and can't spare one for the TW bulbs!

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That's what they get for using nearly identical packaging! They should have really touted the higher CRI on the front somehow.

markr6 said:

That's what they get for using nearly identical packaging! They should have really touted the higher CRI on the front somehow.

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I'm with you there. That little rainbow streak doesn't really differentiate the packaging much. And they don't "live" display the TW bulbs like they do the regular or 4Flow ones.

I wish CREE had sold more of the TWs, because I would have liked to see the price come down. I have some regular CREE bulbs, and side by side with the TWs they make stuff look like puke.

The average consumer neither understands,nor cares that much about CRI......and when something they dont know/care about costs more than the other available option,guess which one they will pick?

Qship1996 said:

The average consumer neither understands,nor cares that much about CRI......and when something they dont know/care about costs more than the other available option,guess which one they will pick?

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Exactly. Look at CFLs. They've gotten better, but people bought them up even back in the day when they were horrible. Lots of dumb suckers out there

markr6 said:

Exactly. Look at CFLs. They've gotten better, but people bought them up even back in the day when they were horrible. Lots of dumb suckers out there

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It's not so much a case of "dumb suckers". It's a case of "I don't want to pay for the electricity for an incandescent and there are no other options available". I've been using CFLs since I moved out of my parent's house and had to pay my own bills. I had the choice of using what little money I had to pay for heater that glows or for some luxury I wanted. For general lighting that is on for several hours at a time, CFLs were a no-brainer, even with the lower color reproduction.

It's only now that I've begun moving to LED because until recently it was a money-losing proposition for a marginal gain. In a year or two, I think the cost, CRI, and CCT choices will essentially destroy CFL though. Now my "problem" is that the quality of CFL is so good that I have CFLs that run for several hours almost every day and they are still going strong 7-8 years later.

RI Chevy said:

They claim to be 93 CRI on the back of the package at 450 Lumens.

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H-Man said:

I had some. They sucked. Too much yellow in the light, ended up making my blue walls look green. I returned them and got the blueglass ones.

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The new ones might have the same CRI rating, but that does not mean they emit light with the same type of spectrum. Using improved phosphors is a different thing than filtering the light through neodymium glass.

Now my guess is that if they used both the higher CRI LED combined with the neodymium glass they could achieve even higher CRI (94~95?), but there are efficiency trade-offs, and increased cost.