Ebay LED floodlight scam warning.
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- čas přidán 28. 10. 2014
- If you've bought or are considering buying an LED floodlight from ebay, then this video will show you some of the pitfalls. From unconnected ground wires to MUCH less than half the quoted power rating.
I'm not sure why it's so common to see the earth wires left unconnected. The fixture is mains voltage and metal, so it should be earthed, especially when the cable has an earth conductor in it. Although the LED operates at a reduced voltage, there is still the potential for water ingress, electronic failure or bad manufacturing that could result in the casing becoming live at mains voltage posing a shock hazard with the light and associated metalwork in the vicinity.
It's a shame really, because otherwise these fixtures are very neat and functional. The quality of the housing is quite good and the way the LED is mounted directly on the finned case means that it's temperature is maintained at sensible levels.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of CZcams's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. - Věda a technologie
Thanks to you i checked my five floodlights and found every one of them were not earthed, two leaking water through pinched seals. I have ordered new LEDs and drivers and owe you my gratitude as one of those could have whacked me big time.
Many thanks
"I don't know why they're doing this."
Money. It's always about the money. Always.
+phuturephunk lol -I was about to type the same thing
You can get the small ones for 3$ a piece
What the hell do you expect clive?
+phuturephunk And it's never about safety, so overheating can be ruled out as a motive.
+phuturephunk Indeed you are right. If there is one constant in the universe, it is people's motivation for and love of *MONEY*. Some will lie, cheat and steal to get it and Ebay is one such venue where you are GUARANTEED to eventually encounter such people, and I use the term **people** loosely here.
+phuturephunk
It's a lot more complicated that that. Nonsense/lack of understanding is a very powerful force, and it's not actually profitable. It's a labour and management problem, sure, and would take both money and effort to fix, but it's not "just about the money", it's about education and quality. Trying to blindly avoid costs will certainly result in failures of various sorts, but it's an issue of dereliction rather than it being less effort. For example, using faulty screwdrivers during assembly will not improve productivity, and it's a false economy. Refusing to use proper tooling doesn't result in efficiency, it's mean rather than profitable.
Putting a 10W supply and printing 20W on the box... I've seen worse. 128Gb flash keys labelled 2Gb with badly-printed Sony branding, which are formatted to show 2Gb via the USB controller. All sorts of malpractise & labelling-fraud is out there. It's very hard to regulate because Shenzhen's manufacturing industry has grown so fast.
Basically, if you want 20W, buy a "45W".
Well whats so the mening Whit wringting it in the first place?
Take for instans you are a eletricinen and you want to really bench test a energi supplie but you dont give it engoth watt to really do IT becours somebody at the factory cant do math!
@@rambo8863 reading this gave me brain cancer
Or buy American just be ready to pay more the inspector has to eat
@@smash72cutlass30 Does America even make these anymore? They don't seem financially viable.
James Collins
They keep making them because people love cheap. But these particular models should be extinct real soon. However the new state of the art models out will get dumbed down and made like crap. And that’s how the world turns.
Watching these videos is really quite entertaining and soothing. It's the kind of stuff I liked doing as a kid. Not messing with electricity or anything like that, but I used to take apart walkmans and stuff.
Im sure your parents "LOVED" you for it... as did Mine also 🤣🤣
You have a 20W light with a 10W supply and a 10W light with a 3W supply... so... put the 10W source into the 10W light and see what happens.
+Cristi Neagu yes.
+Cristi Neagu - I think there is a good chance that the "20W" LED is actually a 10W LED over driven to 12W and the the "10W" LED is actually a 5W LED. So I'm guessing that will result in smoke.
+sefton999 No, those are legit leds, but the quality might be horrible.
I think with a 10w LED, it would just draw 10W from the 20W supply. (If the voltage stays the same, it won't be over driven.) The wattage is kind of how much the power supply is able to provide at the specified voltage.
koenigscat That's the point. It would show how bright that LED actually is.
Well done! The manufacture most likely cut back on the supplies because of cost, and temperature problems. Temperature fix would mean more cost for the case. They most likely figured that most of the users would never measure the light output or the current consumption.
This review is excellent. I watched some of the other videos done by this man. He is terrific!
Hi Jerry. Long time no talk.
You're a unit of power Harry.
I'm a watt?
Lmao
Gave me a good chuckle
Why 1.1k minus thumbs. This guy is testing a product for all. The voice is clear and the video is sharp. Is the Chinese cornering the thumbs down market as well (lol) ;)
Because bulbs are rated in lumens not watts which is what he should be measuring. These may well be knock-offs of earlier versions and under rated or LED efficiencies for the same lumen output use fewer watts and these give out the same output as older 20W rated units. The case is metal and should be connected to EMT back to the main box so the box is at ground potential. The wiring ground may not be required in this version.
