Philips LED Bulb Failure - Teardown and Analysis

In my series of failed LED bulbs, Philips joins the list of failed manufacturers. I cut open and examine the internal of the latest version of the Philips LED A socket bulbs, and compare it against the older generation bulbs

[@runneryg]

Took mine apart and used the meter minus and positive while the mains turned on that is and went to LED to LED and got it working. also when these lights are in a cold room they turn to not work in a Damp mainly in the winter. keep trying and don't me scared as its DC AND NOT VOLTS.

[@inspireonex]

What are you on? Your comment makes no sense.

[@Beamerbrad]

I have a house full of 2nd gen color bulbs that’d I’ve had about 5 years. 1 by 1 they’ve started turning themselves back on after being shut off or dimmed. It slowly gets worse and worse until they start strobing all the time. 7 doing it currently. Paid $50 for each bulb

[@j7ndominica051]

14 watts is too much in a small package. You can cook any modern bulb.

[@ngt84]

So what was the failure because i had two philips led lampds 11w in two diferent rooms die within 5 days to each other after 2 years...

[@powerevolutions]

For my case the most likely reason was a thermal failure since they don't heatsink the leds or their driver very well. Large voltage transient can cause them to fail too. The old style dimmers were notorious for voltage spikes. If you have light fixtures that are heat traps, they would kill them over a period of time.

[@ngt84]

@@powerevolutions Both of these died when they were turned OFF, they just never turned on again.... The almost exact time that both died was funny since they are in different room (5 days failure apart.
They never got hot as the CFL ones.... And my CFL ones are going strong for 10+ years at the main staircase

[@powerevolutions]

@@ngt84 There isn't that much inside of these bulbs. The main chip is rated to ~450VDC to 500VDC. So typical household line voltages range between 110VAC to 130VAC which translates into ~156VDC to ~184VDC rectified. Because of where these bulbs are located in the electrical system they can be exposed to high voltage spikes significantly greater than the internal ratings of the device like the capacitors, diodes, and led driver. These spikes can be additive to the internal rectified voltage listed above, and that can kill those internal components fairly quickly though I would think that the capacitor would help clamp those spikes. I can't remember if there was a MOV transient suppresser in the circuit or not. The best guess based on your description is line voltage spikes. If that occurred and caused something to fail and take out the internal fuse (at least I think it was a fuse, or maybe NTC), then the bulb would be totally dead like you described. I think cutting them open to see if there is any obvious signs of trauma to the components would at least give you a feel for what may have happened. Alternately you could send them back to the manufacturer to be analyzed. Good luck.

[@homeguestunton]

It died because it was in an enclosed fixture or it wasn’t used properly.

[@homeguestunton]

Maybe this was in a teenagers room.