LED bulbs throbbing (not gentle flicker)

wendyLG · 2 May 2018 at 15:02

I have read the threads about LED's flickering at about 50hz. This isn't that I have bought a new light fitting which asks for G4 halogen bulbs. I tried using LED bulbs and the lights throbbed each pulse was about 1 second lit 1 second off. There is no dimmer switch.

This throbbing stopped when we replaced the LEDs with halogen bulbs, is this a problem with the new light fittings?

I am in the UK in case this is relevant.

divuk83 · 2 May 2018 at 15:28

I'm guessing they are running through a (non compatible with LED) transformer as G4's are not 240v. The fitting/transformer will be the problem.

Dave

wendyLG · 2 May 2018 at 15:35

divuk83 said:
I'm guessing they are running through a (non compatible with LED) transformer as G4's are not 240v. The fitting/transformer will be the problem.

Dave

and this isn't a good enough reason to return it is it?

HardwareGeek · 2 May 2018 at 18:36

Will most likely be under loading the transformer in the fitting, tbh if they didn't say it was Led compatible then it probably isnt a reason to return it but you could try anyway or tell them its faulty or something

I would advise anyone to avoid these fittings with built in trannys as they tend to fail in a year or 2 and then you need to replace the whole fitting plus compatibility problems with leds as you have found

You could probably change the transformer to an led driver if you had to keep the fitting and really wanted to use leds - only issue is the transformers for these fittings tend to be round type or made to measure the fitting so off the shelf replacement trannys / drivers probably wont fit - but you could make a hole in the ceiling and hide the driver up in the ceiling etc

wendyLG · 3 May 2018 at 14:07

HardwareGeek said:
Will most likely be under loading the transformer in the fitting, tbh if they didn't say it was Led compatible then it probably isnt a reason to return it but you could try anyway or tell them its faulty or something

I would advise anyone to avoid these fittings with built in trannys as they tend to fail in a year or 2 and then you need to replace the whole fitting plus compatibility problems with leds as you have found

You could probably change the transformer to an led driver if you had to keep the fitting and really wanted to use leds - only issue is the transformers for these fittings tend to be round type or made to measure the fitting so off the shelf replacement trannys / drivers probably wont fit - but you could make a hole in the ceiling and hide the driver up in the ceiling etc

I think you can safely presume, as I am asking this question, your fix is far beyond my skill level

I will just stick to halogen bulbs, as it is the most lovely light fitting my daughter liked we could afford.