Cree CR6 LED Downlight

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
21

markiper

I talked to the supplier and they have a good guarantee. They mentioned that they only ship within Canada. I was able to get a better price so I order 2. They are shipping me two lens kits so I can change from the 30 degree to a 45 depending on how high my ceiling is. Apparently they dim down to 5%. I should have them by mid week so I will try them out next weekend.

22

[quote=“myk, post:20, topic:167605”]I just bought 10 of these in NH - pricematched to the Mass price of 19.97 and there is a NHsaves.com $10 mail in rebate on each one as it is a complete lighting fixture - end price $9.97 each, no tax!

I just replaced a bunch of my recessed lighting with them, they are AWESOME! Brighter than the 65W BR30’s that were in the cans already, and the same warm incandescent light!

I only wish I had more recessed lights to get more of these[/quote]

I just bought one of these at HD and installed it. It took a total of about 5 minutes and I agree it looks great! Unfortunately there are no sales here in TX at this time, so I paid the 49.99. Who did you ask in the store regarding a price match? The stores are so big it is hard to find anyone to help you, and when I did ask about a price match it was like I was from the former planet pluto! I want to get at least 6 more of these for the kitchen but if I can get them for 19.99 I would get an additional 10.

23

[quote=“tbever, post:22, topic:167605”][quote=“myk, post:20, topic:167605”]I just bought 10 of these in NH - pricematched to the Mass price of 19.97 and there is a NHsaves.com $10 mail in rebate on each one as it is a complete lighting fixture - end price $9.97 each, no tax!

I just replaced a bunch of my recessed lighting with them, they are AWESOME! Brighter than the 65W BR30’s that were in the cans already, and the same warm incandescent light!

I only wish I had more recessed lights to get more of these[/quote]

I just bought one of these at HD and installed it. It took a total of about 5 minutes and I agree it looks great! Unfortunately there are no sales here in TX at this time, so I paid the 49.99. Who did you ask in the store regarding a price match? The stores are so big it is hard to find anyone to help you, and when I did ask about a price match it was like I was from the former planet pluto! I want to get at least 6 more of these for the kitchen but if I can get them for 19.99 I would get an additional 10.[/quote]

Goto the customer service desk, tell them that at ALL of the Home Depot stores in “MA” (Massachusetts), they are on sale for $19.97, and Home Depots in “NH” (New Hampshire) have price matched this price.

As an aleternate, I might be willing to pick some up and ship them to you, but then there will MA Sales tax (%6.25), and shipping to add in…

24

Just installed my first CR6. Super easy < 5min install.

I am very impressed by the amount of light this puts out. I realize it’s a concentrated light, but looking straight up at it, it seems just as bright as the 100W it replaced. The “ambient” light isn’t as much, but with 6 of these things I’m not going to be worried about the total light of the room.

The single one I installed isn’t (yet) on a dimmer, so I cannot comment about the dimming functionality.

The boss isn’t home yet, but I have no doubts that it will have 100% WAF.

Dudes that are buying the EcoSmart E26 from HomeDepot:
I noticed HDs website says they’re good for 35k hrs.

The Cree CR6 website as well as the polar-ray.com website list the CR6 for 50k hours. I read on HDs website from a user comment that the construction quality isn’t as good as the Cree CR6.

I can’t say that the double-in-cost is worth the extra 15k hours, but I would like to know if the CR6 and the E26 are, in fact, the same product or different.

25

Does it matter? 35,000 hours is 4 years of continuous on, @ 12 hour/day, it’s 8 years, and at 8 hours/day, it’s 12 years. I think in 12 years, I would let someone else worry about the bulb life issue :slight_smile:

26

I agree, but another thing a user on HDs website says that the build quality was less…

I do agree, though, the amount of time this thing is going to last is crazy long. It’s not worth double the price for such small issues.

27

Thanks for the tip on this deal. I purchased 8 of these from my local HD via price match and installed them last night. The color temperature is great and they work perfectly with my dimmers. Installation was very simple, only 3-5 minutes per can. I ran our usage stats through an online calculator and learned that these will pay for themselves within 8 months. We’ll be saving $8-$16 per month on our electric bill depending on our average usage.

28

Yes, these can pay for themselves if you leave lights on at 100% for long periods every day. I use motion sensors, timers, and dimmers so I don’t do that, so in my home these will take at least 4 years to pay for themselves, and that’s at the fabulous price of $19.99.

Also, FWIW I have never had an LED bulb that lasted the rated number of hours. I wouldn’t plan on getting anything close to 35,000 hours. My experience has been in the 5-10k range, and some have been below 5k hours.

29

Just a word of caution to whomever decides to try these lights - don’t make the same mistake I did!

The Cree CR6 light (and also the Home Depot version) comes in two varieties of bases: The common “Edison” screw base, and the GU24 flat twist on type base. Naturally I picked up the wrong type.

I suspect that if the can (light fixture) originally held incandescent lights, you probably will have the Edison base. If the the can originally held fluorescents, then you may have the GU24 base. Be sure to check to see which kind you have before you purchase.

Other than that, I echo what others have said: These seem to be great lights.

30

Just got five of these at my local home depot in California.
They honored the in-store price from MA.
They were not on display, but in storage on the top shelf
in the bulb section. The store staff was helpful once I gave
them the SKU. I called the Brockton store and re-confirmed
that these are still on sale as of today.

