Alternative to Costco brand?

Costco has this Feit brand, which I hear is junk. Anything much better on the market that lasts? I need a few 100w+ and a couple of dim ones.

Philips, Cree, GE, EcoSmart, etc...

I don't know why Feit receives so much bashing. I put three of their BR40s in my basement over 2 years ago, and they are still going strong (roughly 3000 hours so far). I've seen plenty of threads about CREE failures, but none about Feit.


The only LED bulbs I've had fail so far are two Lighting Science/Ecosmart BR40s I bought in 2012. Those were older models with the massive heat sinks, and even then, they had 4k+ hours on them (2 years in my kitchen), and they did pay for themselves (the $8 halogens I had been using seemed to last about 6 months).

I don't know why Feit receives so much bashing. I put three of their BR40s in my basement over 2 years ago, and they are still going strong (roughly 3000 hours so far). I've seen plenty of threads about CREE failures, but none about Feit.


The only LED bulbs I've had fail so far are two Lighting Science/Ecosmart BR40s I bought in 2012. Those were older models with the massive heat sinks, and even then, they had 4k+ hours on them (2 years in my kitchen), and they did pay for themselves (the $8 halogens I had been using seemed to last about 6 months).

I think Feit has a relatively high failure rate, and from what I've heard, most of their models dim poorly. I suspect the failure rate may be due to a low tolerance for noise on the power lines.

Similarly, I know the cheap Ecosmart CFL's at Home Depot had a lot of failures for some users, yet I've used them for years without trouble. I'm actually starting to wish they would fail, because I'm tired of the poor light quality of CFL's and want an excuse to replace them. That kind of disparity suggests the problem relates to differences in use.

I bought a 4-pack of Costco Feit 60W equivalent bulbs this spring. One of them has died, but it's in 2-bulb enclosed fixture. I'm pretty sure the packaging said not to use them in enclosed fixtures, but I wanted to try it to see if they might work anyways.

Even if I'm wrong, and these things a have 25% premature failure rate, that just changes the effective cost from $5 per bulb to $6.67 per bulb - leaving them as still one of the least expensive high CRI bulbs available.

Feit just buys from Chinese OEM's and rebrands. Every supplier switch rolls the dice anew. If they get a good one, they are a good buy up until some little changes in the design means it's time to reevaluate. Since they aim at the low end of the market, they are more likely to get a bad one than other brands that just relabel Chinese.

Costco (at least the one closest to me) has the 4-pack of 60w 2700K bulbs on sale for around $9 most of the time. That's a pretty darn good deal for a decent LED bulb with no visible flicker and good light output. I've replaced almost all of the incan bulbs around my home with these and only had one failure in about two years over the 20 or so in use.

Canuke said:

Feit just buys from Chinese OEM's and rebrands. Every supplier switch rolls the dice anew. If they get a good one, they are a good buy up until some little changes in the design means it's time to reevaluate. Since they aim at the low end of the market, they are more likely to get a bad one than other brands that just relabel Chinese.

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Given that I've never found the originally branded Chinese bulb that would be the basis of the models they sell in Costco, I suspect actually they spec the bulb, and then go looking for a manufacturer to make it - that is to say, send a request for proposals for final design and production to several manufacturers.

That said, at one point a few years back I picked up a Utilitech branded bulb at Lowes that was identical to a Feit bulb available online.

My wife knows a Costco buyer, and based on what he's said, Costco themselves actually takes an active roll in the design of many of their products. Feit could well be the main Costco LED supplier because at some point Costco decided they wanted an affordable bulb with light quality similar to an incandescent, and Feit was the supplier that won the bid.