Review: Sylvania Warm White Ultra SE Sunset Effect LED Light Bulb

Sylvania is another early player in the “sunset-glow” LED game, and unfortunately, their LED light bulb doesn’t live up to its marketing hype. Like A Sunset, Sort-Of Regular LED bulbs don’t glow with “warm ambiance” like incandescents lights when dimmed, they just dim. LED bulb makers are now adding red, yellow and amber LEDs and attempting to color mix them with the white LEDs during the dimming process. Without special “recommended” LED dimmers, the transition on Sylvania’s “sunset” bulb from white to “warm” doesn’t happen gracefully. And even with special dimmers, the transition is still very noticeable, and not gradual like a real incandescent bulb. When in “sunset” mode, the bulb glows more orange-yellow, like an ugly sodium-vapor streetlight. Dimming Performance The general dimming performance of this bulb is middle-of-the-pack and nothing to write home about. Instead of dimming all the way down to 0%, it turns off at somewhere between 10-15%. This is unacceptable for an LED bulb that is supposed to create ambiance. LED lamp manufacturers: you must make your bulbs and lamps perfectly dimmable on the widest array of dimmers (TCP already solved this problem, so please license their patents…thanks, everyone on planet earth.) Poof, It’s (Maybe) Gone! Google searches show this particular bulb is unavailable online, but flood-type versions of the bulb are. This bulb may still be available locally through your Lowe’s store but it is not listed on their website. Why did we even bother posting this review? To show you the challenges with making LEDs behave like incandescent lights. Should you buy one of Sylvania’s “Sunset” LED lamps? Go ahead and try it, but you will probably be disappointed. UPDATE: This particular LED bulb is no longer available, so it doesn't matter what we thought about it. Philips now makes a warm glow bulb and has expanded the technology to many of its LED bulbs. Give it a try with our Amazon link and help support the show! http://amzn.to/24ouMUl If you would still like to try Sylvania’s non-warm-glow products, use these Amazon links for R20 & BR30 varieties (the bigger the number, the larger the floodlight). Sylvania R20 http://amzn.to/1S0n7a1 Sylvania BR30 http://amzn.to/1R0cMpD (Originally recorded Fall 2014) Recommended Smart Home Products - http://amzn.to/2kc1Tde   / smarterhomelife     / smarterhomelife   http://smarterhomelife.com http://smarterhomehelp.com (Virtual Smart Home Consulting)