Skip to main content
Added full image citation / reference.
Source Link
SamGibson
  • 18.3k
  • 5
  • 41
  • 63

There have been all those laws to replace conventional lamps with LED because "it has longer life time and are less pollutant".

While this is true for the LED themselves, it is not for the LED drivers, which are often very poor and dies after a few month. My experience with LED Lighting has been very bad so far, with expensive lamps dying within months.

What happens usually is that the electrolytic capacitor (the green one on your pic) dries rapidly due to the temperature. Every 10°C increase reduce the life by about half!

enter image description here

(Image source - Figure 7: Lifetime of aluminum electrolytic capacitor with temperature from "Lighting for Life" by Bill Weiss in DigiKey Article Library, 2010-12-22)

Another common issue on these driver is that it runs the electrolytic capacitor at high frequency, which also reduces the lifetime significantly.


Try to replace the Green Capacitor and see if it solve the problem, although it will also probably die after a few month. You can check for cap with higher operating temperature and you can also add a smaller value ceramic cap in parallel to reduce the wear of high frequency switching.

EDIT:

This article talks about the lifetime issue of electrolytic cap in lighting.

However, widely publicized problems with capacitors resulting in major product recalls in recent years have drawn into question the advisability of using aluminum electrolytic capacitors in long-life systems.

[...]

Another factor to consider is that electrolytic capacitors do not fail catastrophically at the end of life. [...] The main change will be an increase in ripple current through the LEDs. This will not be observed by the users, but will lead to an increase in dissipation within the LEDs and may lead to their eventual failure.

There have been all those laws to replace conventional lamps with LED because "it has longer life time and are less pollutant".

While this is true for the LED themselves, it is not for the LED drivers, which are often very poor and dies after a few month. My experience with LED Lighting has been very bad so far, with expensive lamps dying within months.

What happens usually is that the electrolytic capacitor (the green one on your pic) dries rapidly due to the temperature. Every 10°C increase reduce the life by about half!

enter image description here

Another common issue on these driver is that it runs the electrolytic capacitor at high frequency, which also reduces the lifetime significantly.


Try to replace the Green Capacitor and see if it solve the problem, although it will also probably die after a few month. You can check for cap with higher operating temperature and you can also add a smaller value ceramic cap in parallel to reduce the wear of high frequency switching.

EDIT:

This article talks about the lifetime issue of electrolytic cap in lighting.

However, widely publicized problems with capacitors resulting in major product recalls in recent years have drawn into question the advisability of using aluminum electrolytic capacitors in long-life systems.

[...]

Another factor to consider is that electrolytic capacitors do not fail catastrophically at the end of life. [...] The main change will be an increase in ripple current through the LEDs. This will not be observed by the users, but will lead to an increase in dissipation within the LEDs and may lead to their eventual failure.

There have been all those laws to replace conventional lamps with LED because "it has longer life time and are less pollutant".

While this is true for the LED themselves, it is not for the LED drivers, which are often very poor and dies after a few month. My experience with LED Lighting has been very bad so far, with expensive lamps dying within months.

What happens usually is that the electrolytic capacitor (the green one on your pic) dries rapidly due to the temperature. Every 10°C increase reduce the life by about half!

enter image description here

(Image source - Figure 7: Lifetime of aluminum electrolytic capacitor with temperature from "Lighting for Life" by Bill Weiss in DigiKey Article Library, 2010-12-22)

Another common issue on these driver is that it runs the electrolytic capacitor at high frequency, which also reduces the lifetime significantly.


Try to replace the Green Capacitor and see if it solve the problem, although it will also probably die after a few month. You can check for cap with higher operating temperature and you can also add a smaller value ceramic cap in parallel to reduce the wear of high frequency switching.

EDIT:

This article talks about the lifetime issue of electrolytic cap in lighting.

However, widely publicized problems with capacitors resulting in major product recalls in recent years have drawn into question the advisability of using aluminum electrolytic capacitors in long-life systems.

[...]

