Colin Leake Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 I'm not convinced they are always what they are cracked up to be. We've got loads of them in our house and are very pleased with them and I've calculated that if I live to be 108 they will pay for themselves in terms of electric saving. However our AutoTrail has all LED lighting. All of the hidden mood lights above the cupboards have failed some more than once, and one of the spotlights has also failed. All have been replaced under warranty even though the initial warranty is out of time, but should they be failing like this? My theory is that either they don't like the vibration in the motorhome causing the circuits that run them to fail or they don't like the higher voltage they are subjected to when the battery is being charged, or may be AutoTrail are using some cheap and nasty lights. Has anyone else had problems like this or any ideas as to what is causing it. We are off on holiday in the morning for the rest of the month but have the motorhome booked in early in August for two more sets to be replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 Colin Leake - 2013-07-09 4:52 PM I'm not convinced they are always what they are cracked up to be. We've got loads of them in our house and are very pleased with them and I've calculated that if I live to be 108 they will pay for themselves in terms of electric saving. However our AutoTrail has all LED lighting. All of the hidden mood lights above the cupboards have failed some more than once, and one of the spotlights has also failed. All have been replaced under warranty even though the initial warranty is out of time, but should they be failing like this? My theory is that either they don't like the vibration in the motorhome causing the circuits that run them to fail or they don't like the higher voltage they are subjected to when the battery is being charged, or may be AutoTrail are using some cheap and nasty lights. Has anyone else had problems like this or any ideas as to what is causing it. We are off on holiday in the morning for the rest of the month but have the motorhome booked in early in August for two more sets to be replaced. That's disappointing to hear, but doesn't resonate with my experience of LED bulbs in motorhomes at all. I swapped all internal light bulbs to LED's on the previous motorhome (bought via ebay), and all ran without failing, under pretty regular use, for the next 3 years. Then, when I part-exed it at a Dealer for our present motorhome, I swapped all those LED's (with his agreement) over into the "new" motorhome. I then bought a few more, and some "striplight" LED's from Ikea too. All have continued to work perfectly over the past 12 months since, which amounts to about another 22 or so weeks away, chugging all over mainland Europe. I am VERY pleased indeed with them. I should add that the Led's I have bought are the ones where the actual element looks like a tiny yellow square, in "warm white". They are NOT the cheapo (earlier?) Chinese versions with what looks like lots of little glass "mini-bulbs" festooned along/on the backing plate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 We have had the same problems and my suspicion is that the early (cheap) LED 'bulbs' were over sensitive to charging voltages. By that I mean that they were quoted as being 12 volt and 12 volt they were, not 13.6 (or even 14.7 that the solar panel regulator occasionally used). They can have very extended lives, as those in our domestic equipment have shown, but in a mobile home with all the changing values of voltage, vibration and considerable temperature changes, they have been up to now rather suspect, however I am optimistic that things are getting better after a dodgy start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 Changed mine to LED's 3 years ago, some from a UK source, some cheapies from Hong Kong, none have failed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leake Posted July 9, 2013 Author Share Posted July 9, 2013 BGD - 2013-07-09 4:02 PM Colin Leake - 2013-07-09 4:52 PM I'm not convinced they are always what they are cracked up to be. We've got loads of them in our house and are very pleased with them and I've calculated that if I live to be 108 they will pay for themselves in terms of electric saving. However our AutoTrail has all LED lighting. All of the hidden mood lights above the cupboards have failed some more than once, and one of the spotlights has also failed. All have been replaced under warranty even though the initial warranty is out of time, but should they be failing like this? My theory is that either they don't like the vibration in the motorhome causing the circuits that run them to fail or they don't like the higher voltage they are subjected to when the battery is being charged, or may be AutoTrail are using some cheap and nasty lights. Has anyone else had problems like this or any ideas as to what is causing it. We are off on holiday in the morning for the rest of the month but have the motorhome booked in early in August for two more sets to be replaced. That's disappointing to hear, but doesn't resonate with my experience of LED bulbs in motorhomes at all. I swapped all internal light bulbs to LED's on the previous motorhome (bought via ebay), and all ran without failing, under pretty regular use, for the next 3 years. Then, when I part-exed it at a Dealer for our present motorhome, I swapped all those LED's (with his agreement) over into the "new" motorhome. I then bought a few more, and some "striplight" LED's from Ikea too. All have continued to work perfectly over the past 12 months since, which amounts to about another 22 or so weeks away, chugging all over mainland Europe. I am VERY pleased indeed with them. I should add that the Led's I have bought are the ones where the actual element looks like a tiny yellow square, in "warm white". They are NOT the cheapo (earlier?) Chinese versions with what looks like lots of little glass "mini-bulbs" festooned along/on the backing plate. That's the type we are changing to as the spotlight ones go. If the hidden lights keep failing we are going to change to fluorescent tube light there to replace the. We don't wild camp so not bothered about consumption. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 BGD - 2013-07-09 4:02 PM ...I should add that the Led's I have bought are the ones where the actual element looks like a tiny yellow square, in "warm white". They are NOT the cheapo (earlier?) Chinese versions with what looks like lots of little glass "mini-bulbs" festooned along/on the backing plate. The traditional LED was (and is) of the 'mini-bulb' type. More recently SMDs ("little yellow squares") have begun to be used, as described here: http://www.lightingmarket.co.uk/faq_info.html?faqs_id=128 Of the replacement LED bulbs fitted to my Hobby some years ago, one 'traditional' bulb failed completely (melted and fell apart), while one of the SMD bulbs failed partially.Reliability seems to be pot luck but, if Auto-Trail LED lighting is generally problematical, something is basically wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterjl Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 Hi my last m/ home was an Autotrail, the LED spots failed regularly so I changed the bulbs for ordinary bulbs. Result - no failures and the light quality was vastly improved from poor to good. My current m/ home has LEDs, none have failed in 17000 miles but equally the light quality leaves something to be desired. Both my wife and i have hobbies that require decent light quality so i am considering adding some proper lights. Good luck Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod_vw Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 When I built our current PVC I fitted six 2W round Lumo SMD LED lights in the roof, they are switched in two strings of three. After twelve months a majority were giving problems, flickering and some individual LEDs not working. After some negotiation with Lumo they replaced all six with a later version which have now been in service without problems for almost twelve months. The camper is used as every day transport plus between 70 and 100 nights camping each year. I have also used short swivel LED strip lights both in this vehicle and its predecessor with no problem what so ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zydeco Joe Posted July 14, 2013 Share Posted July 14, 2013 Replace a few of the bulbs in our 2005 Auto Trail Tracker with LED's that I got from the show at Malvern last year. One warm light that I put into the bathroom has two of the small yellow squares that flickers can I just somehow just break these 2 and still keep the bulb working. Its not a mega problem with the flicker but would be better without it. Other LED's I replaced are cool light not warm light and are working ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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