Viewer19, Thanks for the explanation.
Not a single led you buy draws the current its rated for..doesn't matter the brand or where its made
@@NateBrownsMix Your info is way out of date and doesn't even apply to this 'review'. The rating is about brightness, application is about electrical specs and purpose.
@Steve Mclean Dear nimrod you are so off base why are you talking about driver selection when that included here. The metal case would be connected to EMT that would be connected to a grounded metal mains box so the grounding would already be made. Please stop trying to pretend you have any first hand practical knowledge. I have gone though three careers working with a wide swath of technology I speak from experience. One comment from me is not going to have any real effect on this YTs channel but it did bring out your 'know it all' lameness.
Great observation! I just opened up a 10 watt one I bought whilst watching this video and - the earth (ground to us yanks) is floating, just like yours. The driver looks suspiciously like the size used on 3 watt LEDs (it has no printing on it), I haven't measured the draw as yet. Thank you for the safety observation!
3:48 3 screws "this must be the luxury model" LOL, fell off my chair at his comedy :P
yeah, American corporations that tell those china folks how to stick it to you.
Nobody's ever watched a movie where you needed to cut the yellow wire. Clearly it doesn't serve a purpose.
If grounds aren't needed then why is your house or flat, wiring grounded. How many fires do you hear about because of faulty wiring????
Clearly you haven't any experience in electrical or electronics to make a silly statement like that Mark.
If you had the basics of knowledge you would know what purpose an earth performs.
You guys REALLY thought that was a serious statement?
Mark,
the guy's right, an earth-ground wire is critical to safety--he just did not realize you were a very fast-working Asian electrician using Mark as an alias. There, now it's OK to keep cutting them and throwing into the copper bin for payday bonus recycling, they just had to know you were Asian first.
It's always the red or green wire that you cut. Or was it the blue?
Turn down 4 watts.
lol
Funny. Because there's a pop song called Turn down for what.
Ravi a thats why he made that comment
whooosh!
czcams.com/video/HMUDVMiITOU/video.html
very very dangerous, if it's not grounded.
someone needs to get these deathtraps of the market.
Report them to ebay and Amazon, FTC, state AG
agreed, one of mine nearly burned down my shed!
This reminds me of when I was looking in to LED lighting a couple of years ago. Labelling standards have changed since then, but here in the US consumer LED fixtures and light bulbs used to be labelled with the wattage of standard bulbs of equivalent brightness.
Still do!
This problem has been around in led grow lights since their inception
I bought something vaguely similar a while ago. The mains cable was like this one, so short, that it was useless. It was only when replacing the mains cable that I found it wasn't really earthed, they had stuffed the earth wire into the cable gland and hoped for the best. Fortunately however, when replaced with a proper cable, the light worked well and still does so some four years later, so it wasn't all bad.
0:41 "and... you know WATT?"
Oh that hertz my brain.
XD
STOP YOUR CURRENT PUN'S
go commit stop making puns
Ohm my god you guys need to stop
IM LUMEN MY MIND
Part of me was expecting a map when he said "let's look at the earth".
Hahaha. XD
Thanks for doing these videos. Just stumbled on your them as I researched theses lights, timing for the warning was perfect!
That is a very famous Chinese trick, half rating is not bad, I have seen a loudspeaker rated at a ridiculous 9000 W when it is really less than 90 W output.
Calbha Vaughn this one is not even a car speaker, but home entertainment unit.
Any speaker - car or otherwise - shouldn't be peak rated more (or less) than 1.414x RMS. RMS is purely the root mean square or 0.707. The RMS should be 0.707x peak. One thing I do see is that the likes of Argos when they do list both they say something like 70W RMS, 500W Peak for a 5 speaker system. They sometimes seem to calculate peak by taking the product of the inverse RMS and the number of speakers. For an individual speaker I'd expect *precisely* the product of the inverse RMS (1.414) for peak, always.
Before you start running your mouth, you really should know what your talking about. If your going to be rating equipment. Try an 80% demand. The dude is absolutely right it's junk.
speakers dont "OUTPUT" watts. a speaker's wattage rating is almost useless. the rating is designated by the manufacturer and is supposedly the maximum amount of watts per channel an amplifier that is driving them is rated.
speakers dont put out power. if anything, that rating would be 90 watt INPUT.
your point is true, though. just a pet peeve of mine from hearing people claiming their speakers are "pumping out 250 watts"! etc
Yes they do. Power = Energy / Time, and that energy does not have to be electrical energy. Sound is a form of energy.