Another factor to consider is that electrolytic capacitors do not fail catastrophically at the end of life. [...] The main change will be an increase in ripple current through the LEDs. This will not be observed by the users, but will lead to an increase in dissipation within the LEDs and may lead to their eventual failure.

added 394 characters in body
Source Link
Damien
  • 8.1k
  • 1
  • 13
  • 31

There have been all those laws to replace conventional lamps with LED because "it has longer life time and are less pollutant".

While this is true for the LED themselves, it is not for the LED drivers, which are often very poor and dies after a few month. My experience with LED Lighting has been very bad so far, with expensive lamps dying within months.

What happens usually is that the electrolytic capacitor (the green one on your pic) dries rapidly due to the temperature. Every 10°C increase reduce the life by about half!

enter image description here

Another common issue on these driver is that it runs the electrolytic capacitor at high frequency, which also reduces the lifetime significantly.


Try to replace the Green Capacitor and see if it solve the problem, although it will also probably die after a few month. You can check for cap with higher operating temperature and you can also add a smaller value ceramic cap in parallel to reduce the wear of high frequency switching.

EDIT:

This article talks about the lifetime issue of electrolytic cap in lighting.

However, widely publicized problems with capacitors resulting in major product recalls in recent years have drawn into question the advisability of using aluminum electrolytic capacitors in long-life systems.

[...]

Another factor to consider is that electrolytic capacitors do not fail catastrophically at the end of life. [...] The main change will be an increase in ripple current through the LEDs. This will not be observed by the users, but will lead to an increase in dissipation within the LEDs and may lead to their eventual failure.

There have been all those laws to replace conventional lamps with LED because "it has longer life time and are less pollutant".

While this is true for the LED themselves, it is not for the LED drivers, which are often very poor and dies after a few month. My experience with LED Lighting has been very bad so far, with expensive lamps dying within months.

What happens usually is that the electrolytic capacitor (the green one on your pic) dries rapidly due to the temperature. Every 10°C increase reduce the life by about half!

enter image description here

Another common issue on these driver is that it runs the electrolytic capacitor at high frequency, which also reduces the lifetime significantly.


Try to replace the Green Capacitor and see if it solve the problem, although it will also probably die after a few month. You can check for cap with higher operating temperature and you can also add a smaller value ceramic cap in parallel to reduce the wear of high frequency switching.

There have been all those laws to replace conventional lamps with LED because "it has longer life time and are less pollutant".

While this is true for the LED themselves, it is not for the LED drivers, which are often very poor and dies after a few month. My experience with LED Lighting has been very bad so far, with expensive lamps dying within months.

What happens usually is that the electrolytic capacitor (the green one on your pic) dries rapidly due to the temperature. Every 10°C increase reduce the life by about half!

enter image description here

Another common issue on these driver is that it runs the electrolytic capacitor at high frequency, which also reduces the lifetime significantly.


Try to replace the Green Capacitor and see if it solve the problem, although it will also probably die after a few month. You can check for cap with higher operating temperature and you can also add a smaller value ceramic cap in parallel to reduce the wear of high frequency switching.

EDIT:

This article talks about the lifetime issue of electrolytic cap in lighting.

However, widely publicized problems with capacitors resulting in major product recalls in recent years have drawn into question the advisability of using aluminum electrolytic capacitors in long-life systems.

[...]

Another factor to consider is that electrolytic capacitors do not fail catastrophically at the end of life. [...] The main change will be an increase in ripple current through the LEDs. This will not be observed by the users, but will lead to an increase in dissipation within the LEDs and may lead to their eventual failure.

Source Link
Damien
  • 8.1k
  • 1
  • 13
  • 31

There have been all those laws to replace conventional lamps with LED because "it has longer life time and are less pollutant".

While this is true for the LED themselves, it is not for the LED drivers, which are often very poor and dies after a few month. My experience with LED Lighting has been very bad so far, with expensive lamps dying within months.

What happens usually is that the electrolytic capacitor (the green one on your pic) dries rapidly due to the temperature. Every 10°C increase reduce the life by about half!

enter image description here

Another common issue on these driver is that it runs the electrolytic capacitor at high frequency, which also reduces the lifetime significantly.


Try to replace the Green Capacitor and see if it solve the problem, although it will also probably die after a few month. You can check for cap with higher operating temperature and you can also add a smaller value ceramic cap in parallel to reduce the wear of high frequency switching.