Will these eBay LED's work?

[Steve S]

I'm doing a search for led's and I'm wondering if the connections on mine (taken on my dogs head) are the same as the ones on Ebay? Mine have two wire connections on both sides and these from Ebay have one wire connections one both sides. Will they work?

[hankpage]

Yes they will .... they may be subject to polarity and have to be turned 180° to work but will be fine.

[Steve S]

Originally Posted by hankpage

Yes they will .... they may be subject to polarity and have to be turned 180° to work but will be fine.

Great! I wish I wasn't introduced to Ebay, this armchair shopping is too easy

[byrdr1]

Super White T10 Wedge 5-SMD 5050 LED Light bulbs W5W 2825 158 192 168 194
20 PCS Super White T10 Wedge 5-SMD 5050 LED Light bulbs W5W 194

Are these what Our campers use in the overhead lights?
I think it is??

My wife saw the new campers at the show this past weekend and lot of the new camers have an LED package on them now. She wants the new brighter lighting in ours..

thanks,
randy

[canesfan]

Originally Posted by hankpage

Yes they will .... they may be subject to polarity and have to be turned 180° to work but will be fine.

I had a question about this, if you had to turn the flat style LEDs posted above by Steve_S ^ 180 then all the light would be pointing up into the fixture instead of down, no?

[hankpage]

Originally Posted by canesfan

I had a question about this, if you had to turn the flat style LEDs posted above by Steve_S ^ 180 then all the light would be pointing up into the fixture instead of down, no?

Good point .... The polarity of the fixture would have to be reversed to use them but turning the bulb would tell you if they were wired wrong. When I upgraded my exterior lights years ago (when most LEDs were polarity sensitive) I had to rewire about 30% of the lights that were wired backwards since it did not matter with incandescent bulbs. Turning them will only work if they are polarity sensitive if they are not they will work either way.

[Steve S]

Originally Posted by canesfan

I had a question about this, if you had to turn the flat style LEDs posted above by Steve_S ^ 180 then all the light would be pointing up into the fixture instead of down, no?

So now I have to look up to the bright light and not have it shine down on me
That blows my idea of better lighting

BTW I bought a bunch of led's on ebay, I wasn't too sure about the code # so this experiment will be a hit and miss!

[canesfan]

hankpage Ok thanks, I kind of thought that there might be some reconfiguring things if you had to rotate the LED. In that case I'm getting lazy and it might be better to just go with the standard 360 LEDs.

Steve_S Actually if you took the light fixture and turned it upside down the LED would at least be pointing down now.

[DZD]

Try using the SMD panels. They have double side tape to fix the panel in the fixture then a wire that connects the panel to the socket. It's how all the newfangled 50 dollar led fixtures do it that can be found at camping world and the like. Search amazon for SMD LED panel I got two for 10 bucks

[Steve S]

The led's arrived the other night and I installed them in certain fixtures and I'm pretty impressed. They're a softer bright light if that makes sense and there's no shadow effect like the standard bulbs that were in there.
I do need to order a few brighter ones for spots like where the bluray and surround is and a softer set for above the headboard but I'm getting there and I'm very pleased.
A note to those doing the change over, let the bulbs cool before pulling them out! I have a nice burn from one as those bulbs are extremely hot!

[audio1der]

Originally Posted by DZD

Try using the SMD panels. They have double side tape to fix the panel in the fixture then a wire that connects the panel to the socket. It's how all the newfangled 50 dollar led fixtures do it that can be found at camping world and the like. Search amazon for SMD LED panel I got two for 10 bucks

If you do your shopping, you can find them for just over 2 bucks each. I ordered a few extra in case we had any issues with them (for $2/ea, they're disposable). Make sure you choose warm white or cool white carefully, based on your preferences!

[KMH]

I bought these on ebay in Warm white, to stay as close to incandescent coloring as possible:
Super White T10 Wedge 5-SMD 5050 LED Light bulbs W5W 2825 158 192 168 194

They weren't even close to the incandescents that they replaced, so I put them all in the compartment lights/bathroom where any light is goog enough, and bright light is not needed.

I then went and replaced them all with these.
https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...edge-base/214/


World of difference, I ended up with a total of ~20 of them in the camper.

[Steve S]

Almost forgot, here's some before and after pics.

[Pmedic4]

I've gradually been replacing the incandescent bulbs in my RV too, and really like the difference in light. I like the cooler light better, which is what most led lights have, but that is different than standard bulbs, so if you're doing the replacement get several different LED lights and check them out.

My only complaint, and I think it's mostly driven by my choice of the cheaper/cheapest LED lights $2-5 at most, is that sometimes the connection on the LED in the fixture is not one of the best. Since the LED light are polarized, you have to make sure they are in the base correctly, and then, sometimes the bulb doesn't make good contact. Seems like you have to do some fine adjustment to get a good connection. Once you get them in and working, it usually keeps working.
I'm not a boondocker, but nice to know if you have one or two nights without power, you might last for the day or two - at least the lights aren't your problem!