"Wireless earth"? :D :D
Well wireless earth seems like a diet death, you save money by killing your electrician when he needs to service them
Dead electricians don't sue for unpaid, overdue balances. lol
Is that like those wireless anti-static wrist straps?
the one "verge" guy was wearing? to ground himself
Wifi earth
Your very easy to listen to but also it kept me engaged for the length of the video, thanks
His
''this must be the luxury model'' for 3 screws,nice one,made me laugh :D
Thanks for posting this. I bought a larger model of this light recently. Biggest piece of junk of all time. Ungrounded, wires too short, overstated wattage, motion detector impossible to retain settings, and finally, the thing failed to work at all. A complete and total rip-off. The whole unit seems to be made of the thinnest and cheapest materials possible. I won't ever buy one of these again.
Fair point Alan. I manage the electrical infrastructure on 24 sites for a large steel stock holder. I stipulate that all lighting we use must be UK manufacture and check this very carefully. Buy British. Long term cost will be less. Upfront a bit more but worth it imo.
The real sad part is that eBay is aware of these scams but refuses to take action. I did similar tests and then complained to eBay but was told just to return them...... When I expressed my concern to eBay about safety and false output levels I was informed it wasn't their problem. I guess its all about money now!
You are dead right with this. Not only is it dangerous, but it makes you wonder who is supposed to approve this stuff from a compliance perspective. In all fairness to ebay, they don't have the resourcing for this and I'm unsure how they could check things, due to the number of listings.
I think the answer is that people shouldn't purchase cheap items or possibly products out of china. Understanding the cost to manufacture versus the sale price may be one way to make a better assessment of the real quality.
Brilliant and very much enjoy your dry sense of humour, thank you. Not meaning to hi-jack your thread, however even well known outlets are selling inferior products. I purchased 2 x 30w PIR LEDs from a company (name ending 'station') recently. Both have been returned. First one failed its IP65 test (went pop in the rain), the second one's LUX sensor failed after a week.
No only that: about a year ago, I got 2 lights like that, seller and other sellers said "they were 20W lights". After opening units to confirm what they said, I took them to my test bench. I measured Voltage and Amperage going from its power supply to the LED light, I also measured its power supply consumption from 120 V AC outlet...In both measures NEITHER ONE was close to 20 Watts. In both cases, I got about 12 to 15 watts or less. Most of the time, they miss-advertise a lot of electronic devices because many buyers don't have the capability to test them.
We need 'Big Clive Approved' lights.
There are EU regulations and this is totally illegal to put anything like this on sale here. Just report those UK or EU dealers to the police. This here is a serious felony and for this they won't get away with just a fine.
There is no such thing as a Felony under either English or Scots law... The Criminal Law Act 1967 abolished the term in English law. The Police won't touch this - it's Trading Standards territory. And they're REALLY not interested until somebody gets killed or maimed or there are some statistics needing bolstered!
Hay Nonymous Federal law breaks local law.
I assume you're American Winston...
You will be surprised to learn that if you keep sailing East past the big metal lady with the ice-cream cone you do NOT fall off the edge of the world!
The video is produced by a Scotsman living on (correct me if I'm wrong Clive) the Isle of Man... Clive's valued contributions to the world of electrical safety are generally made with reference to the British system.
There is no such thing as 'Federal Law' anywhere on the British Isles. - And actually the systems of law here rather pre-dates the US system... Federal law, felony law.... All completely irrelevant in this context...
Hay Nonymous
You are assuming too much. Seems like a long time since you were last in Brussels, capital of the federation. Moreover was I referring to the dealer, not the Scotsman.
Most people for some reason aren't able to grasp the concept of the ground that europe so affectionately calls the earth ground. The ground is for personnel protection here in the states. It's there incase the one of the hot wires, in this case 220 input which is either wire, comes loose or chaffed but mainly comes in contact with the case or body or metal of the fixture itself. If the there is no ground the fixture becomes live to ground. Anyone touching it will be in for a big surprise. GROUND GROUND GROUND! It's there for a reason.
Precíz , gyors , érthető ! Nagyon ritka az ilyen videó ! Tanultam belőle , köszönet !
Nice upload mate, i’ll check my exterior lights for earthing now, thanks.
