4ft LED shop light

[Duffyjr]

My old 4ft florescent shop light in the garage decided to retire on me after 20 plus years so a searching I go and found this one at HF.

https://www.harborfreight.com/4-ft-led-hanging-shop-light-64410.html

Are these LED lights worth the cost, I guess what drew my attention to it was the 5000 Lumens and 30,000 service life.

Also is it common for these to be throw away, in other words some of the reviewers say the LED is not replaceable.

 

[KJSmith]

You can just replace the tubes with LED.

50k hr life is very common
The ones get at work have a 70k life.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/toggled...LED-Tube-Light-Bulb-D416-40311/206723426

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted by KJSmith
You can just replace the tubes with LED.

50k hr life is very common
The ones get at work have a 70k life.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/toggled...LED-Tube-Light-Bulb-D416-40311/206723426


It was my understanding that the ballast also needed replaced, but after reading the description, I see that's not the case here. Very interesting.

 

[Duffyjr]

Originally Posted by KJSmith
You can just replace the tubes with LED.

50k hr life is very common
The ones get at work have a 70k life.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/toggled...LED-Tube-Light-Bulb-D416-40311/206723426


That is interesting but when mine failed to come on I thought it was the florescent tubes needed replacing so I replaced them and it didn't work, I tested the bulbs in my kitchen so I know they're good.. This is a cheap one I got and I don't see where I could replace the ballast. Besides the only way to turn it on and off was with the plug, it's time I stepped up to one with a pull chain.

 

[Leo99]

I'd get one or two of these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commerc...LED-Shop-Light-SHOP-4X1-840-HD/306380608

 

[greenjp]

Flourescent lamp ballasts use a not inconsiderable amount of energy so you shouldn't leave them in, even if the LEDs say you can.

50k hours, 70k, it's all theoretical. LEDs themselves don't "burn out" per se, but just get dimmer over time. The quoted hours is typically an estimate of how long it'll take to get to 70% of the initial brightness, based on accelerated usage testing. They're more likely to fail much, much sooner than that due to the various electronics within going bad.

I have several of these (they're available in many different configurations/color temps, under many brand names but presumably all from the same manufacturer in China) in my garage and will be installing a bunch in my mother in law's basement and garage next week. Nice and cheap if you just need a light source.

jeff

 

[eljefino]

I got "just tubes" for $2.50 each at Lowes. Utilitech, on "clearance".

I believe my state may have had some sort of subsidy. But this was a couple years back, too.

It would be worth researching if said bulbs can run directly off 120V as some do, and many more will be able to. Then if it's your ballast that died, you can wire around it.

I think you can do better, cheaper.

 

[Rat407]

Costco here has the shop light for $19.99 each. You can daisy chain up to four at a time.

 

[Linctex]

GOOD quality LED's have good, long life...

cheap Chinese garbage - - - does NOT

If you know someone with a Costco membership,
check out the 4' LED shop lights there - -
those are the nicest you will find at that low of a price

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted by greenjp

50k hours, 70k, it's all theoretical. LEDs themselves don't "burn out" per se, but just get dimmer over time.



NOPE...... all of the cheap ones I have bought, it is the power supply ("driver") that burns up before they get dim

 

[The_Nuke]

Originally Posted by Leo99
I'd get one or two of these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commerc...LED-Shop-Light-SHOP-4X1-840-HD/306380608


Those are good lights. I just had to throw mine away, but I had it for several years and used it as a drop light when working on the car, so it met a considerable amount of abuse during its time.

One drawback is that they will bring the mosquitoes in like nothing else, but I was able to mitigate that by wrapping it in red taillight repair tape. That made for an interesting look from the street at night, but I don't care what the neighbors think if I'm managing to reduce the mosquito count exponentially by doing whatever it is drawing their ire.

 

[Duffyjr]

Thanks guys, no homedepot or costco with in 80 miles. Menards, Wally and HF are all I have for reasonable price. I'd rather buy HF than Menards plus 20% off at HF will help.

Funny thing I put the old tubes back in the light and forgot to unplug it and when I went back out an hour later it had come on but I unplugged it and plugged it back in and nothing, time for a new one.

Thanks again!

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by greenjp

50k hours, 70k, it's all theoretical. LEDs themselves don't "burn out" per se, but just get dimmer over time.



