Philips 418590 17-Watt A21 LED Household Light Bulb, Dimmable Review

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List Price: $42.97
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So, I have been on the lookout for good LED replacements around my house. I have recessed cans and other normal lighting all around and about 1/2 are on a dimmable switch. I have tried LED from EarthLED.com and even though they save on wattage, they lacked lumens. Just to be on point, no LED to date has the lumens that their incandescent counter-part gives out. Just for reference 60-watt = 850 / 75-watt = 1,200 / 100-watt = 1,700. So Lumens. Philips 60-watt gives out 800 lumens. Only 50-watts short of the mark, but not too shabby. Not for the 75-watt, which equals 1,100. Does the 100 lumens make it seem too dim? Not really. You barely notice it.

For clarification, I cannot tell that much of a difference in lighting. It spreads out almost 360 degrees. It does use a heatsink in its design and Philips did an outstanding job of replicating an incandescent that is almost identical in everything, but looks (shape). They use a Royal Blue LED inside and use a Yellow Phospher that when the light hits our eyes, looks like white light. Now for the dimming capabilities. It's not 100% smooth. I'd say it is around 94%. It does a much better job than any dimmable LED I have ever owned, but LED technology is not quite there yet. This is not knocking it either. Remember, I have around 31 60-watt and only 1 75-watt in my house currently. I replaced ALL of my old LED's out for Philips brand. Why? Because they work as i needed them too. Since they are also dimmable, I need them to work and interchange as needed.

If so good, why only 4 stars? Obviously, I can only give 4 stars, because this LED is not a 100% perfect replacement. YET! Lumens are not all there, but is close. It's very dimmable, but lacks total control, but it is not jerky or goes down in stages like others do. Despite what people say, these bulbs still get very hot. Maybe not as hot as a regular bulb, but you still cannot grab it and take it out without placing your fingers on the Yellow windows, which always stays cool. I wrote this in hopes that people know what a good product this is. It'll be awhile before we see better options, but Philips made a great first start and hard to beat.

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Positive:

Very bright! Good light quality. Says its 2700k but it seems more true white than a normal incandescent.

Comes on at full brightness. Dimmable. Solid build. Good size. Long life. This comes close to a practical LED bulb. If price drops, and heat issues resolved, these could replace incandescents.

Negative:

some dimmers cause a horrible flicker. Gets very hot, takes a long time to cool down.(this is normal for high efficiency LED bulbs). Very heavy. Can't use in enclosed fixture due to heat build up. Slight 1 second or less delay when turning on. Very high price means impractical, except for very specific needs. Probably won't pay for itself over its lifetime. May or may not work in your dimmer.

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I think this is a GREAT bulb good light, good savings on energy, no mercury. Yes. One downside I found I had one installed in my kitchen and it caused interference with my kitchen radio FM stations. The radio doesn't have GREAT reception anyway, but the bulb made it completely full of static. Radio interference is apparently a side effect of these higher intensity bulbs. So...be informed.

Honest reviews on Philips 418590 17-Watt A21 LED Household Light Bulb, Dimmable

We've had many bulbs (incandescent and CFLs) go out in our garage door opener probably due to a combination of a motion sensor that turns it on and off often, and cold weather (they always seem to go out in the winter). We thought we'd try out LED because they're on immediately (CFLs are pretty dim in the winter months until they warm up), and because of their supposed longevity. While they turned right on, and we were pleased with the brightness, there was one fatal flaw we couldn't open or close the garage door with the remotes when the lights were on! I even tried putting foil between the lights and the antenna. That helped a little our car with a built in remote could open it while in the garage, but you had to hold the button in for several seconds, and it still didn't work outside of the garage, the keypad on the outside, or the normal remotes anywhere. Guess we're back to CFLs.

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My family has trouble remembering/wanting to turn lights off, and it frustrated my wife that I was always turning lights off on them. Buying these bulbs has drastically reduce our conflict over this issue.

A 25,000 hour bulb, at 13 cents per kwh at 58 watts per hour savings comes to $188. Add to that, my time in changing bulbs every 1,000 to 8,000 hours, plus the material waste of other bulbs over those 25,000 hours, plus the reduced electric plant emissions needed to generate those saved 1,450 kw makes these bulbs an easy sell for me. If we move, I'll take the bulbs with me.

I have absolutely no regrets at all so far.

My graphic designer wife (who has a very trained eye for color and light) and I have yet to be happy with the majority of the LED lights that I have come across. We have returned far too many bulbs that were a bad color cast or too dim. The light output is as bright and closer to indcandescent color cast than any other LED bulb we have tried. These bulbs however, are one of the few bulbs she has approved.

These bulbs are ugly. Fortunately for me, in all of the locations I have placed these bulbs, you do not look directly at the bulb. They are all visually blocked by some sort of shade.

I have had only a few of them emitting any buzz, but never enough to bother returning it and I have never had an issue with the few on dimmers.

They are heavy and the base gets hot. The packaging states that they are not intended for enclosed fixtures.

Someone mentioned that they interfered with their garage door opener, however I have two of these in ours and have yet to notice any problems.

One of the selling points is the 6 year warranty. I can pretty much guarantee that they will be much cheaper over 6 years than any other alternative in our home. You have to keep the receipt and the proof of purchase from each of the boxes and I scanned the return procedures from the box.

Over the past 12 months, our house has been lit by 18 CFL bulbs, 18 of these Philips LED bulbs at 12.5w/800L at $15 each, 8 of these Philips LED bulbs at 17w/1100L at nearly $30 each, 8 other LED bulbs, and 24 incandescent bulbs that I would LOVE to replace with LED if anyone ever started making suitable replacements.

In my mind, CFLs are only good for situations where you seldom if ever turn them off and you do not need a visually appealing bulb, so before acceptable LED bulbs came out, we had a lot of incandescent bulbs.

It also does not hurt at all that I potentially never have to get up on a ladder to change any of them again for 20 years.