LED Bulb Reviews: Hitlights, Aluratek, Eaglelight

[Arilou]

So, I've been looking for some LED bulbs to replace my old incandescent and CFL bulbs. I bought several to compare them and decide which I liked.

HitLights Afford VI 6W Warm White: This is one of the bestsellers on amazon. Cheap ($10) and pretty much crap. Sold as a 40-watt replacement, but not as bright as an actual 40W incandescent bulb. Instant-on with no delay. Color spectrum is not too bad, but does have a slightly odd red color rather than the yellow-orange color that you'd expect for 2700K. Has a plastic housing with no real heat sink. I doubt this would actually last 50,000 hours as the manufacturer claims.

Aluratek 6W Warm White: This has a better build quality, with a large aluminum heat sink. The brightness is comparable to a 40W incandescent bulb. Also comes on instantly. The color spectrum is not too bad, but I wouldn't describe it as "warm white". It has a slightly odd greenish color.

Aluratek 10W Warm White: Out of the box, it looks similar to the 6W bulb, but once powered on, it's clear that the internals are completely different. Full spectrum with no greenish hue. It's closer to natural white than warm white. Looks like 3500K or so. This bulb has a noticable turn-on delay, and takes about half a second to light up. Also, unlike the 6W Aluratek, there is a faint hum that is audible if your ear is close. I wouldn't notice it with the bulb in a ceiling light, but with a desk lamp it is perceptable. The light output is comparable to a 50W incandescent. Also, the heat sink does get hot enough that you wouldn't want to touch it.

Eaglelight 8W 150-LED corncob "natural white": Eaglelight was selling these at a discount to get rid of them, and it's easy to see why. The color spectrum is not natural white, it's blue/yellow. Looks like a blue LED with a Ce:YAG phosphor. The color reminds me of old fluorescent tubes.

Eaglelight 8W 150-LED corncob "warm white": Similar to the above but a much better color spectrum. Very slightly bluish, but not bad. Light output is comparable to a 50W incandescent. No noise. No flicker. Comes on instantly, but takes about a quarter second to reach full brightness. Gets warm, but not too hot to touch. Although the price is a bit high, it is more energy efficient than many other LED bulbs. Overall this is a very good product. The only major problem is that it's rather large and won't fit in some light fixtures.

So really, what's the best choice for a high-quality <10W and >500lm LED light bulb? The Eaglelight corncob comes close. Any better suggestions?

 

[brickbat]

What country are you in? What CCT are you wanting?

 

[Arilou]

I'm in the US, and looking for 2700K-3500K. The light output and color of the Aluratek 10W is pretty good. I'm using a few in ceiling lights. They work well, although they do run a bit hot, and the turn-on delay is annoying.

The eaglelight corns work well, but the color is slightly off. The "warm white" looks approximately like 3000K-3500K, but there are some odd peaks in the spectrum. With the high price of these, I think it would be possible to do better.

I think I will try the new Cree bulbs next.

 

[brickbat]

Well, read the other thread about the new Cree lamps. I like them, but opinions vary.

 

[StarHalo]

It always comes back to the Philips AmbientLED (or by your criteria, the L-Prize); they've been out for a few years now, so you'd think somebody would at least make an effort to compete with them, but no..

 

[Arilou]

It always comes back to the Philips AmbientLED (or by your criteria, the L-Prize); they've been out for a few years now, so you'd think somebody would at least make an effort to compete with them, but no..

I considered the Phillips bulbs, but some of the reviews I've seen have complained of the same problems that I had with the 10W Alurateks, that there is a turn-on delay and some are noisy. Others have said there is no noise, so perhaps there was a bad batch or they use different power supplies in different models.