NOPE...... all of the cheap ones I have bought, it is the power supply ("driver") that burns up before they get dim



try reading farther you skipped the part where you are agreeing with him to disagree?

Originally Posted by greenjp

50k hours, 70k, it's all theoretical. LEDs themselves don't "burn out" per se, but just get dimmer over time. The quoted hours is typically an estimate of how long it'll take to get to 70% of the initial brightness, based on accelerated usage testing. They're more likely to fail much, much sooner than that due to the various electronics within going bad.



Underline for emphasis

 

[cpayne5]

I've been very happy with the LED shop lights I bought at Rural King.

 

[KJSmith]

70k hrs may be theory to you.... the LED's I buy ( from Grainger) also come with a 7yr warranty.
They are GE branded, made in China.
I pay right at $10.00 a tube.

I have installed well more than 1000 of these in my area.
No failures... not a single one.

You can get LED's that are direct power, ballast powered, or driver driven.
Direct and ballast power just supply power to an internal DC driver.

It is my understanding that the LED's will not burn out or dim.
The driver will fail first.

I rarely see LED's of any kind rated at less than 50k hrs.

If they are, I would avoid them.

 

[Kruse]

I've also helped replace LED bulbs into light fixtures that were previously fluorescent. We recently replaced over 1000 of these in a grade school, a complete retrofit.
We have one or two that were bad out of the box, but no complaints from them after they were installed. It's the only way to go when buying lights.
The guarantees on the bulbs that we buy are 5+ years, but I'm sure there will be a few early failures, you've got to remember that these are from China.
The problem I have with anything of this nature purchased from Harbor Freight is their warranty, or lack thereof.
The Harbor Freight light or lights that you are thinking about buying have only a 90 day warranty. That's pretty pathetic.

 

[Roger]

I replaced the old 4 foot florescent light in my garage with two of these 100-watt GE LED Bright Stiks from Sams Club a couple of years ago. Simple enough install and bright enough to light up the whole neighborhood thru the garage windows at night!! Luv 'em.

 

[92saturnsl2]

You can't just plop the LED tube bulbs into a fluorescent fixture, you have to bypass the ballast first. Not exactly plug & play.

As far as the HF 4' lamps, we have several in our shop and they're quite good. If you have really high ceilings or a very large room you might be disappointed, but they certainly perform better than a traditional fluorescent fixture. Nice bright WHITE light. You can't replace the LED in them because it's an array of dozens of smaller LEDs, not just a single bulb. Ours have been in use for over a year now and still working just like the day we installed them.

 

[jhellwig]

Originally Posted by 92saturnsl2
You can't just plop the LED tube bulbs into a fluorescent fixture, you have to bypass the ballast first. Not exactly plug & play.

As far as the HF 4' lamps, we have several in our shop and they're quite good. If you have really high ceilings or a very large room you might be disappointed, but they certainly perform better than a traditional fluorescent fixture. Nice bright WHITE light. You can't replace the LED in them because it's an array of dozens of smaller LEDs, not just a single bulb. Ours have been in use for over a year now and still working just like the day we installed them.


Not all of them have to have the ballast bypassed. Some have to have the ballast.

 

[greenjp]

Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by greenjp

50k hours, 70k, it's all theoretical. LEDs themselves don't "burn out" per se, but just get dimmer over time.



NOPE...... all of the cheap ones I have bought, it is the power supply ("driver") that burns up before they get dim

As Rand pointed out you should have kept reading

Originally Posted by KJSmith
70k hrs may be theory to you.... the LED's I buy ( from Grainger) also come with a 7yr warranty.


I have installed well more than 1000 of these in my area.
No failures... not a single one.

70k hours is 8 years if they're on 24/7. Very few people actually have a significant number of lamps in use that long.

Originally Posted by KJSmith
It is my understanding that the LED's will not burn out or dim.
The driver will fail first.

Look up the LM80 and TM21 tests, or the term L70. Industry standard LED output decrease tests, which the ratings you see on packaging are based on. As I said the power electronics are more likely to go bad before the LEDs dim or "burn out" but that's not what's advertised. They're not advertising the mean time between failure for the entire system. Even the "good" ones don't actually have warranties that are for as long as the notional L70 life.

jeff