"This must be the deluxe model".....lolololol
yeah I got a kick out of that. lmfao
You should hook the 10w supply to the 10w LED and show us what it should look like?
good idea. Also, could the 20W issue be a 220V vs 110V thing? Like what would it draw if you plugged it in, in the US?
@@willdarling1, yeah maybe its made for 220v Europe, so 110v just makes it 10 watt output, so the chinese wont have to use diff transformers
I think China uses 240v power. Also possible that 20watts is its appearrant brightness (looks like 20w incandescent) while using only 13w of power.
@@Mcwidow I'm not absolutely sure but I believe bigclive is in the uk, possibly Scotland and so would be using 240 volts. What makes you think he was using 110 volts?
LED bulbs in the USA are advertised by “x# watt equivalent” but also state their actual wattage and lumens. A 60 watt equivalent bulb is usually around 12 watts for the LED.
The LEDs are also crappy and labeled over their real rating, so they use weaker power supplies to avoid burning off the LEDs.
I have taken these apart myself when the LED driver unit, or whatever you called it, had died after only a few months. When I discovered that the metal casing was not earthed, it was a startling realisation for me - electrical safety standards are not being enforced! We cannot assume that an electrical item is safe!
That's what a UL or ETL label is for. To ensure safety. I guess they don't have those in the UK.
it is not 20 watt it is 20 What??
+soton000 what?
+bingo bongo idiot says what?
+soton000 @ Watt write with big "W"
No it isn't - scientific units are always written in small letters. Only the abbreviation might be with capital first letter, and that is only if the unit's name is derived from a person's name (V, W, A, N, Pa etc., but m, g, l, h etc.)
The power supply is a 10 watt unit so is is a ten watt light. They lied because they can due to lack of US product regulations brought to us by our Republican criminals.
A 20 watt led replaces a 150 watt halogen lamp saving on your electricity bill and will help towards funeral expenses.
Alan Yates no. Hakogens are typically 1.5% to 3% efficient, where as leds are typically 8 to 10% efficient. Ie, leds give out 3x to 4x the light output of an undimmed halogen.
Nor Dic LEDs are 20-30% efficient, some even go to 45-50%
I have yet to find a LED fixture that can match the light output of my 500-watt halogen quartz floods which put out 11,000 lumens each.
BigDish101 just get a metal halide
@@BigDish101 it's actually not that hard to build something just like that with LEDs. Could probably put out far more power then that halogen lamp of yours.
I bought 4 of the 10W, and a 20W with IR sensor about 18 months ago for perimeter lighting just under the roof eaves. The 10W ones were just fine inside, the lamp assembly was a single piece, not reflector over top of a back-mounted LED. Quite nicely designed and made. The 20W had the same ground wire "issue" as yours - a silicone blob on the end of the wire floating around. I fixed that. I didn't check the power supply, it may have been undersized, don't know. Bright enough for our purposes.
The main problem was the short leads. I managed to solve it "legally" (NA codes) with a two-piece soft plastic/rubber knockout plug designed to seal small cables, and bolting the lamp immediately beside the J box in such a way there was enough slack to aim it the right way.
The IR unit's range was much too short - maxed out at about 15', I need more like twice that for best operation, but it'll do.
All that said, the IR unit has lasted 18 months. Which is about 12 months longer than either of the _two_ premium American branded ones it replaced - which only live on as box cover plates for these units (because they had screw threads for the rubber seals).
I'll be installing some 30 or 40W versions, I'll be sure to check them out more thoroughly, otherwise send them back.
It's astonishing how many different LED fixtures you can buy from China or other parts in the far east, and how few of anything similar to them make it here. And how much they cost when they get here.
Installed some CSA/UL approved 9W round ceiling recessed LED fixtures. The same thing in China is as low as $4. Here, it's $40-60. The difference being (a) they actually do meet our codes (despite being made in China), and (b) ours have junction boxes - made here from extruded aluminum and suitable for attachment to proper building wire.. The cost is in the low production volumes boxes.
You could make a nice little business partnering with a Chinese company making LED fixtures to CSA/UL-approvable levels (mostly QC, and better supply wire), and local sourcing the bits they don't want to do. If you had about $20K up front to get the approvals.
Clive, what's glue gun / glue combination are you using? My Draper 100W takes a few minutes to warm up but the glue comes out nowhere near as great as yours. It's silverline glue from ebay.
"this must be the luxury model" LMAO
LEDs been tagged for energy saving and longer lifespan but Chinese LED knockoffs do the opposite.
Their LED gets busted before making a break-even in savings.
mine did not even last a night LOL, it burned up really good, looks like a bit of space junk now and nearly destroyed one of my garden sheds.
