Cree Bulbs

[smokegrub]

The recessed fixture Cree bulbs have performed well with my ISY9994i IR Pro and Insteon switches. However, in less than 2 years 2 of 6 have failed. They have a 10-year warranty, but I did not keep my sales receipt and other required information for replacement by the manufacturer. Have you experienced a similar failure rate? Given the high price of these bulbs this does not bode well for their future use in my home.

[Guitartexan01]

I have around 20 of the Cree 100 watt A19 (standard lightbulb type) and 4 of the BR30 recessed can type. I've found that what makes a difference is dimming. If you're dimming them regularly, you will get more frequent failures. I've had 2 of the recessed type go out and two of the A19 go out within 6 months and on dimmers.

The good thing is, Cree does stand behind the, provided you have the receipt. If the place where you bought them won't do a warranty exchange without a receipt, I suggest buying a few more for your home and using THAT receipt to get them replaced. I've done that once myself due to a lost receipt.

Hey, it's my money. I just make sure and don't misplace receipts anymore.

Good luck.

 

 

GT

[apostolakisl]

I have many (like maybe 100) Cree CR6 fixtures and have had no failures.  About half of them are 6 years old and the other half are 2 years old.

 

I have maybe 25 of the A19 bulbs and have had about 4 fail.  These have all failed in less than 2 years.  Clearly the A19 are not made to the same standard.  HD requires that you mail them back to Cree.  Not impressed.

[larryllix]

I attempted the new receipt trick at The Borg (HD) but the Cree bulbs have all changed styles as they constantly find ways to improve and make them cheaper. I couldn't find the last style Cree manufactured.

 

I took the bulb back into the customer desk in a different city,  just incase they said "No" and I was marked for future. The Borg is the only store that handles Cree here anyway. I was ready for the fight. I had no receipt and the woman admitted that they had no defective bulb policy or process set up, did the shifty eye thing, and told me to just take the replacement unit and go.

 

The new 60W equiv. has vents in the bulb and much larger size and also doesn't dim with the same curve as the other five in the chandelier.

 

Great! Now we have LED bulbs that will fill up with dust on internal parts with no access to  wipe clean.

[Brian H]

I have the early A19 type Cree Bulbs not the 4 flow ones now being sold.

 

I have had the shells just get loose and fall off. Flicker On and Off then die. Using a Insteon Switchlinc Relay. No dimmers on any of them.

 

The more expensive TW models with CRI of >90 on standard wall switches do the samething. Pulse flicker and then die.

[apostolakisl]

I have the early A19 type Cree Bulbs not the 4 flow ones now being sold.

 

I have had the shells just get loose and fall off. Flicker On and Off then die. Using a Insteon Switchlinc Relay. No dimmers on any of them.

 

The more expensive TW models with CRI of >90 on standard wall switches do the samething. Pulse flicker and then die.

 

They still have both the new flow ones and the older ones at my HD.  Just bought 2 of the older style to replace bad ones.

[larryllix]

My HD had the 25watt and 40watt equiv in the old style but all the 60W were the new vented units, thus the odd style for one bulb in a group of six. Tried three stores for the older 60W style but no find.

 

In Canada, here, we have no CRI >90 bulbs in Cree yet. The old stock has to move first and they are pushing the Philips flat weird  junk first. I checked in Florida and Buffalo in January and they had no >90 CRI either.

[EricK]

I've installed about 10 Cree par30 bulbs and have been disappointed. They are on dimmers, although we run them full on. I just pulled one because it was flickering and then died and noticed the housing was a bit crooked where it meets the glass. Not sure why I didn't notice when I installed it. I have one other in my daughters room that I am not happy with.

In general I will be avoiding cree bulbs since their qc is not good. There were imperfections in the coating on the glass on several bulbs.

What I have bought and like are the philips par30 bulbs, the funny looking ones. Great light output. I have 5 in my sons room that have been working great.

[apostolakisl]

I think cree's professional grade stuff is very good. The CR6 are great and I have a bunch of Cree troffers in my office that have all been great.  However, the mass market low price stuff seems to be junk.

[smokegrub]

I don't particularly mind some Cree bulbs having a two-year life, but I do mind their being advertised and sold at prices indicative of 10 years service. Maintaining sales receipts keyed to specific bubs and their location is just too much trouble. It would be especially useful if we had a bulb section at the forum where we could document our experiences and thus enable us to make better purchasing decisions.

[Teken]

I think cree's professional grade stuff is very good. The CR6 are great and I have a bunch of Cree troffers in my office that have all been great.  However, the mass market low price stuff seems to be junk.

