Hi,
Today I woke up to something strange… water droplets in the bottom of my GE link bulb (really the bulb part but it’s hanging upside down). The bulb was on for about a couple hours. There was a glass of ice water on the table underneath the bulb, but it wasn’t directly under the bulb. I turned the bulb off and replaced it with a regular bulb for now. Has anyone ever had this issue? Thanks! (I have a picture but I could not upload it with the mobile editor so I will upload it later).
I’ve noticed some condensation, but just a few drops
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Same thing with me. It wasn’t a lot of water, just a couple drops but I was very confused.
I’ve noticed some kind of moisture in several of my GE Link bulbs. It hasn’t seemed to affect their performance.
Yeah, I have several with that. I popped the dome off and drilled a small hole in it and dried it out then put it back on and it hasn’t come back. I thought that might have been the reason for this bulb falling offline sometimes but it still does it and I have found a couple others that work fine but have it.
That’s definitely an entirely different issue altogether (firmware bug) and nothing to do with water.
Is there a way to update the link bulb firmware so it stops falling offline?
I have never had an issue with mine going offline, but mine is turned off with a physical switch half of the time. I am just starting with Smartthings and I think I might use GE switches.
Unfortunately not through SmartThings, they currently do not support ZigBee Over The Air firmware updates, though I haven’t actually bothered to plug in my Wink hub (which does) to check if the firmware update was actually released anyway.
Lightbulbs should be airtight. Incandescent Bulbs contain gases necessary to the functioning of the bulb. While LEDs don’t use inert gases, condensation can still cause uneven heating of the glass, a dangerous situation.
If you see water droplets inside the bulb, the seal is broken. This can lead to a number of conditions, including the bulb exploding. If the bulb is still under warranty, return it. If not, discard it. Never drill holes in a lightbulb that you intend to keep using as a lightbulb.
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It’s a miracle! You’ve turned light into water! We should make a law that California has to use only these. It would be the end of their water problems!
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I think some of the GE bulbs contain moisture from the factory. I returned one of them because the exterior of the bulb was coated in some kind of thin grease. I think there was some inside, too.
I have actually noticed that the light bulb fogs up in a specific spot where I found the condensation droplets. Thanks for this!
Another thing I don’t like about the bulb is that the base gets extremely hot. I have read many other threads that mention this.
Note that a lot of LED bulbs pretty much use plastic these days and that’s unlikely to explode, still relevant for glass LED bulbs for sure.
As a related note, all EIGHT of the Aeotec AEON Z-Wave bulbs I received weren’t sealed at all, in fact the plastic ‘bulb’ had popped off during shipping on all but one of them, I raised my concerns long story short, they are ‘installed’ and outside, we’ll see how long they last.
Aeotec even rates them for outside use…
Do you have the RGB Aeon bulbs? I was looking at that for outside because Philips Hue isn’t rated for outdoor use.
I have a hue bulb outside in a sealed glass globe fixture the globe has a rubber warsher and screws in and is sealed…
I have had no issues been down to about 10 degrees here .
Fair agreement but the GE link bulb is not rated for outside and caused water drops indoor. I did raise this moisture issue with GE when it first came out and they weren’t concerned about it since no complain was raised that time. I actually disassembled a few of this bulbs for projects and noticed the gasket and sealant wasn’t well put together hence the moisture. Ok so no explosion with LED but it could be an electrical hazard if you installed it with the Len face up. Not too mention water marks on the floor. I would return them for new one just for safety and clean up sake. It doesn’t cost anything but hey, that’s just my suggestion. I find the Ecosmart bulbs are better and don’t drop offline.
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I have the exact same issue with all of my GE Link bulbs that are installed upside-down. It hasn’t bothered them (yet). I’ve also been tempted to drill a small vent hole as the condensation is a bit unsightly. Being a plastic lens, I can’t see these exploding. Warping a bit, perhaps, but not exploding. I’m assuming that the ones I have installed rightside-up also have this issue, I just never see it.
I don’t have a sealed fixture, but it is under a porch. I was thinking about Aeon because the bulbs are a bit cheaper than the Hue bulbs and they are certified for outdoor use. But now that you mention that your Hue bulb works fine outside I might consider it. Thanks!