LED lights.

[ken56]

I have had our new Laredo 334RE for almost 12 weeks now and we have really put it through the shake down runs with about 3k miles behind us already. For the most part there has not been any bad issues with the build and quality of the unit. The rig has all LED lighting throughout with the ceiling lights being the small round ones. A few of these light will go dim and then back to full brightness, like a slow flicker. Bad LED? What may be the cause? Out of about a dozen lights only 3 do this. Any ideas?

[Canonman]

We fought flickering LED issues for a full season and now into our second:(
Couple of questions and maybe we can help.
Does this problem occur when you are on battery power?
Is the issue with one light, more than one, one circuit or random?
Love the LED's for saving power when we dry camp but the "Disco Light Show" effect was annoying.

[ken56]

We are usually on shore power and there are only 3 that do this....one over the dinette, one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. I have not investigated the circuit. The box is labeled well so I can do a little looking.

[JRTJH]

You "might" have a problem with the crimp connection at the light fixture or a loose wire at the fuse panel. Those two tend to cause flickering.

Early in the LED conversion process a number of people (me included) bought 12 VDC LED's to change out our incandescent light bulbs. They worked great on battery power, but on shore power the converter produced 13.6VDC which "overpowered" them causing them to heat up and flicker. So, check the label on one of the lights to be sure they are 12-24 VDC rated. I'd suspect that's not the problem, but you never know with the RV industry.....

[brittsnbirds]

So JRTJH where did you purchase your bulbs that were 12-24 VDC?

[Canonman]

Shore power was our problem as well. As John points out, the convertor adjusts it's output voltage based on the charge level of the batteries. The LED transformer in some models doesn't like this and reacts by flickering or actually turning off and on.
I'm betting the lights involved are on the same circuit. Here's what we did to isolate the offending transformer. Our light fixtures did not provide for just disconnecting the LED. We had to remove the fixture (just a couple of screws) and then disconnect the wiring. We did this while the lights were on and flickering. (I know you might get shocked. Just be careful. Tried with the lights off but it takes a while for the transformer to heat up and cause the problem). We actually found 2 out of 4 lights were causing the problem. Since all the lights were on the same circuit they were all somehow responding to the bad transformers. Spoke with Keystone, and after a lot of probing questions they finally admitted they had a number of similar complaints and chalked it up to a run of bad light fixtures. They sent replacements and we got lucky finding two that worked.
Good Luck and keep us posted!

[bobbecky]

Our rig came with the incandescent bulbs and we had the same flicker when the converter would change modes. Once I replaced all the bulbs with good LED bulbs, the ones rated over 12 volts, we never have the flicker anymore. We also rarely see the converter cooling fans running when all the lights are on.

[JRTJH]

So JRTJH where did you purchase your bulbs that were 12-24 VDC?

Here is one of many sources: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EDFM5QU/ref=twister_B00S92Q4YC?_encoding=UTF8&th=1

These are warm white (close to incandescent color) not the "bright white" or "bluish" color. The cost is 10 for $20, so that works out to $2 each, not the cheapest, but not the "expensive brand" either.

[Javi]

Here is one of many sources: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EDFM5QU/ref=twister_B00S92Q4YC?_encoding=UTF8&th=1

These are warm white (close to incandescent color) not the "bright white" or "bluish" color. The cost is 10 for $20, so that works out to $2 each, not the cheapest, but not the "expensive brand" either.

Those are the ones I bought as well... and if I had to do it over I'd either but the bright white or spend a little more and get the 5050 version... these are a little dim for us unless we turn every light in the living room.... They're fine in the bedroom. So maybe a mixture of these and the 5050 version would be best...