[JRTJH]

Ed,

I find that the "secondary benefit" of converting to LED's is that they run much cooler. It's amazing how much heat is generated by incandescent bulbs. In the summer, when it's 100 in the shade and the A/C is going full bore just to keep up, it's nice not adding the extra heat load from the overhead lights. And when dry camping, even in 80F temps with the windows open, it's nice not to feel that "heat blast" every time you walk under one of the overhead fixtures.....

As for the bases on the bulbs, you're right about them not fitting well. I bought a couple of the CW $20 LED's a few years ago, they are the same. I don't know why, but it seems that almost all the Chinese molds for 921 bases are "undersized" and the "spring wire" they use for contacts wants to lay in the groove the wrong way. I used needle nose pliers to bend them up and create a "hump" in the middle and the contacts seem to work better. Like you, I found that once they finally do make contact, they tend to keep working, it's just the "feeling of cheap" that comes from having to "jiggle" the LED to get it to work.

[Steve S]

I got some of these in the mail today so I'll try them out tonight.
It's nice of them to sent the different connectors as well.

[Sherwood]

Originally Posted by Steve S

I got some of these in the mail today so I'll try them out tonight.
It's nice of them to sent the different connectors as well.

I just installed a couple of those in my bathroom as I wanted more light in there. Wow! What a difference. Very bright and I like it.

[WaltBennett]

One thing I've noticed while shopping around for LEDs is that the low priced ones hardly ever have their lumen ratings. Only way you can tell how bright they are is going by the watts used (and that's not really accurate). Many aren't even close to the brightness of an incandescent, so you need two to get just a little more than what one bulb would put out. Like most things on eBay (or anywhere else), you get what you pay for.

[JRTJH]

LED's are a very confusing commodity. There is a lot of marketing that goes into advertising LED's and much of it says, "We have the latest" or "We have the greatest" or "the brightest" or the "most reliable" and the list goes on and on.

Brightness is not the same as Lumens. If you look at a laser pointer, it is extremely bright, so bright it will burn your eye, but if you try to read a book using that "brightness" you'll soon realize that it's lumen output is not enough to "light up" the page. You'll be reading in relative darkness by a bright light....

In actuality, LED's are not all the same. Just as light bulbs come in 5 watt, 15 watt, 25 watt, 40 watt, and more, each getting brighter as they go, so do LED's. It stand to reason that if you put four 25 watt bulbs in a single fixture, you'll get 100 watts of light, but is that fixture equally as bright as a single 100 watt bulb? The answer is a definite NO... Even though the two fixtures use the same wattage, the light output is very different.

A 100 watt bulb produces about 1700 lumens while a 25 watt bulb produces about 180 lumens so 4 would produce 720 lumens, much less than half the "brightness of the same wattage single bulb. Confusing? Yes, but we have come to accept this generalized rule of thumb.

LED's are the same. A LED in a specific color range based on "lumens" will appear to be brighter or more dim than another LED in a different color range or one made of a different material. LED's are as vastly different in light output as are incandescent bulbs and CFL's. So, four LED"s side by side may not give off the same "light" as a single LED of another type. (just like regular light bulbs don't give off equal light)

That's why it's important to understand what you're buying so you get the "right LED" and that's why SuperBrite and Camping World limit your choice to only 3 or 4 options. They have taken the guesswork out of buying LED's by not selling the ones that "aren't suitable for RV use".

EBay, however, is not in the market to sell "only to RV'ers". They sell to a wide range of LED users who buy the products for everything from "grow lights" for plants to "mood lights" or reading lights, or even for lights to illuminate the Empire State Building. So, to try to choose one of the over 200,000 LED's available on EBay is a daunting task to say the least.

It's always true with any marketing company that you can get "inferior quality" if you don't shop wisely. But, for the most part, LED's from EBay, Amazon, Tiger Direct, SuperBrite, Camping World or most other sources are equally "good quality", buying LED's designed to do a job other than light an RV will usually get you LED's that don't work for the task. It's a "wrong LED, not a bad LED".

The key, I think, is either to pay the more expensive price and buy SuperBrite or Camping World LED's or spend some time researching the performance differences between CREE LED's, 1 watt vs 3 watt LED's, directional LED's vs circular LED's vs flat plate LED. Then there is the different LED construction. You can find a 21 LED panel that produces 155 lumens or a 12 LED panel that produces 180 lumens. Are they brighter or dimmer when compared? No, it depends on where they are installed. Adding more LED's to a panel does not make it brighter, it depends on what kind of LED is added.

Confusing? Certainly it is. But, with a little research and understanding, it's not difficult to save money AND make the right choices...

Here is one link that explains lumens and light quality pretty well. Their prices are extremely high compared to other sources, but their FAQ's and explanations of LED's is very good.

http://www.m4products.com/lumens-and-quality/