How long do your leds last?

[Lostinthedark]

For the second time in as many years my Ocean Revive lights are getting dimmer. They'll do this until they burn out completely. Several people have chimed in that theirs do the same thing. It included several manufacturers. They sell these saying they'll last years. Do they all this this eventually? Even the $800 ones. How long do yours last without any issue?

 

[slief]

For the second time in as many years my Ocean Revive lights are getting dimmer. They'll do this until they burn out completely. Several people have chimed in that theirs do the same thing. It included several manufacturers. They sell these saying they'll last years. Do they all this this eventually? Even the $800 ones. How long do yours last without any issue?

My Reeftechs worked great for 3+ years and never lost any power before I upgraded to Kessil 360WES's almost 2 years ago or whenever they came out. The Reeftechs are still working perfect for the guy that now owns them. My Kessils are working perfect too with no degradation in intensity and I do have a PAR meter which I use on an irregular basis. As far as other LED's, I think quality ones from companies like Ecotech, Kessil, Orphek and Reefbrite (there are others as well) don't have that issue. Diodes don't loose power. Color may change over time but that is debatable. If the LED's are loosing intensity, I'd say that is more than likely a driver or power related issue and not diode issue in which case it boils do to quality of the components.

 

[zachts]

All LEDs do this over time, how fast depends on how well made they are and ultimatly the determining factor is how hot the die gets inside the LED package. on the OR or reef breeders and others like them using the old, old, tech button style LED packages the temp is really hot and pushing the limits when run at anything over half power. So.......life span of those often is pretty poor, often only a year before noticable light loss when with proper thermal management and drive current they SHOULD be lasting 5 years plus........

The high end fixtures using newer gen cree diodes etc last much better but again, several of those companies are pushing the limits IMHO. They do at least incorporate thermal management safe guards to reduce overheating the LEDs......

 

[alton]

The industry standard is 3% a year loss for 10 years 30%, so if you start them out at 80% and then raise the power every year there should be no reason why they shouldn't last 5+ years. In saying that your light is only as good as the warranty. I have seen some expensive leds lose 50% in 2 years, and the fixture only had a one year warranty. My oldest BML is 2+ and going strong and comes with a 3 year warranty.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have 3 OceanRevive, 3 EverGrow fixtures and a ReefBreeder fixture over 4 tanks. The EverGrow fixtures have been in use for 3 years with zero issues. Two of the OR fixtures are 2 years and the other is 18 moths old with zero issues, the ReefBreeders is only 6 moths old with no issues. But I had a ReefRadiance fixture I bought used at 3 months old and the built-in controller didn't work properly and they refused to fix it. I got a controller from OR and replaced it myself.

And just to be clear, all these fixtures are made by EverGrow.

 

[jayball]

Do you have them in an enclosed canopy or otherwise restricting airflow? Even the Chinese LED fixtures should last much longer than that.

 

[Lostinthedark]

Do you have them in an enclosed canopy or otherwise restricting airflow? Even the Chinese LED fixtures should last much longer than that.

Not enclosed. Hanging about a foot above the tank. I run them about 60 white and 90 blue. Ocean Revive doesn't even respond to threads about it anymore. Looking around and asking locally it seems lots of people have given up on them lasting.

 

[zachts]

Not enclosed. Hanging about a foot above the tank. I run them about 60 white and 90 blue. Ocean Revive doesn't even respond to threads about it anymore. Looking around and asking locally it seems lots of people have given up on them lasting.

are they the ones with a secondary finned heatsink the fans blow on or just the flat metal core pcb....if the latter that's just a crappy design to begin with.....

 

[Lostinthedark]

They have the fins. They look well made. Someone did show me a picture where they dismantled it and there was very little thermal glue used when they were put together.

 

[zachts]

They have the fins. They look well made. Someone did show me a picture where they dismantled it and there was very little thermal glue used when they were put together.

That's one of the issues, the other is that most of those fixtures the diodes are hand soldered to the board rather than reflowed, so if your lucky they used thermal past under the pad of the LED but often not enough (sometimes none) and sometimes there is quite a large gap still, which just kills the life of the LEDs. They should be reflowed on but that defeats one of the selling points many use on these fixtures which is end user replaceable diodes........

 

[Chris Mills]

It seems that very few people will hit the marketed "50,000" hour mark. Solaris came out 10 year ago but I would doubt that many original buyers who paid $2,500 are still using them due to product failure.

 

[msr224]

My Reeftechs worked great for 3+ years and never lost any power before I upgraded to Kessil 360WES's almost 2 years ago or whenever they came out. The Reeftechs are still working perfect for the guy that now owns them. My Kessils are working perfect too with no degradation in intensity and I do have a PAR meter which I use on an irregular basis. As far as other LED's, I think quality ones from companies like Ecotech, Kessil, Orphek and Reefbrite (there are others as well) don't have that issue. Diodes don't loose power. Color may change over time but that is debatable. If the LED's are loosing intensity, I'd say that is more than likely a driver or power related issue and not diode issue in which case it boils do to quality of the components.

All LEDs do this over time, how fast depends on how well made they are and ultimatly the determining factor is how hot the die gets inside the LED package. on the OR or reef breeders and others like them using the old, old, tech button style LED packages the temp is really hot and pushing the limits when run at anything over half power. So.......life span of those often is pretty poor, often only a year before noticable light loss when with proper thermal management and drive current they SHOULD be lasting 5 years plus........

The high end fixtures using newer gen cree diodes etc last much better but again, several of those companies are pushing the limits IMHO. They do at least incorporate thermal management safe guards to reduce overheating the LEDs......

The loss of intensity AND spectral shift are both related to heat managment issues. An LED fixture that gets so hot that you can't touch it or that the diodes themselves get so hot that you can't touch them will suffer a shorter lifespan. I don't think that color change (spectral shift is debatable). Unfortunately there is no way around having a heat sink to dissipate the heat.

Slief is however correct that poor quality components often cause issues. There are many drivers that also get hot and lose efficiency of fail earlier than they should. Wiring should also be appropriately sized.

 

[DavidinGA]

I had a reef breeder photon 32 that had 50% of the leds completely die just after the 2yr warranty ended.

 

[Lostinthedark]

I'm bringing the lights over to someone to look at tomorrow. I'll post what he finds.