What you called the Power Supply looks a LOT like a simple Block converter which is not heat sinked to the metal frame.
Hi Big Clive, love your youtube channel. Quick question on an unrelated topic. Do you know of any frequency meter that is sensitive enough to pick up a 300 mhz garage door opener. We install solar gates (mostly in agricultural areas) and in the U.S., 300 mhz receivers and transmitters are being phased out. We have a need to determine the exact frequency of the remote control transmitter. All of the ebay/amazon "frequency counters" are made primarily for amateur radio operators and they are putting out at least 1 watt. A keychain remote control for a garage door puts out a fraction of that. Any suggestions as to who might make such a tool?
You my wish to try the keywords RF frequency counter on eBay. Typically units with an antenna and digital display that will indicate the frequency of transmitters. I used to use one to test my DIY micro transmitters.
I tried some of the LED drivers to change the halogen lamps in a fitting we liked but wanted to change to LED. Even though the transformers were being driven under the rated wattage they could supply they would thermally trip after an hour or so. Ended up returning them both.
I bought a case of these led lights and wound up replacing them one by one about every other month! Biggest load of junk I ever bought!
That's crazy, I thought that by under-driving the LED, it would last longer. I am now guessing that the power supply has been cost-reduced to the point where it barely works at the best of times.
my one blew up instantly due to a lack of ballast and caught fire, nearly burning my shed down.
thank you for this youtube, i was definitely planning on buying a floodlight on ebay sometime this month
I've love to know where you got the test attachments you use. I've rigged up a few things to test things, but those look pretty neat.
I bought a 110v site transformer made in China. I ran it for years and had to open it up recently only to discover the same : a floating earth!!! None of my power tools had ever been earthed!!!.I found the same thing on a 240v extension cable bought from B and Q. NO EARTH! It had never been connected you could tell from the wire end!!! Had used it for years..This guy finds this! I urge everyone to check their earths, its so simple to do.
This is where routine PAT style testing (even basic meter and visual checks) comes handy.
totally agree
Especially on extension cords and non insulated tools, you (should) always check for ground, regardless of where it came from?
Same thing goes for testing a GFCI, be it wall installed or portable, with only the test button.
Just my opinion.
What's "earthing"? Do you mean grounding?
@@captmicha No, Earth and ground are not the same thing, Earth potential never changes but ground can be any voltage you choose. EG a ground rail might be 100Vdc.
Great video, keep informing !!!
That Earth wire looks like its just floating there, but its actually grounded in the 4th dimension.
ALIEN technology. BRILLIANT!
So glad I came across your video. Thank you!
you sure it is not just comparing the light output to a incandescent or something?
Very good video! Well done and thankx for the review! Do you know any particulary product that do not lie and respect the technical specifications of it?
It's very hard to tell with online sellers.
Yeah! Thanks again!
I won a bid on one a day or two ago and told them that I would be checking if it really was 100 watt and within 1 minute of me sending the message they refunded my paypal.
thank you! your channel is interesting you seem to know a lot about electronics. this video helped me avoid ebay led flood lights.
We seem to be on a learning curve for LEDs, even in 2016. I have some screw-in LED globes that are rated for outdoor use (in an appropriate enclosure) for use below 0C. But in fact at +5C they flicker like mad. Local distributor replaced one - same thing.
I also have two outdoor PIR LED security lights, purchased from a reliable electrics supplier and supplied by a UK Midlands firm. The first two worked about three months, then one wouldn't come on and the other wouldn't go off. Replaced under warranty, now one comes on with any movement regardless of light setting (can't be adjusted to be inactive in what passes for daylight here). The other is still working. So really, even with "quality" lamps, it seems to be a crap shoot. May as well but a few variations of these eBay ones, open them up and rewire them
I remember when "made in China" meant something. It still does - cheap, dangerous and nasty
Iphones are cheap?
@@OscarWild_ cheap to make yes
@@OscarWild_ Build cost to Apple usually less than £250 each.
If you buy the Chinese stuff that actually cost some stuff let's say $80 then you will get good quality if you buy cheap you get cheap if you buy expensive you get expensive same with basicly everything not just stuff made in china
NON COMPERARE CINESE.
Stupid short lead. Poor workmanship, reflector only 3 crews, Earth disconnected. Diecast casing looks alright.
+RODALCO2007 The case is actually worth the money on its own. Rugged enough to withstand the elements, and ideal for other electronic circuitry.
+bigclivedotcom Yes, the case looks pretty substantial. Just see a 4 pack of these 10 Watters for NZ$ 8 (UK4 quid) may get some.
