Cree LED fails early in Consumer Reports' tests

The great thing about energy-saving LED lightbulbs is that they're designed to last a long time—often 23 years. And that's why when some Cree LED spotlights died early in one of Consumer Reports' tests—the most failures our lightbulb experts have seen for LEDs—it raised questions.

The dimmable Cree PAR38 Bright White LED spotlight replaces a 90-watt incandescent lightbulb and has a 27° beam angle. We paid $24 apiece at Home Depot. The model number is BPAR38-1503027T-12DE26-1U100. Here's what we found.

The tests. Our engineers conduct a number of different tests for brightness, energy use, light color, and more. Cycle testing tells us how the bulbs hold up after being frequently turned on and off. That on/off affects CFLs, but hadn't affected LEDs, until now. Four of the eight Cree LEDs died after about a third of the way through the test.

And in our 3,000 hours life test, two of the 10 LEDs died, something that is unusual for LEDs but we have seen this in the past. One Cree LED went out before 500 hours and the other around 1,700 hours. This LED is meant to last 25,000 hours, or nearly 23 years when used 3 hours a day.

Need to know. Several visitors to HomeDepot.com commented that this LED failed very early on for them as well. The LED is Energy Star qualified, meaning it met Energy Star's high standards when tested by a third party (not Energy Star and not Cree). And while Energy Star LEDs must have a warranty of at least 3 years, the Cree's warranty is 10 years. This shows why you should save your receipt. And if you're planning to buy PAR38 LEDs, especially for outdoor use with a motion sensor that frequently turns them on and off, consider the Great Value 90W PAR38 LED Soft White NonDimmable LED from Walmart. It's $22 and a CR Best Buy.

One more thing. In our past tests Cree LEDs have done very well. We recommend the Cree 9.5-watt (60W) A19 Warm White Dimmable LED and at $8.50 it's a CR Best Buy. Our tests of the Cree PAR38 LEDs continue and we'll continue to report on our findings. For more information, read  "How to get your money's worth when buying an LED."

—Kimberly Janeway