Low power make 5mm live longer?

[LEDrock]

I've heard many times about how multi-5mm LED lights aren't good because the LED's will just fail one by one until none are left. In my experience, I haven't seen any LED's fail in any of mine, except for the ones that were dead out of the package. But then again, I use most of these lights around the house with batteries that are half-dead (alkalines) since multi-5mm's put out enough light for that purpose even when battery power is low.

Also, I don't leave them turned on for long periods of time either. Would either one of these factors (or both) cause these 5mm LEDs NOT to fail? If I understand correctly, they fail because of being overdriven and because of not being heatsinked properly. I'm of the opinion that using them with batteries that are not completely fresh would extend their life to what they are intended. Correct me if I'm wrong....

 

[kramer5150]

I've heard many times about how multi-5mm LED lights aren't good because the LED's will just fail one by one until none are left. In my experience, I haven't seen any LED's fail in any of mine, except for the ones that were dead out of the package. But then again, I use most of these lights around the house with batteries that are half-dead (alkalines) since multi-5mm's put out enough light for that purpose even when battery power is low.

Also, I don't leave them turned on for long periods of time either. Would either one of these factors (or both) cause these 5mm LEDs NOT to fail? If I understand correctly, they fail because of being overdriven and because of not being heatsinked properly. I'm of the opinion that using them with batteries that are not completely fresh would extend their life to what they are intended. Correct me if I'm wrong....

Thats what I have found with the 2-3 showerhead lights I have owned. Eneloops and LONG power-ON cycles will kill the LEDs. If the LEDs are wired in a series/parallel configuration then the LEDs will die one cluster at a time.

And... most definitely DD-18500 mods are out of the question.

IMHO using them as a battery vampire with half dead alkalines is one of the things they do well.