SKU # 499485
Regularly $49.97 ea.
Brockton, MA store #2611 has them on in-store special @ $19.97

31

Hi,

I jumped on these at Home Depot in MA as well. I installed a few today and am seeing weird behavior.

I have 3 hooked up to a GE 45602 2 wire Z Wave Dimmer and they pulse when dimming up and down. While dimming up, they go to full brightness then get a little lower and finally back up to full brightness. I recorded a video of the me dimming up and down.

I also have a standard incandescent leviton dimmer with 2 CR6 lights that do not exhibit this issue.

Any idea?

Thanks,

  • J
32

You should try using one of the GE/Radio Shack 3-way dimmers, because they have a neutral, current won’t be drawn through the lamp(s). I have the GE 3 way in the kitchen on 4 of these bulbs, no problem at all. The switch is just being used as a standard switch (tape off the yellow traveller wire)

The 3 way switches are down to $14.97 at Radio Shack, if you can find one with any in stock (website is now sold out)

33

[quote=“mitch672, post:32, topic:167605”]You should try using one of the GE/Radio Shack 3-way dimmers, because they have a neutral, current won’t be drawn through the lamp(s). I have the GE 3 way in the kitchen on 4 of these bulbs, no problem at all. The switch is just being used as a standard switch (tape off the yellow traveller wire)

The 3 way switches are down to $14.97 at Radio Shack, if you can find one with any in stock (website is now sold out)[/quote]

Yah, I loaded up at RS when they were at $20 apiece - I couldnt resist.

I just tried the 3 way dimmer and it actually made things worse. It pulsed on the way up and then held a flicker when it was at the highest brightness. Very weird. I did not see this with the CFL bulbs that were previously in there. Any other ideas? Im wondering if my house wiring could be part of the cause here.

34

It’s either your wiring, or perhaps 1 or more of your CREE’s are defective, I have 4 on 1 GE dimmer, and it’s fine. Maybe you need 1 more… As I said, I have 4 of them, that’s a 42 watt load (at 10.5 watts per lamp) perhaps 3 are too small a load. Try changing 1 out to an old PAR30 flood, see how it behaves then. Dimmers have minimum load requirements as well.

35

Yikes, where can I find any of the Ecosmart lights left in stock at the $20 price? I called a bunch of stores in Northern California, and none of them would match prices out-of-state, and this week I’m in the Boston area, and all the stores that I checked seem to be out of stock. I called Nashua in New Hampshire and the lady in customer service said they couldn’t match prices from MA. What stores have people had luck with? Seems like it must be up to whomever answers the phone!
:cry:

36

I purchased a bunch of these on eBay and just finished my kitchen. It wasn’t quite the $20 that the New England folks have, but it was still a lot cheaper than $50 online that I was getting.

Just another user that can report good dimming usage with these on a Leviton 1000W z-wave dimmer with nice, warm colors.

37

[quote=“mhlady, post:35, topic:167605”]Yikes, where can I find any of the Ecosmart lights left in stock at the $20 price? I called a bunch of stores in Northern California, and none of them would match prices out-of-state, and this week I’m in the Boston area, and all the stores that I checked seem to be out of stock. I called Nashua in New Hampshire and the lady in customer service said they couldn’t match prices from MA. What stores have people had luck with? Seems like it must be up to whomever answers the phone!
:'([/quote]

check the Brockton, MA Home Depot on Crescent Street, they had about 10 cases of 12 bulbs/case 2 weeks ago. The Home Depot website, when you show the local store as “Avon” or “Brockton” still shows the $19.97 price.

Model # ECO-575L
Store SKU # 499485

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202240932/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Brockton #2611
715 Crescent Street
Brockton, MA 02302
(508)427-9970

Store Hours
Mon-Sat: 6:00am-9:00pm
Sun: 8:00am-7:00pm

38

Brockton has none as of today. The manager there even knew about that bulb specifically. He said they are expecting more any day, although I’m only in the area until Thursday so may be out of luck, but that’s good news for locals.
I just need the secret handshake to get other stores to price match.

39

So I have installed a stack of these in our house. They’re on Leviton dimmers. In some cases, they’re on the (more expensive) ones that can handle incandescent, CFL, LVM, etc. In one, I specifically bought the incandescent dimmer. It looks like the spec on these is “40W minimum load”. In one application, I only have two R30s replaced with CR6s, in another, I have three. In both of these, I get some flicker at startup, and some at various levels of dimming. Once they’ve been on for a few minutes, they’re fine at 100%.

Obviously, I am below the minimum load on both of these. I have neutrals in the boxes, so would not be dependent on current bleed at a given level to supply the zwave radio. But I’m curious: is anyone aware of a zwave dimmer appropriate for these brave new wattage sipping applications? Or plans by any of the manufacturers (esp Leviton) to make them?

–Richard

40

I have 1 location with just a single CREE, and if the tempature in the house is cold (the house is kept at 55 F because I am not living in it yet), the light will flicker at startup. After being on for 10 minutes, that issue does go away. I doubt anyone has plans to make a low minimum wattage dimmer, but perhaps in a redesign, they could factor that in, and come up with something… but it will probably have to wait until the mfr’s are in a new “design cycle” for new products.