Not sure it's really IP65 though.
RODAL. CO2007
@@bigclivedotcom So the answer is to fit your own driver and cable. By not connecting the earth lead, they save you undoing it before throwing that silly short lead away....
I got several of those looking lights from amazon. The glass was glued on and I was afraid of breaking it. I bought a couple and they seemed decent so I got some more. They used several different wire colors. All that I tested (would not say that I tested all of them) had grounds electrically hooked to the case.
Upon closer look, most of the time you will find these ads often say X "watt equivalent". In the US, light bulb wattage is frequently used to indicate relative intensity of light produced.
Lol. Why did I watch this entire video?? XD
Patrick Adair mate, you didn't click on anything else during the six minutes and thirty four seconds.
OK2BCK hey thanks for clearing that up man.
watch?v=oYZD1sQBdlE
Those LED modules are of poor quality and lose light output much faster than quality ones, so they're doing you a favor by not driving them at their rated wattage. At least they should indicate the true power draw. Not having any safety certifications, I'd stay well away from them.
Sadly, this is common with many led lamps, and modular power supplies. Always test them before use, and definitely check the wiring!
what about the led itself? can it handle 20 watt if you would use the right driver?
Looks like they rely on the earth wire bumping into the reflector.
Maybe so, but it was demonstrated that this "technique" obviously does not work, at least not on this unit, so it probably doesn't work on over 50% of the other units manufactured. So they might as well just not even bother withthe ground wire and save even more money (but they don;t because they can save their ass by saying it is "grounded) even though it technically isn't. Besides, even if it did "work as you say, the ground connection would be terrible and not safe as anything vibration could knock out the ground connection. This is a bad case of "cutting corners" in a saturated market.
NunOfYourBiz Agreed
A friend of mine has installed many of these led floods in a school sports hall (and not the cheap ones either as they are from a major lighting manufacturers) They ALL have failed some have needed replacing 3 times and this is over a 12 month period.
I think the bonding inside the LED is not up to scratch and the overheating causes the demise of the P-N Junction or wafer material.
I think they are rushing the technology because everyone wants LED lighting these days but I just don't think the technology for high power LED lighting is quite there yet.
glenwoofit You may be right. One thing's for sure: it isn't limited to just Ebay products. A friend of mine owns a 2yr old Audi where a DRL LED in one of the headlights has already failed. It's crazy. He drives on average maybe 8 hrs per week, which gives a lifespan of ~900 hrs. And get this: you can't just replace the single LED, you have to replace the whole headlight assembly. It's just ridiculous.
pesshau those fucking low frequency PWM Led drivers !!! made by fucking morons who know nothing
glenwoofit it wouldnt be on ebay .
it would be if u got a Cree CXA-XXXX shipped from US. i fucking lovem. but they are too expensive, i just use them where available energy/Heat is a major issue and 140+ lumen/W is a must.
but all around, those chinese LED are perfectly ok, there is nothing wrong with them. atleast not at those price points. LEDs are always being incorrectly used/driven and blamed for low quality.
Its a semiconductor, they all outlive normal people if not abused.
glenwoofit Look for UL or ETL ratings, if the manufacturer is certified by them, then you will have no problems like these
pesshau Hope that is not the $800 LED model.
Thanks Clive. Well explained.
Great video and info... Thank you...
They play with the numbers. It probably has a 20 watt LED, but they are using a 10 watt driver for the sole purpose of giving the LED long life. Driving a 20 watt LED with a 20 watt power supply will probably shorten its life. Manufacturers do a lot of "up-rating" and "down-rating" on products for the purpose of advertising the good points of a product and concealing the not so good points.
Normal practice is to reduce the drive to obtain maximum life and efficiency from the LED but a responsible manufacturer would specify driver rating instead of LED rating...
Good video.I rip apart anything I buy from ebay/china and check all is good.i have come across the "wireless" earth a few times.
ever seen a floodlight like this with nothing inside it or one that has no ballast and instantly blows and catches fire.
Clive, would you have a suggestion as to the best LED for growing vegies indoors?
So, have you taken the driver from the "20W" lamp and connected it to the "10W" LED? If you have a thermocouple, take readings before and after the swap. So curious.
I know when I need quality and to be sure what I get I buy only locally where I can take it back if it is not what it is supposed to be. When I want only cheap I go for China. But when it goes sideways I do not complain. I tried to save a buck or two, did not work out, fine, but I took it into account it may happen.
Ebay explained in a nutshell.
