Are LED Bulbs From China Safe? the Complete Guide 2021

LED technology has revolutionised the lighting market in recent years, as they consume much less energy, produce more brightness and have an amazing lifespan. Their high efficiency has made them the best alternative to the old incandescent, halogen and fluorescent bulbs.

However, not everything is positive in "the LED revolution". Due to their good reputation, many Chinese manufacturers have seen a great business opportunity in producing very low-cost bulbs. A priori will not be negative if the savings do not impact the quality of the product, which is the case in most cases.

Not all bulbs from China are dangerous. However, many of them could be low-quality. This is due to the use of cheap materials or lack of quality controls during the manufacturing process. A bulb using faulty capacitors could overheat and explode.

As we have said, the low quality of the materials used in the manufacture of Chinese light bulbs is the main cause of their danger. Of all the components that an LED bulb has inside, the capacitor is the most expensive and critical component. As they are costly elements, cutting costs on them will make the bulb cheaper.

Capacitors are small cylinders that are part of the LED driver, where their main functions are to soften and reduce the voltage coming from the power supply. This reduces the heat emitted and reduces flicker, helping to increase the lifetime of the LED bulb.

When the capacitor does not have sufficient capacity to regulate the flow of electricity flowing through the driver, it overloads and overheats and may even explode. Of course, before all this, the bulb will flicker, and the diodes will wear out quickly.

In addition to the capacitors, non-brand manufacturers often cut corners on the light-emitting diode (LED) matrix itself. Typically, when the diodes are of poor quality, the light emitted is not uniform, the colour index is very low, and the luminous flux will be lower than expected.

Looking at the external parts of the LED bulb, we can find Chinese bulbs with metal bases other than aluminium. They usually use nickel-plated steel, which, although not a very bad material, does not dissipate heat (up to 50% less) than aluminium, which is the material from which high quality LED bulbs are made.

Last but not least is the final assembly and quality control of the LED bulb. A bulb with high-quality materials but poorly soldered or joined together can result in problems in the short term. As low-quality bulbs are not subject to strict quality controls, assembly defects reach the end consumer, impacting the safety and lifetime of the bulb.

Simply put, capacitors are responsible for receiving the current, retaining it and distributing it more smoothly over the circuit where the LEDs are placed. Let's imagine that the capacitor installed, due to gauge or lack of quality, cannot handle a certain amount of current.

In its attempt to retain the current, this capacitor will start to overcharge and overheat, spreading that heat throughout the bulb, which shortens its life and is potentially dangerous.

The most commonly used capacitors in cheap light bulbs are electrolytic. These are polarised type capacitors, which cost less than other types but are very sensitive to heat. Inside these capacitors is an electrolytic gel, which heats up and evaporates, producing the famous swollen capacitors that can explode.

High-quality light bulbs often use ceramic capacitors. Ceramic capacitors are non-polarised capacitors, which cost more than others due to their complex construction. Inside the capacitor are multiple ceramic layers compressed into a block shape, which withstands heat and moisture much better.

How to tell if a bulb made in China is a bad bulb

While many LED bulbs made in China can be very bad, not all of them are, so I am going to tell you what to look out for to avoid making the wrong purchase.

For example, let's compare two similar LED bulbs, sold on Amazon; one manufactured by Philips and the other by a Chinese manufacturer, under the brand name FABRILAMP.

As shown in the picture below, both bulbs look very similar but have completely different prices. Precisely such a low price should raise a red flag; how is it possible that an LED bulb can cost so little? Take a look at the specifications of both bulbs:

Suppose you have been following this blog for a long time. In that case, you will already know that we continually assess aspects such as colour temperature, luminous flux quantity, colour rendering index, beam angle, etc. Without this information, it is impossible to achieve the desired effect when installing the bulb.

You will have noticed that in the specifications of the Chinese brand, they are not even able to give us the type of socket, limiting themselves to giving us the electrical power and the colour temperature. Both of which are probably wrong.

However, when we look at the specifications of the Philips bulb, not only can we see many more features, but in some cases, such as the luminous flux, they tell us 1,521 lumens. They do not say 1,500 or 1,520, no! They are indicating every last lumen that the bulb is capable of emitting.

Many times erroneous values can be observed such as that in electrical power they give the value of 220. It is evident that it is impossible for an LED to be so powerful, they refer to volts, but they indicate it in the power section.

Other times contradictions can be observed, such as that the bulb has a colour temperature of 6,000 K, but they add that it is a warm white bulb.

Pay attention to the lumens per watt equivalence

Whenever you check the performance of a bulb, use the value of 75 lumens per watt as a reference, as this is the value used as a standard for all types of LED bulbs from well-known brands.

This measurement divides the bulb's luminous flux by the electrical power consumption, thus obtaining a value that determines its efficiency. Anything above this value is a more efficient bulb than average, while values below are less efficient.

If we take the Philips bulb above as an example, we will divide the 1,521 lm by the 12.5 watts it consumes, giving 121.7, which is almost double the normal value. In this case, we are looking at a great bulb in terms of efficiency.

If you can get the real data of the bulb made in China, check that its efficiency is around 75 lumens per watt.

A simple explanation of CRI would be a value that specifies how accurate colours are seen under a given bulb. That is, if a bulb has a very high CRI, the colours of a certain object exposed to light from that bulb will be very close to the actual colours. Whereas a bulb with a low CRI will cause the colours displayed to be very far from the true colours.

The values used in this scale vary between 1 and 100. The CRI ranges for each type of bulb are shown in this table. As you can see, LEDs vary between 60 and 90, but standard LED bulbs are usually around 80 or 85.

Having said all this, you should avoid buying bulbs with CRI well below 80, but you should also be suspicious of those bulbs on the Chinese market that claims their bulbs have a CRI above 90.

Checking the external appearance of the LED bulb

Since when buying an LED bulb, we cannot see the materials inside, we have to look at the exterior materials to get an idea of the overall composition of the bulb. To do this, we will follow a series of guidelines summarized in the table below.

If the bulb materials chosen do not match those listed in red, you have chosen a decent bulb for the materials used in its construction.

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