Hey all,

Since the demise of the halogen lamp for general use here in the states 3 years ago, I've been using led filament bulbs to try and replicate that feeling of incandescent lamps and chase that high I can no longer get. Problem is, the damn things fail after about a years worth of time. They all tend to go out the same way, slight flickering at first before they fully resort to a failed state wherein they glow dimly and have a 2-3 second period of continuing to glow after being shut off. I've tried 2 different kinds of ecosmart lamps and some 2025 vintage Philips warm glows all failing like this well before their allotted 13-15 year lifespans. Is there any brand that actually lasts or am I out of luck? At least it isn't all integraded led stuff I use.

You could hunt for bulk NOS lamps on ebay. Otherwise I am not sure.

Problem is, the "screw in bulb" is maybe the most LED-hostile format in existence. Rather high intensity on small space, light emission in all directions, means there is not much space where to dissipate the heat. Filament concept works well, but only limited power, like up to 8W for really largeR SIZE bulb. And only when the fixture really allows free cooling air movement around the bulb, so open fixtures only.
With enclosed fixtures the limit is at about 4W, so we are at barely 600lm with the most efficient LEDs on the market (the power figure includes the driver losses), so not that much of light output.

Way better performance you get from purpose built LED lanterns (assume decent design and build quality, so likely not the cheapest trash on the market), but these tend to use propriatery parts, so hard to fix once fails, so you need a completely new lantern.
So more of a "creating a new installation", not a "what to put into existing fixture" thing.

I’m not sure either. Not sure if this helps, but I have been using Ecosmart lamps as of late, though they are just regular ones, most being 2700K, one 3000K, and two 5000K.

I have a 2700K snowcone from 2020 that is has just about five years of use in a table lamp, used about three hours a day, but after that generation they made them even lighter, which I don’t like. They still had weight then that gave somewhat of an assurance on how quality would be but now they feel light as a feather unfortunately. I have two other snowcones in use, a 2700K in a closet light (installed in 2023 I think), and 5000K in a garage light (installed in 2022 I think) and those have been working good.

Their filament lamps have been good to me as well. I know you said you tried them but I’m not sure if you tried the ones I used (regular ones). I have some 2700K 60w (closet light) and 100w equivs (floor lamp) installed in December of 2023 and they have been going strong no issues. Along with a 100w equiv 3000K (installed in mid 2023 I believe, room light) and a pair of 5000K versions (outside lights that are D2D, Oct 2023 and Aug 2025). The October 2023 one is a notable one as before that, I was installing Feit filament LEDs and literally the longest I got one of those in those outside lights was a year and a half, no joke, and started getting those in 2018 (dumb I know).

As @HomeBrewLamps says, sourcing older LED lamps might be your way to go. I have 2700K 65w equiv GE BR30s and Feit BR30s from 2018 (kitchen), another from 2021 (kitchen sink), and Feit G25 40w and Great Value 40w equiv (2018, most of the GVs had failed over the years except two, bathroom), and the best ones, a pair of Feit Electric 85w equiv BR30s in 5000K, that have run D2D since January 2019 with no issues. I haven’t had failures from the lamps mentioned above except for the GVs. The only mass failures I had were with the Feit A19 60w and 100w equiv filament LEDs. The longest I got from one of those was I think three years, in a garage opener light out of all places. People trash on Feit but I have great experiences with some of their older LED lamps.

Home Depot is closer to where I live so that’s been where I’ve been getting my LED lamps lol. Can’t say anything about the other brands.

With halogen lamps like any incandescents, small variation in power leads to huge variation in life. (Near the rated power, not in very dimmed states where the halogen cycle may do some villekulla). So just a little not too noticable dimming may resolve your lamp life problem



Failing other lamp formats, car headlights (H7 etc) are also halogen, fairly good performance and quality for what they are, and i dont think are banned anywhere

They have shorter rated life than "home" halogens, but if the other halogens you can use are of bad quality, a car lamp may outlast them even at full power

Same dimming vs. life consideration applies. You could run the lamps with a plain transformer or a switching power supply. The "metal mesh box" type ones have a small pot to calibrate the voltage, essentially a dimmer for your application

24V (truck) lamps are a little higher power than 12V ones for the same lamp format



With LEDs i have not seen any integrated luminaires that are even remotely acceptable

With screw in lamps there are 2000K-ish filaments (probably ordinary 2700K filaments inside, but the glass has a golden color to it). Those do reduce the blue light content to nearly none, they have fairly pleasant light, but fairly dim

Lamp life : The big names are not really avaliable in my area. I have had mostly good life with Eurolux (a local brand name which you probably dont have there anyway, they are "the better ones of the made in China" sort of lot), but not without some hit and miss too

In one case i have replaced the same lamp in the same socket 4 times in 4 successive days (each one of the first three lasted less than an hour cumulatively), the 4th one (which looks identical) lasted 7 years so far and keeps going...