Cree LED fails early in Consumer Reports' tests. Falls far short of longevity claims

The great thing about energy-saving LED lightbulbs is that they’re designed to last a long time—often 23 years. And that’s why when some Cree LED spotlights died early in one of Consumer Reports’ tests—the most failures our lightbulb experts have seen for LEDs—it raised questions.

The dimmable Cree PAR38 Bright White LED spotlight replaces a 90-watt incandescent lightbulb and has a 27° beam angle. We paid $24 apiece at Home Depot. The model number is BPAR38-1503027T-12DE26-1U100. Here's what we found.

The tests. Our engineers conduct a number of different tests for brightness, energy use, light color, and more. Cycle testing tells us how the bulbs hold up after being frequently turned on and off. That on/off affects CFLs, but hadn’t affected LEDs, until now. Four of the eight Cree LEDs died after about a third of the way through the test.

And in our 3,000 hours life test, two of the 10 LEDs died, something that is unusual for LEDs but we have seen this in the past. One Cree LED went out before 500 hours and the other around 1,700 hours. This LED is meant to last 25,000 hours, or nearly 23 years when used 3 hours a day.

Need to know. Several visitors to HomeDepot.com commented that this LED failed very early on for them as well. The LED is Energy Star qualified, meaning it met Energy Star’s high standards when tested by a third party (not Energy Star and not Cree). And while Energy Star LEDs must have a warranty of at least 3 years, the Cree’s warranty is 10 years. This shows why you should save your receipt. And if you’re planning to buy PAR38 LEDs, especially for outdoor use with a motion sensor that frequently turns them on and off, consider the Great Value 90W PAR38 LED Soft White NonDimmable LED from Walmart. It’s $22 and a CR Best Buy.

One more thing. In our past tests Cree LEDs have done very well. We recommend the Cree 9.5-watt (60W) A19 Warm White Dimmable LED and at $8.50 it's a CR Best Buy. Our tests of the Cree PAR38 LEDs continue and we’ll continue to report on our findings.

—Kimberly Janeway 

Cree recalls the T8 tube LED due to fire hazard

Citing overheating dangers, the North Carolina-based lighting manufacturer is recalling 700,000 LED fixtures designed to replace fluorescent tube lighting.

Cree

Cree has issued a voluntary recall of its tube-shaped T8 LED, a light designed to replace fluorescent bulbs in common commercial and office fixtures. The company estimates that roughly 700,000 units are affected, citing a potential fire hazard as the cause of concern.

According to the North Carolina-based manufacturer, the problem stems from electrical resistance between the spring contact and the printed circuit board. This resistance can lead to electrical arcing, which can, in turn, cause the light to overheat. At that point, the lamp could begin to melt, posing fire and burn hazards.

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Cree

The T8 LEDs are sold through distributors to commercial lighting customers, and exclusively at Home Depot for residential usage. Nine SKUs in total are affected by the defect, and sales of all nine were halted on April 30th, 2015. Owners of those bulbs should disconnect them and contact Cree for a free replacement or a refund.

A Cree representative provided the following comment: "While known incidents are very small in relation to the number of products shipped, any potential safety issue is unacceptable. Cree is working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Health Canada and Profeco in Mexico to provide information to Cree T8 LED replacement lamp owners."

The representative goes on to emphasize that the issue is isolated to select models from the T8 LED line, and that it does not affect other product lines.