LED A19 bulbs starting to disappoint

About 7 or 8 years ago my power company was selling LED bulbs at a deep discount (Gov subsidized), a little over $1 for a 60w equivalent bulb. I changed over all my CFLs to LED. Most are still working but about 10% have failed. I do notice that the new LED replacements are brighter and have better color rendition.
 
Most, if not all, of the LED bulbs are made in China. If a manufacturer doesn't ride roughshod over them quality wise, they will drop the number of LEDs, then overdrive them to make up the difference. An over driven LED will not last at all. An over driven LED will also shift the color spectrum as its life drains from it. I fault the manufacturer who out-sources to China, then doesn't monitor the output.
 
I saw some piece on bulbs about 6mo to a year ago, I think it was Dubai, they were having bulbs made to their spec... more leds, less power, instead of overdriving them, they were underdriving them... And they will not be available here in the USA. Go figure.

edit: https://hackaday.com/2021/01/17/leds-from-dubai-the-royal-lights-you-cant-buy/ searched, found this... and then I realized it was CLIVE on youtube reviewing them.
 
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I've been replacing the lights in my house with LEDs since 2012 (when they were like $30 for a 60w bulb). None have failed so far, but I am very aware of the need to let them breathe (need air circulation to let the heat escape). They may not seem hot compared to an incandescent, but when overheated they have a short life. They didn't offer bulbs larger than 60w for quite some time as they were having a hard time keeping them cool enough to work well.

The whole backend of the bulb is a heat sink so they are not ideal to use in a closed fixture, particularly an issue for a higher wattage bulb. Part of your problem might be the style of lamp that you are using with a bulb that size.
 
White LED efficiency has improved significantly over the past fifteen years from 40 lumens/watt to over 140 lumens/watt. The significance of this is that less heat is generated in the production of a given lumen output. Typical current 60 watt equivalent LED's draw about 9 watts, the majority of which is lost as heat. 100 watt equivalent LED's draw around 15 watts.

Driver circuits vary widely from manufacturer to manufacturer but usually have a bridge rectifier and filter capacitor followed by a switching supply to power the LED's. LED count also varies widely. I have seen as few as 10 and as many as 47. LED's have native operating range between 3.0 and 3.5 volts and they are wired in series to create an overall voltage requirement consistent with the driver. The 47 LED bulb, for example, probably drove directly off line voltage as no load voltage from a full wave bridge rectifier is 17 volts more or less or 3.7 volts/per LED with some loading, the voltage would drop nicely into the optimum operating range.

I pull my bad bulbs apart. Partially to see what makes them tick but also to salvage the LED nodules. The LED's are surface mount devices and can be unsoldered and wired as individual LED's.
 
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@Aaron_W I am aware of that. They do better with the heat sink below the bulb. I don't really have a choice, I need the light on my parts.

Could you possibly add some kind of ventilation to the back of your lamps? I have several work lamps made for LEDs and they all have an open or mesh back to allow air flow. By swing lamps I'm assuming the usual sort of cup like shade which will trap and hold the heat in close to the bulb, kind of a worst case design scenario for a lightbulb shaped LED bulb.
 
I could drill more holes, than already exist, but I don't know if it will do enough to warrant the effort.
 
Newer LED bulbs run much cooler then those in years past and the drivers can vary significantly. I would look for bulbs with the higher lumens and lowest wattage for that category. You might also look at a PAR20/30 bulb, just because they have a longer neck and should have better cooling. I also find that the PAR/BR sometimes have a single large LED (so all or nothing). It comes down to just finding a brand/bulb that doesn't burn out in 1-2 years. Historically, the eBay/Amazon generic types I would purchased had up to a 50% failure rate in a year, Feit wasn't much better. Three years ago I replaced all the bulbs/florescent's in my house which was over 120 bulbs. Overhead floods I replaced with the Feit retrofit heads and haven't had a failure, some were PAR 20/38 Philips, and others mostly MaxLite of which 4 of those have failed and I expect more to go. Warranty is a bit useless on internet sales, but agree if you get them from a hardware store (as opposed to on-line) and keep your receipt, just return them.
FYI, I replaced all my garage florescent with direct replacement Philips LED (no ballast removal) that I picked up from HD on sale. They are warrantied for 5 years, they are brighter then the florescents, save a bunch of power and do not flicker when cold. Must be a newer model because the older ones had more variable reviews. So far no failures out of 32 bulbs.
 
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