lamptest.ru project there three years. I have recently begun to receive reports from those who have recently bought Navigator lamps, Gauss, Wolta, that in spite of the same article and the same barcode, this is clearly not the lamp, which I tested in 2014 year.
I tested lamps Navigator 2016 issue and compared them with old lamps.
It turned out that in order to make the lamp more cheaper, manufacturers have gone to considerable simplifications and deterioration.
Previously Navigator lamps were sold in white boxes. The last batch of such lamps was produced in January 2016 and more common on the market. Now the lamps are sold in yellow boxes. If you take a lamp in hand, you can feel how the lamp of yellow boxes easier.
"Candle" 5 watts of white boxes - 47 grams, "candle" 5 W of yellow boxes - 25 grams.
All the old navigators had operating voltage range of 176-264 volts to 220-240 volts new specified and this is no accident.
In older lamps used IC-driver, allowing the lamp does not change the brightness in a wide range of voltages. According to my tests, the lamp in a white box does not reduce brightness while reducing the voltage to 114 volts. The set of new tubes, and cheap line driver lamp brightness decreases with decreasing voltage. By reducing the voltage to 216 volts brightness drops by 10%.
This means that the new bulb is not desirable for use where there is low voltage, and where there are voltage fluctuations - the light will dim and blink. Old lamp under the same conditions, stable burning at maximum brightness and the light does not flicker when the voltage drops.
Another side effect of the linear driver - if the lamps are connected via a switch having an indicator lamp are poorly illuminated when the switch is off.
Most lamps Navigator in white boxes pulsating beam does not exceed 5%, almost all lamps in yellow boxes ripple of about 25%. It's almost imperceptible "by eye", but still talks about a lower quality of new light bulbs.
The new lamps have saved on the driver, and, judging by the weight on the radiator, but the LEDs are still good - color rendering index of all lamps except G4 / G9, above 80.
The new lamps Wolta saved on the LEDs.
Previously Wolta lamps sold in transparent plastic boxes. Almost all of these lamps color rendering index (CRI) was more than 83, now the lamps are sold in cardboard boxes, which honestly says that CRI is only 75.
The driver in the new lamps Wolta was full IC, and even on the box and written operating voltage range of 220-240 V, the lamp can be operated without reducing the brightness at much lower voltages. Ripple almost all new lamps not exceeding 1%.
According to the reader Alexei Pechnikova "Gauss now supplies the lamp with the same part numbers, but the color temperature, brightness and even the weight of the lamps are quite different." I until the new Gauss did not come across, but I will try to test them in the near future.
Over the past year, LED lamps considerably cheaper and, unfortunately, it is not only a reduction in the cost of technologies and components, but also to the fact that manufacturers have begun cheapen its lamp installing simpler drivers, using worst quality and characteristics of the LEDs and other components therein, as well as reducing the radiators cooling.
I was faced with a difficult situation where the market there are different lamps with the same part numbers and barcodes. Yet simply marks on Lamptest new lamps at the end of the year of manufacture (for example, all new Navigator at the end of article on lamptest worth in 2016) and the old lamps rented flag "urgent."
© 2017 Alex Nadozhin
The main theme of my blog - Equipment for human life. I write reviews, share experiences, talk about all sorts of interesting things. And I'm doing stories of the interesting places and tell about interesting events.
Add me to your friend list here. Remember the short address of my blog: Blog1.rf and Blog1rf.ru.
My second project - lamptest.ru. I test LED lamps and help figure out which ones are good and which are not.