Cree high CRI dying

I installed a few 60W (equivalent) Cree high CRI bulbs on my front porch today. I had CFLs in there for almost 2 years (no problem with them). I went outside about 20 minutes later and 1 had become incredibly dim. I changed it out and went back inside. Maybe 10 minutes later I went outside and that one was really dim too. By really dim, I mean you could barely tell the light was illuminated at all. Not wanting to risk another death, I installed a Sylvania LED bulb and it has been working fine for approx an hour.

I do have my porch lights on an automatic digital timer, but all the other bulbs are doing fine.

Do you guys think I was just unlucky or is there some issue you can think of? I only have 2 more of the high CRI BUKBS left .....but I'm afraid of killing them. I probably have 50 Cree BUKBS in my home, they are all working fine (including several 40W equivalent Cree high CRI bulbs).

I did did intall the ones that went dim into a different socket and they are dead.

Thoughts?

kingofwylietx said:

I do have my porch lights on an automatic digital timer, but all the other bulbs are doing fine.

Click to expand...

Did the bulbs work previously in other sockets? If not I suspect the dimmer is incompatible - perhaps fatally so. If you have any other dimmers, perhaps those can revive them, otherwise I would just use Home Depot's allegedly excellent return policy.

Idleprocess, I don't think I described the situation correctly. Let me try to describe it better.

There were 3 brand new bulbs installed at the same time, installed on the same circuit, controlled by the same timer. Of those 3 separate lights, one died. I replaced it with an identical bulb that died just as quickly. So, both bulbs died in the same housing...which now has a Sylvania LED bulb that is working fine.

Its perplexing.

Hard to imagine that a dimmer/timer circuit would do much more than cause the bulb to temporarily malfunction - especially if it drove with CFL's without complaint. I would suspect defective bulbs from a bad lot if you purchased them at the same time.

I did purchase them all at the same time. I'm sure they were all from the same lot.

You might have a bad contact in that socket that is arcing.

I think I had a bad batch of the Cree high CRI bulbs. The Sylvania LED I put in there has been going strong for about a month now.
How odd...I guess it was just bad luck.

I have come the conclusion that Cree bulbs period (both 2700K and 5000k) are not yet ready for prime time. I bought a pair of 100 watt equivalent daylight lamps. The first one lasted 20 minutes, the second one barely made it to 1000 hours. Admittedly it is a small sample, but 2 out 2 is unacceptable failure rate with an average life of 500 hours. My thumbnail says that at $17 each(more like $18 with sales tax), the lamps need to get to about 2200 hours to break even. Obviously neither yours or mine have demonstrated the ability to do so.

I don't know that Cree, overall, has an issue. I do have 30-40 of their 60W equivalents that have been running strong for many, many hours. I still highly recommend them.

My issue was very specific to the high CRI model.

i also have 2 of the 100W equivalent Cree bulbs in our family room ceiling fan. We don't use that light much, so I can't say anything good or bad about those.

I have 5 Cree originals with over 9,000 hours on them now without any issues.

I had one of the 40 watt equivalent high CRI TW bulbs start flickering and then went off.
I let it stay off for a while and then turned it back on. There was a small pop noise and it again started to work. Could have been a small piece of dirt on one of the spring contacts. Burning Off. Has been working again for months now.

BLH said:

I had one of the 40 watt equivalent high CRI TW bulbs start flickering and then went off.
I let it stay off for a while and then turned it back on. There was a small pop noise and it again started to work. Could have been a small piece of dirt on one of the spring contacts. Burning Off. Has been working again for months now.

Click to expand...

Please don't tell me that. I already tossed them, they are gone forever. I probably should have returned them to Home Depot, but I knew they didn't have any more.

I feel better thinking that they would never work again. LoL

kingofwylietx said:

Please don't tell me that. I already tossed them, they are gone forever. I probably should have returned them to Home Depot, but I knew they didn't have any more.

I feel better thinking that they would never work again. LoL

Click to expand...

Why did you throw them away?! What a waste! Don't you know there are valuable parts inside?!

Not all of my Cree bulbs self healed themselves. Some died and never came back.
I also should have sent them back to Cree for a warranty exchange.

poiihy said:

Why did you throw them away?! What a waste! Don't you know there are valuable parts inside?!

Click to expand...

How do you get the valuable parts out? I thought everything was soldered into place.

I have a project where where I can use some LEDs, I'd be happy to cannibalize a bulb. Can I just break the glass and unplug them or do I have to use a soldering iron to loosen the LEDs?

kingofwylietx said:

How do you get the valuable parts out? I thought everything was soldered into place.

I have a project where where I can use some LEDs, I'd be happy to cannibalize a bulb. Can I just break the glass and unplug them or do I have to use a soldering iron to loosen the LEDs?

Click to expand...

The Cree bulbs other than the 4flow utilize MPCBs clamped onto the heatsink with spring clips; no desoldering required to remove - or repurpose provided you can feed them with the rather high DC the strip is set up for.

kingofwylietx said:

How do you get the valuable parts out? I thought everything was soldered into place.

I have a project where where I can use some LEDs, I'd be happy to cannibalize a bulb. Can I just break the glass and unplug them or do I have to use a soldering iron to loosen the LEDs?

Click to expand...

Everything is soldered but they are easy to remove. Just touch an iron to the joint while pulling the wire away, repeat for the other wire, and you have liberated the led module. As for the parts in the power supply, they may be a bit more difficult if they have multiple pins, but you can use desoldering wick to remove all the solder and let them free.

To remove the LEDs themselves, I suggest a toothpick and a heat gun. They are SMD in most bulbs so they'll just slide right off when heated.
I ganked the LEDs out of one of those Phillips slim style bulbs for some projects, worked out nicely.

I've had a 100% failure rate on my first batch of Cree 3-way bulbs. Cree did step up and replace both of them, no questions asked. It's a shame that they failed, but at least Cree has a 10 year warranty on the better bulbs.

So far my TW 60w and non-TW glass-bulb Crees are still cranking away without failure.

I've been runniing one of the Cree 3-way bulbs on it's low setting in a desk lamp for months. It's been running 24x7 with no issues.