LOL thanks for mansplaining Ebay to us.
thats why here in Sweden electric gadgets is called "SE" market :) (I own a electrician company, and i rarely see this china LED crap here in Sweden)..ps SE stands for Swedish proof guarantee and it means the electric gadget should be safe, etc.
Have you tried ordering one from eBay to see if you can get the crap shipped to Sweden?
yes and no..ive bought many things by ebay. but LED lamps i buy here in Sweden...sometimes the customer dont want to spend so much money on power LEDs and sometimes i buy high quality LEDs..BUT they are always grounded, etc.
the cheap one from China, etc. are also grounded & controlled (by Swedish law "SE" marked.
The china crap ships to sweden aswell and its just as poorly designed.
On a different note, could it be that the light is supposed to mimic a 20W bulbs light level but with lower power consumption and therefore its printed 20W instead of 10W? Not that it would make any sense to print it in watts, but ive seen worse.
Yeah, if ur ready to pay 5x as much. Just bought a bunch of G4 2w leds for 10sek/pcs. Measured to 1.8-1.9w each. Meanwhile you get one 1.5w on claesohlsson for 60sek.
This 'China led crap' is what is sold here in Sweden, it's simply quality tested when it's imported. Something you should do yourself anyways, bc not all the items are tested, obviously.
ps. Only idiots get their China stuff from ebay. Alibaba or Aliexpress is the way to go.
You can by cheap China stuff in Sweden, for example stores like Clas Ohlson, Kjell Co etc.. all buy their gear from China, slap on a sticker and bump up price a bit while still keeping it lower than quality gear and you get the warranty + safe (enough anyway lol) gear.
Thanks, I came close to buying one, I "watched" one of these 50w led floodlights on ebay, it started off at $22 AUD in november 2017, then it dropped to $20, then $18, now it's only $14!!
What a pile of crap, thanks for the heads up Clive.
The earth is floating, I must be on L.E.D.
I fitted one & it lasted for about 3 months. When removed it was full of water. IP65 eh.
What type LEDs are you using for your bench lighting? warm white, cool white, daylight, etc? I'm hoping to buy a couple of these same lights to repurpose into a bench light. :D
I use cold white LEDs. Two 100W LEDs being run at 20W each.
Nicely made video. That floating earth lead is appalling, as is the damaged cable where the user would connect it to a supply. On the power rating (and this applies to any such fitting and testing)... I would ask whether the power consumption meter used was accurate at very low levels such as this, and also whether the meter accounts for the fact that the load may not appear resistive (an electronic LED driver is not a resistive load) and as such that would give wholly inaccurate power readings on a simple tester calibrated for resistive loads with a power factor of 1.
You sound so professional when making up BS...................shame on you!
Are you in the UK or EU? How would that pass the CE rating?
+Atristiel Easy. Just put a random CE sticker on and job done.
damn...
+Atristiel
Ah yes, the elite exclusive China Export rating
+Atristiel
The U.K is in the E.U....
+Atristiel CE rating isn't worth a damn. For most product categories, it's applied by *self certification*. It's a promise that the manufacturer can, on demand, demonstrate that the product would pass the relevant standards. You can imagine how often it's actually checked (hint: not very.), at least until one of these products kills someone.
My 10w 12v is down driven and only draws 3watts. My cell phone tosses more light than my 10w.
Hi Clive, This may well be my first comment on youtube after possibly 10 years of being a member.
I need an LED flood light for my fish aquarium, the wattage is important for a number of reasons 1) to prevent bacteria growth, 2) to prevent algae growth, 3) to prevent the lack of fish breading, 4) to prevent the build up of unwanted gasses.
Can you recommend a led that is rated at the stated 10W/20W/30W/40W/50W level ?
I can't really suggest a specific fixture. It might be worth going for a number of lower power fixtures and maybe using a light meter to see if you're getting a similar intensity to an existing light.
In non-fake situation, it usually represents power that LED gives, but then they usually print power thats been used, like 60W, and light power that LED produce according to wolfram, like 100W. In order to make it simple for users, they introduce lumen that shows power of light (in this chase its this 100W), as well as power its using (in this chase its 60W).
Just like fake 20000 mah powrbnk
It just 2000
@Shiv. You must be buying the "fake" MI one's
@Albert Rieder "Write". Is it so hard to write _this_ correct? :-) Ever heard of a typo?
@Albert Rieder just FYI powrbnk is actually how a lot of Chinese manufacturers spell it on AliExpress and eBay.