 

Unfortunately, one would think since its 2015 that manufacturers would use all that vast knowledge, techniques, and design principles they garnered over the years to produce a long term reliable product.

 

The reality is its the race to the bottom and most of that is driven by consumer demands. I can freely admit I want cheap things because it helps the pocket book and offers value. So I know I am also part of the problem and over the last ten years of tried very hard to change my attitude and focus on rewarding those that truly produce top notch products and hardware.

 

I lived and breath on the cheap and know 70% of the time I made out like a bandit and received lots of value for my money. While on the other side of that the remaining 30% I was a sucker and got what I paid for.

 

Pure junk because I was simply being a cheap aszz!

 

No more . . .

 

My mentality is spend my money once and spend it well!

 

In the last ten years there hasn't been very many regrets or *I wish I should have* situations.

 

Why?

 

I stopped, looked, and listened to those before me that provided not only insight but personal experience of a product etc. I don't know how people feel about the Internet as a whole. But I can tell you from a personal view I love the Internet and the ability to share, learn, and obtain almost anything I want.

 

In the end all of use need to change our buying habits and reward those makers that produce top quality products with their finances. Nothing speaks louder than ones pocket book!

 

 

I don't particularly mind some Cree bulbs having a two-year life, but I do mind their being advertised and sold at prices indicative of 10 years service. Maintaining sales receipts keyed to specific bubs and their location is just too much trouble. It would be especially useful if we had a bulb section at the forum where we could document our experiences and thus enable us to make better purchasing decisions.

 

There is a custom program that I will try to find for the forum members. This program was created by another forum I was active on more than 15 years ago. This novel program allows a person to inventory any item they want in their home.

 

The main feature which many love is having the ability to create categories along with embedding a photo whether it be the item or receipt or both. Then you have a area where you can write down a description of the item with what ever details you wish.

 

This data base then can be saved to a USB drive, CD, DVD, or to the cloud like SkyDrive, etc.

 

In the end it allows a person to have a scanned copy of a receipt, photo, and description and is great for insurance purposes! I've been meaning to use this small software application for years but have opted to use whats convenient at the time which is my phone and then its simply synced to the cloud and I always have a receipt and photo for historic recall. 

[Scottmichaelj]

There is a custom program that I will try to find for the forum members. This program was created by another forum I was active on more than 15 years ago. This novel program allows a person to inventory any item they want in their home.

 

The main feature which many love is having the ability to create categories along with embedding a photo whether it be the item or receipt or both. Then you have a area where you can write down a description of the item with what ever details you wish.

 

This data base then can be saved to a USB drive, CD, DVD, or to the cloud like SkyDrive, etc.

 

In the end it allows a person to have a scanned copy of a receipt, photo, and description and is great for insurance purposes! I've been meaning to use this small software application for years but have opted to use whats convenient at the time which is my phone and then its simply synced to the cloud and I always have a receipt and photo for historic recall.

No need for a custom program just use Evernote! I personally love the service and seriously no exaggeration I cant imagine my life without it. Its on my top 10 favorite apps and pieces of tech. There is a paid and free versions. Just create a notebook called receipts, make a new note whats on the receipt and snap a pic. Then when you need it you can just print it back out! Done. Simple and OCR enabled. I also have a "User Manual" notebook and when I make a purchase I spend a couple minutes online to find the pdf version of the user/installation manual and put the pdf in Evernote. Then for example if I need to replace the water filter on the fridge and forgot to write down the model number for it and am at the store I just open Evernote app, search for "water filter" and am good to go! I pay for the premium version as I use this app daily. Needless to say my whole life is in it. Articles from websites, paint colors and pics of the labels of the can, recipes, wines I liked plus the labels, etc. the only thing is it wont create a list of items in my house but I can live without that.

 

Back on topic, I have about 40+ Home Depot EcoSmart (made by Cree) recessed can lights with trim in my home. Its a custom built home and I been here two years. I have had about 4 failed bulbs but HD swapped them out with no problems. Sometime last fall I did notice the EcoSmart brand (owned by HD I believe) did get switched to another manufacturer. I ran to a bunch of other stores and bought backups of about 20 bulbs while they still were Cree. My concern was if the Cree bulbs with 5000k daylight would be the same color as the new manufacturer. Most of them were just flickering and died about 4-6 months in, so hoping the lights that I do have now are going to make it. I do dim them every night and havent seen that being more/less of an issue. Side note I do own the Philips A19 LED for my lamps and have not had any duds with them. FWIW