LED overhead light

Tomme boy

Tomme boy

Well-Known Member
I went to Harbor Freight today and picked up a 4' 5000 lumen LED light today. OH MY GOD BECKY LOOK AT THAT LIGHT!!!!

After I put this one light up I was able to take down 2 of my 4' double bulb overhead lights. This one light has more light than the other two combined. Bad thing is now I can see more of my mess I need to clean up.

I had one other LED overhead but it was a 3000 i think. It was bright but nothing like this one. If you have not tried one of these I highly recommend one.
 
CWLONGSHOT

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
Good deal Tom!!
I have a couple but probably the 3k you mention as brighter but not obnoxiously so. I like good light!!

CW
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I started putting them in my garage/shop. No more flickering fluorescent's anytime the temp is below 40F. My sole complaint is that they tend to either work forever or not at all. Once they're done, that's the radish. I keep hearing about the ones with replaceable lights, but I haven't seen one yet or what they cost.
 
D

Dusty Bannister

Well-Known Member
I have one of the 5000 single "Tube" LED lights and it is almost too much light if low head room. As noted they will either fail soon, or last, so I got a spare.
 
Rick

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
For all the LED bulbs I have, in the past 8 years I have had two go bad. One was a 3-way bulb in the bedroom, The other was one of 3 bulbs in the bathroom. The bathroom bulb started flashing like a strobe light, reached up to unscrew it and it was hotter than an incandescent bulb. LED's should only ever be just warm to the touch, never hot. But with as many LED's as I have and for 8 years 2 going bad isn't a terrible thing.
 
Rick

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Dusty Bannister said:
I have one of the 5000 single "Tube" LED lights and it is almost too much light if low head room. As noted they will either fail soon, or last, so I got a spare.
Click to expand...

I replaced a two bulb fluorescent in my laundry room with a four strip LED. Just about need sunglasses in there. :eek:
 
Mitty38

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
I did all my lights 5 years ago. The only one the has went bad is the porch light. Replaced that twice.
 
Glaciers

Glaciers

Alaska Land of the Midnight Sun
Yeah completely replaced the lights and bulbs in fixtures when I could, twice the light, work in the cold, at about 60% of the electric consumed. But nothing above 4100 K. Don’t like the bluer light of the 5000 series.
 
J

Jeff H

NW Ohio
I did the same - replaced everything I could thin of in the house. I think there's a CFL in the basement, up between floor joists I may have missed and the ones in a crawl space I don't care to crawl in are a couple incans - maybe.

In the shop, I was picking up 4' LED strips, fixture and all for $15 and tried to "stock up" while they were cheap, but now the cheapest ones I see are $25. I managed to replace all of them in the house while the price was still being subsidized but the electric companies. Now, they aren't so cheap.

Avoid the LED tubes meant to be a direct replacement for fluorescent tubes in fluorescent fixtures, at least the ones from WM. They are terribly unreliable and don't last long. Ditch the whole old fixture and get the strips. They pop right on, even when it's well below freezing in the shop.

These things are a boon, especially as ammo can of lead get heavier with age, shops get dimmer with age and these lights are very convenient. For the first time in many decades, I actually have REAL LIGHT over my casting bench. Never though to install a light over it until I started marveling at being able to actually SEE score lines on wood projects and can read the divisions on my scales and rules again.

While on the topic, I've started using a headlamp a lot lately too and did a bunch of searching for something of quality and not priced astronomically. I finally found a brand and to models with which I am very happy; Sofirn HS05 (1XAA) and Sofirn SP40 (1Xrechargeable 18650), both of which run a long time on a cell and are made extremely well, plus very inexpensive, as they are looking for a foothold in the market. They are 1/2 to 1/3 what the other higher quality Chinese (aren't they all?) lights are. They're not overloaded with a bunch of stupid, useless features and modes either. I use these a LOT working on the house and vehicles now.
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
Coast LED headlamps have served me well, both the 3 and 5 element ones. I use rechargeable Lithium AAA batteries in them. Might have to check out the Sofirn ones myself and see how they stack up against the Coast brand that I've been using for nearly 15 years.

Edit: Ok, never mind those! Heavy, hot, and way too bright for close work. The 175-lumen Coast headlamp with the tilting head is perfect for working at arm's length. I see they're on big sale, which means they're about to be discontinued, so I'm going to pick up a couple more right now.
 
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Red Bear

Red Bear

Member
i bought overhead led lights from amazon they have arms that fold down and form a star each one is 7500 lumens each. they screw in like regular bulb. only $14 dollars each. i was shocked just how bright these are. liked them so well replaced all of the four foot fluorescent lights in my garage and casting area. absolutely love these. but you have to watch because they sell lights that range from 2000 to 7500 lumens that look the same and about same price. the only downfall to led lights is they dim over time. since its over time you dont really notice it.if you check one thats 6 months or a year old against a new one its clear that they dim. found this out with aquarium lights. other bulbs burn out and have to be replaced just remeber that these need replacing even if they still light. each one of these replaced a four ft four bulb fixture. and was a lot brighter.
 

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J

Jeff H

NW Ohio
@Ian, they run sales all the time. Trying to compete with Fenix, which is no better, but much more expenive - and I have a number of Fenix lights to compare to.

The smaller of the headlamps I mention is only that bright with a 14500 cell, which is, I think, 3V, but the same dimensions as a AA. I just use AAs and deal with a lot less light. They also have very useful lower modes. The knock-yer-socks-off levels are to SELL. Seems to be the craze.

I had a few older headlamps which I finally killed and needed replacements. All I could find were landing lights for C130s, strobe, SOS, yankee-doodle-dandy mode, whistlin'-Dixie mode, "simple user interface" (what ever happened to a blankety-blank SWITCH?!) and they were expensive.

Hang onto your Coast as long as it works. Trying to replace anything over a year old these days means a complete rethink - no one seems to appreciate timeless values and features any more.
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I guess I'm weird, but for some stuff I still like the plain old incandescent bulbs. I need them for the barn, where they provide just enough heat to keep my water drops from freezing. I also prefer something 75-100 watts of good old fashioned warm white for reading...you know, books! Those things with all the pages that are actually physical and not electrons? Those things. The bright white LEds just give me a headache.

LEDs on vehicles- They're great. But for the Pete's sake, make sure they're aimed right!!! Every yahoo up here seems to have 8 zillion CP LEDS and even the low beam is aimed at my windshield!!!
 
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Tomme boy

Tomme boy

Well-Known Member
All of my fluorescent's had daylight correct bulbs. I had a case of them from when I was working at the paint store. They were the ones we sold to body shops so they could match the paints better. Light source can cause the paint to be WAY off. I finally used all of them up last year.
 
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