Top Reasons Your LED Light Bulbs Aren't Lasting Long (And How To Extend Their Life)

There are several reasons to choose LED bulbs for the light fixtures at home. First, they are much more efficient than fluorescent or incandescent bulbs, requiring only about half as much energy. Switching to LED bulbs is one of the top ways to reduce your home energy costs. These bulbs also don't emit a lot of heat, are bright, and durable. But, one of the biggest selling points of LED bulbs is their extended life. Many manufacturers say that their bulbs can last up to 50,000 hours — up to 50 times the lifespan of an incandescent bulb and about five times as long as CFL bulbs.

Unfortunately, your bulbs may be burning out well before they should. 50,000 hours works out to over 2,000 days, or nearly six years of continuous use. If your LED bulbs are only lasting for a few years — or even months — it can be frustrating. Below, we've put together a list of some of the main reasons behind shorter-than-expect LED lifespans. We'll also share a few tips to help you learn what you should do to ensure your LED bulbs last longer.

LED lights can be very bright, so many people use them with dimmers to make it possible to raise or lower the brightness depending on the task at hand. Unfortunately, the dimmer switch you're using may be the reason why your bulbs aren't lasting as long as they should. It is important to remember that LED bulbs haven't been used for home lighting as long as some other bulbs, so if you have an older home, your dimmer switch might not be compatible with LEDs. 

Pairing LED bulbs with an incompatible dimmer is asking for trouble. If the switch isn't designed for use with LEDs, the lights may flicker or not adjust as evenly as they otherwise would. Incompatible dimmers can also cause that annoying buzzing sound that you might hear when the light is on, due to the switch's electrical output not be aligned with the LED bulb. If you suspect your dimmer switches may not be appropriate with LED bulbs, consider hiring a qualified electrician to upgrade them to a newer option that's a better fit. Similar issues can also occur if you have lower-quality dimmer switches or LED bulbs, so be sure to keep this in mind when shopping for materials or when discussing a project with an electrician.

If you've ever accidentally touched an incandescent or CFL lightbulb that was on (or had recently been turned on), you probably pulled your hand away pretty quickly. These bulb types use heat to make light, which is why they can feel so hot to the touch. This can cause them to overheat and burn out. LEDs are another story. They remain much cooler to the touch because their light-emitting diode doesn't rely on heat to make light. However, it is still possible for a LED bulb to overheat and burn out — instead of the diode itself overheating, some of the other smaller components of the bulb will be to blame. 

There are lots of small circuit connections in each bulb. These connections are soldered together and may overheat. Certain conditions can increase the chances of the bulbs overheating, such as installing the bulbs in an area of the home that stays too warm. If too much dust accumulates around the bulb, it may also increase the chances of these tiny components overheating. Cleaning your light fixtures regularly can help remove the dust and minimize the chances that the bulbs will overheat.

If your light bulbs are burning out too quickly, it could be a sign that the voltage in your home is too high. If this is the cause of your LED lights burning out, you should notice a similar problem with any incandescent or CFL bulbs you still have, as high voltage will cause issues with any light bulb. The problem with high voltage is that it sends too much power to the bulbs, which can damage them and shorten their lifespan. Ideally, your home's electric current should be somewhere around 120 volts with a 60 hertz frequency. Even if your home's voltage is generally in this zone, a power surge from a storm can cause it to spike, resulting in the same problem of shorted-lifespan light bulbs.

If you suspect that high voltage in your home may be to blame, it is probably time to consult an electrician and consider upgrading your electrical box and home's wiring. Beyond causing issues with your lightbulbs, you could experience other electrical problems or even higher utility bills. The electrician you hire may also suggest installing a surge protector to prevent spikes in the voltage that can be caused by weather and other external events.

If the electricity isn't able to transfer properly to the bulb, it can also lead to a decreased life span. There are a few potential problems that can stand in the way of energy transfer. One of these is the age of the light sockets. Older sockets may have corroded contact points, which will interfere with the bulb and the wiring achieving a proper connection. If there are any loose wires in and around the socket, the connection will also be less than ideal, and you might find that your bulbs burn out more quickly than they should. Unless you are experienced in doing electrical work, you should hire a qualified electrician to fix either of these issues for you.