"this must be the luxury model..."xD
what connector do you use at 6:30 to connect the light to the adapter into the wall?
what wire clip was that..i could use many of those for uni wires for testing
You're leaving out the obvious fact that this so-called LED "floodlight" is not water sealed. There are no rubber gaskets which pretty much defeats the purpose of having an outdoor floodlight.
primovid it looks like an actual piece of garbage anyway.
What kind of exterior space would this be sufficient for ? Maybe a shack in the woods?
goalie2998 it could illuminate the front of your garden shed so you can find the right key and not trip on the step.
my one was an outdoor shed igniter.
i think the main thing in this video isnt the fact the wattage isnt what it says it is. its a complete shambles and ebay should do more to stop someone getting hurt
No it is the normal function of government to regulate commerce--------------but in today's Republican/Rightwing social construct there are no safeguards. Get the picture now??
Could the floating earth wire be a cheap solution for the led to not keep glowing dim after switching it off with a single pole switch? In dutch we call it "kruipstroom", translated as "crawling current".
My last floodlight was bought in B&Q in the UK, it also had no earth connected, it only lasted just over two years. I've now bought one of these 50w Chinese ones, before install, I dismantled it and rewired, as the existing cable was too short. At £15 it certainly was at lot cheaper than a UK equivalent!
Isn't that wattage based more on equivalency of lumens rather than actual wattage? I thought using less watts for the same light output was exactly how they saved you money.
Might even be RMS ACDC levels.
Exactly my under standing and expectations. Apparent light output equivalency and not power consumption.
I dont believe they had deception in mind in this regard. They only lack good oversight regarding language and comunication to diverse markets.
An LED that draws 13W would be the equivalent of a 60-100W incandescent, depending on efficiency. 20W equivalent LEDs draw about 2W.
What engineering college did you waste your life at?
Name and Shame. Tell us which Ebay seller to avoid!
What makes you think theres a single one or few of them?
Did I say there was one of them?
Paul
There's probably thousands. And once one gets taken down, two new will come.
You cannot control that.
It's like the companies that spawn on Amazon.com selling 1tb thumb drives that are like 16gig...or 1 gig...or 64 meg...and have an embedded program that keeps the list of files you put on but deletes the actual content as it is loaded on past the drive's capacity, thus making you THINK you did something wrong.
SCWfan06 ::: :Dude Scam Bay doesn't take down sellers with a million feedback rating.
Even if they have 100 negative feedback within two weeks they will still be allowed to scam.
Think about this, Ebay charges 10% off each sale as well as shipping cost (Most of the time it's free shipping) so if they sell ten thousand items world wide in one day, do the math.
Compound that by 1000+ Chines sellers.
It's the little guy that they don't care about.
Thanks for the info. Good to know!
Hi Clive. Does the lower wattage output driver mean that the led is not as bright as it could be. Look forward to hearing from you . Don Codman.
Yes it does, but the upside is hopefully longer LED life and greater efficiency.
"Wireless earth"
The lesson here folks? Only buy mains electrical equipment from a reputable supplier. As a tradesperson, I use a UK wholesaler who will check what they are selling. No reputable company would want to be caught selling dangerously un-earthed crap like this. And no bona fide tradesperson should be fitting it. If my customers need new equipment and want to buy it for me to fit, I have to insist on the option to refuse to use any item that appears unfit or unsuitable to use.
As for folks who buy dodgy electrical kit to install themselves, in order to save money? Its not such a bargain when some poor bugger gets electrocuted, or you start a fire. Do it right, or not at all.
You know it makes sense.
Don't they have a longer life if you run them at 50-75% of full power? I believe this is also recommended by manufacturers.
+Mystery History yes its is 100% right
+Simon WoodburyForget You turn of the power when you do reapear.Its comon sence.
He knows why they are what they are hes being deceitful for clickbait...
yes longer life, but its not 20w so they shouldnt say 20w.
In that case, you don't advertise the nominal wattage of the LED, you display the wattage you're giving it.
It's called MUGGAGE, they're mugging people, cheap quality, dishonest about the strength, stealing from good folks, too bad. Super video, well done!!
Maybe they're counting on the public's confusion regarding light power equivalents with conventional carbon/tungsten filament lamps - they went through a period of listing tree saver bulbs and LEDS as THE EQUIVALENT LIGHT OUTPUT to those, not ACTUAL POWER consumed. I bought a 300 watt LED like the one in the video (much larger LED array) but with some form of electronic pulsed driver - it failed after about 2 weeks so I went back to ordinary 300 watt bulb security lamp and after a year (the one I had previous went for 10+ yrs) its still going strong.