In , Percival P. Cassidy wrote:
Roger Shoaf wrote:

We got a letter from Costco today inviting us to return the "Lights of
America" LED bulbs we had purchased because they do not live up to the
claimed life of 20K hours. Four different SKUs are listed.

Sam's Club has sold some of these as well, but no communication so far
from them.

The LOA brand was one of the first to have the compact fluorescents and
every damn one I got was junk, so the shock that the LED are junk too
doesn't really surprise me.

Agreed that the LOA *fixtures* were bad news, but an independent
evaluation a few years ago rated their CFL *bulbs* as better than Sylvania.

They must have changed bigtime a few years ago then, or started getting
their bulbs from a contract manufacturer who knew how to make them (and
probably also sells to others).

My experience with LOA CFL bulbs has been the worst there is except for
dollar store stool specimens. I only bought one LOA CFL since 2001-2002,
and that was one I got in 2005, with ratings that I consider wrong.
(Comparing to a 60 watt incandescent that lasts 750 hours, when
60-watters are normally rated to last 1,000 hours, and claiming 1048
lumens when producing no more light than others producing 850 lumens, and
claiming electricity savings based on 16 cents per KWH at a time when few
paid 16 cents per KWH.)

Ones that I got in 2001-2002 and before had a high rate of dying young,
and almost universally fell short of claimed light output. One model I
tried had a light output claim in lumens later revised downward, but its
light output claim in incandescent equivalence remained exaggerated.

I mention more of my experience with speficic CFL brands/models in:

http://members.misty.com/don/cfapp.html

- Don Klipstein )