Even if the socket is new and functional, the bulb still might not be connecting with it properly. This problem is one that you should be able to address on your own. When screwing in a LED light bulb, you must make sure that it is tightened properly. If the bulb isn't fully screwed in, the connection points won't touch as they should. However, you also must not screw in the bulb too tightly. If it presses too hard into the socket, it can depress the socket tab and cause problems. You can determine whether this is the problem you're dealing with by turning off the breaker for the light fixture in question. Once you're confident that the power is off, unscrew the light bulb and look to see if the socket tab is depressed and stuck down. If so, carefully pull the tab up to a 20-degree angle using a pair of tweezers.

If you live in an overly humid climate, that too could be to blame for the shorter lifespan of your LED bulbs. When humidity levels are high, it means that there is a lot of moisture in the air. As you could probably guess, excess moisture and light fixtures don't mix. The moisture can cause corrosion on the bulbs or the connectors in your sockets. Either of these will interfere with the connection and may decrease the useful life of the bulb.

There are a few things you can do to combat high humidity levels. One is to run a dehumidifier in your home. Dehumidifiers, like the Frigidaire 35 Pint Dehumidifier, remove moisture from the air, and therefore could help prevent corrosion and other problems. If the bulbs in question are being used with outside light fixtures, a dehumidifier won't be of much use. However, you could consider purchasing a vapor tight light, such as the Dakason 4-Foot LED Vapor Tight Light. These lights are sealed and waterproof, preventing moisture from entering and causing corrosion. Another way to combat humidity is to make sure that there is sufficient ventilation in the areas where the LED bulbs and light fixtures are installed in your home.

Sometimes life just gives you lemons. It is possible that the reason your LED bulbs aren't lasting very long has nothing to do with a problem in your home or user-error when installing them. They may simply have come from a defective batch. Even with quality control measures in place, mistakes happen, and faulty products slip through the cracks. If you think you got a bad batch, you can reach out to the manufacturer. The bulb may be under a warranty, and they might send you a free replacement.

It is also important to note that the advertised lifespans are estimates that are based on averages. That means some bulbs may last longer than others. If your bulbs are only lasting for a few weeks or months, then there is probably another cause. However, if they have lasted for multiple years — but just not as many as you were expecting — you might have just gotten a bulb with a slightly shorter lifespan that still averages out with other longer lifespan bulbs to arrive at the printed range from the manufacturer.

If you want to extend the life of your LED bulbs, there are a few things you can try. One is to cut back on unnecessary usage. We often leave bulbs on for longer than is necessary, which can cause them to burn out more quickly. Consider implementing a schedule for when you need the lights to be on and use a timer to help you stick to this schedule.

For large scale workplaces, timers can be used inside. For the average homeowner, this is probably unnecessary. However, a timer can be very valuable for outdoor light displays. If you want to cut back on your holiday electrical bills, for example, consider connecting your lights to an outdoor timer, such as the BN-LINK Digital Programmable Timer. This way, you can have the lights turn on as it gets dark, but set them to automatically turn off later at night. You won't have to worry about whether you're home and able to manually turn them on or off, and they also won't accidentally end up staying on overnight.

While you don't want to waste energy by leaving a light on in a room that you're not currently using, you should also be mindful of how frequently you're switching your LED bulbs on and off. If you turn them on and off too many times in a short time period, it can have a more negative impact on their lifespan than if you were to just leave the light on for an extended period of time. The problem with turning the bulbs on and off rapidly is that it exposes them to voltage fluctuations. Moreover, the bulbs should have time to rest before being turned on again. Without this rest period, they will begin to dim, then eventually burn out more quickly than they would have otherwise.

You need to find the right balance to help extend the lifespan of your bulbs. For example, if you go into the laundry room to remove laundry from the dryer and aren't planning on going back in to start a new load of laundry for several hours, you should turn off the light to conserve energy. However, if you're working in your home office and are only planning on taking a quick break to go down to the kitchen for a snack or meal, you're probably better just leaving the light on while you're gone.