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Is it just me or do led work lights suck?

68-500

68-500

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Maybe its me, my close-up eyesight ain’t what it used to be. But it seems I find myself trying to position work (trouble) light more then I actually spend turning a wrench. Seems like old rough service incandescent bulbs had a soft glow that surrounded the part i was working on. Sure they’d burn the hell out of your arm or whatever bare skin might touch them but, I could see under the car. What di you guys think?
 
Have LED light center is fixed on each side light you can tilt. Like it. Incandecent bulbs ok but limited and working where gas can spill dangerous.
 
I like them so far.

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Certain fire departments are switching flashlights back to incandescent. It seems in a smoke filled room the LED flashlights are less effective.
 
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Many folks are installing LED's in these older cars. Know of very few that actually like the results. Especially with tail lights.
I'll stick with a good ol incandescent bulbs. Just my opinion..
 
I'm cool with LEDs. I have one that clips under my hood and a handheld, rechargeable one for everywhere else. They throw plenty of light on my work and and I can use the rechargeable one anywhere (including under the dash) without worrying about melting stuff.

The heat from incandescent bulbs sucks, but for me the worst part is the way that the bulbs burn out every time I drop the light. I ended up using an LED bulb in my old work light for that reason.
 
I put LED overhead lights in the garage work great. Have a hand held LED shop light that I do not care for. Shadows.
I put LED headlights in my grand cherokee, I can see a little better with those than the stock lights but they arent that great either.
 
Related. I now have 2 pair of eyeglasses ground for my astigmatism in my bifocal adjustment that I use for my welding and closeup work and my computer work. They were relatively cheap and really help. Any looking up, up close is a bitch with regular eyeglasses. These were a godsend when my eye doc suggested I try them.
Mike
 
When I'm crawling around under the car, I drag a 20,000 lumen 4 footer under there with me and
believe me, There ain't no shadows!!!!. I can't see anymore either.
 
12 overhead 4ft led stoplights. Like them. Headband led for under car, also works great.
 
I have a LED work light in the shop and hate it. The light from it is harsh white, and way too directional. I spend a lot of time moving it. I have bought some four foot LED tubes to replace my fluorescents. Some were good, some generated so much radio noise that they made my ham radio unusable. I got a set of LED headlights for my Jeep from JW Speaker Co. Absolutely love them. If I turned them towards you you could probably see me from where you are. Same with my LED flashlight, it’s like looking at an arc welder.
 
Replaced all my overhead lighting in my shop from 4-foot fluorescents to Led's. Easy swap and put out more light than the old tubes. Bought a Halogen work light and it got really hot under the car. But could see a lot better. Led's are cooler for sure.
 
Keep in mind LEDs operate at a light wavelength. In other words they turn on and off at a THz (tera Hertz) frequency. The on to off edges are sharp. A light filter or polarizing screen helps.

An incandescent bulb glows at a certain heat. It virtual has no sharp cutoff at AC power, and none at DC power.

In pinball machine applications where the bulbs are somewhat filtered by plastic overlays the advantage is a 20 degree cooler play field and brighter light. The same would apply to dash cluster indicators, etc.

At distances LED seems to perform well. At close up incandescent seems to be better.

We have assembly microscopes at my work. The microscopes with fluorescent light rings are definitely easier on the eyes than the LED versions. My theory is close up the sharp cutoff of the LED impacts the eyes.

For reading lamps I definitely like incandescent better.

Good discussion on the subject!
 
A "sun" in the same room as me is too bright. When I'm at work we have LED flashlights. I always ask somebody to, "Hand me a little piece of the sun" when I need one. I don't like them. If you shine them at something, it is so bright you still can't see what you want!
 
One thing is, I haven't burned the skin off of my forearm in many, many moons!
 
Im fine with the ship lights( overhead) and taillights and marker lights are great. But i cant see **** under the car. Like said the shine so bright all i see is shadows.
 
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