Electrical wholesalers need to shun cost cutting LED manufacturers

Most people in the electrical industry know that poorly designed and assembled LED bulbs from dodgy manufacturers are currently giving the industry a bad name. And here at Megaman we recently sponsored an article in the leading trade magazine Electrical Wholesaler to draw this to everyone’s attention.

We are now asking the industry to work together to shun these sources,  as manufacturers of cheaply made products are undoubtedly cutting corners in their assembly processes and often claiming to be something they are not. From our experience, we know some of these “rogue” manufacturers out there are claiming that their products are a 40W incandescent or 50W halogen equivalent, when in fact they are only a 15W equivalent.

We believe that by selling these shoddy products, some wholesalers are risking damage to their reputation - an effect which could turn out to be very costly in the long run as products fail to meet expectations and professional reputations get permanently scarred.

It is fair to say that with the LED lamp market taking off at lightning speed (excuse the pun!) it is tricky to keep track of which are the most reliable products. This means that sometimes the market choice is confusing for the average consumer who is considering which LED light to buy. What looks like a good lamp may well perform badly and a number of lamps in the same packaging, or even the same box, have been found to perform inconsistently. But as the consumer can’t see inside the lamp and they can’t tell how a lamp will perform from the size of the heat sink, it’s all a bit of an unfortunate gamble.

Fortunately, the Government has issued some guidance to the LIA under Article 9 which lists the names of manufacturers whose lamps have been deemed to be unsafe in Europe and withdrawn from sale. This list continues to grow so we do get some protection, but we also need to tackle the issue as an industry and formulate a joined up approach which includes customs, freight companies and ports of entry to stop this type of inferior product from entering the country.

There are a number of good schemes in operation which we wholeheartedly support, including the LIA Performance Verified Scheme where manufacturers are able to pay for a test (wattage and lumen output) and the results are published on the LIA website.

Other innovative schemes such as WHICHLEDLIGHT.COM do a similar job and both of these  are great tools for wholesalers, providing a certain level of protection against shoddy products bringing back consumer annoyance which may come back to bite you.

Ironically, we have already dealt with this issue with CFLs successfully but now that the LED market is really taking off what the industry needs to do is learn from the past and do something to ensure that only quality products, from manufacturers who can be relied on, are entering the market.

If you are confused about which high quality LED lighting product would most suit your purpose,  visit the LED comparison website www.whichledlight.com.