Overhead light failure

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by wetzk

Got a reply back, they said they were good for 12v wiring. So I did not get an answer if they were good for more than 12v. If it happens again I guess I'll see what other lights are out there.
Or open up a Rave or Disco joint

Hope it doesn’t happen again but I don’t have much faith in cheap LED’s. You might be better off replacing the whole light with an incandescent style and then buying your own replacement LED bulbs from superbrightleds.com or the like. We have the old style lights and put in our own LED’s without issue. Just food for thought.

http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Ligh...30-76-243.html

[John in Santa Cruz]

yeah, most any 12V device designed for automotive use will in fact handle like 11 to 16V or whatever. cars typically are 13.5-14.4V when running, and 12-13V when shut off, and a low battery can be as low as 11V

[wetzk]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

Products designed for use on a 12V system, will also handle the charge voltages these systems see, and are usually fine for up to 12V and beyond. At least most certainly do.

Yes but these were designed by a group in China for the RV industry. Whether they know anything at all about it is unknown. They saw a place they could fit in and sell devices and went for it. Since more than a few of these are failing with a disco lighting effect it sounds like they did not do something right. So if or when these fail I'll find something else to put up there.


Here is their about page

WaysPride LLC is a company has been focused on RV industry home builder market since early 2006. We have our own factory to provide stable and high quality products, which are widely used in many of main OEM factories in the States. The "Facon" brand LED lightings and heater pad products have been highly adopted by the North America RV industry and Mobile Home market.



So it sounds like a lot of other trailers out there may also have these installed in them.

[wetzk]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

yeah, most any 12V device designed for automotive use will in fact handle like 11 to 16V or whatever. cars typically are 13.5-14.4V when running, and 12-13V when shut off, and a low battery can be as low as 11V

And a lot of the LED automotive bulbs available on eBay that are sold for automotive use will fail when exposed to more than 12 volts. Usually not right away they may last a few weeks or months but they do not hold up. Dead LED's and Flashing segments are common. Just because it is sold for a use does not mean it can handle it.

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

Hope it doesn’t happen again but I don’t have much faith in cheap LED’s. You might be better off replacing the whole light with an incandescent style and then buying your own replacement LED bulbs from superbrightleds.com or the like. We have the old style lights and put in our own LED’s without issue. Just food for thought.

http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Ligh...30-76-243.html

Replacement gets expensive, $13 for light fixture and led bulb replacement, $10 per fixture (2 bulbs each) or about $25/per light for the overheads, etrailer also offer the led Escape used to install with the wedge flat bulb held with a screw for $13, that maybe a better choice and I do not recall issues with those led lights.

[garysd]

Definitely contact Escape. We had flickering problems and Escape sent us replacements for all 3 of our ceiling lights.

Definitely a quality problem with manufacturing. A close friend has electronics manufactured in China, and the manufacturer does no QA. Instead, they send extra units to replace any defective ones.

I haven't installed our new lights yet. Here's hoping that the replacements don't have that "disco" effect.

Gary

[WaltP]

When I picked up my 17B in September I was very pleased with the new LEDs, especially the two double units in the ceiling. But during the just-ended Southern Utah Tour, both of them developed the dreaded flicker, making them unusable. Fortunately all of the single units under the cabinets are working fine.
I've been reluctant to pry them off for fear of damaging them till I call ETI and I haven't had time to do that yet.
Clearly at least the double units are not ready for prime time and I agree that replaceable LED designs would be a lot better at this point.
Walt

[johnp271]

I started this thread on the new overhead light failure. I was preparing to leave on a trip so in the interest of speed I ordered from Amazon the light suggested by wetzk. It looks exactly like the one installed but don't you know two of the four mounting screw holes are different - and it looked impossible to drill matching holes in the fixture. So I held my breath and made two new screw holes in the ceiling and installed the Amazon model. It has worked fine, thank you wetzk.

I also contacted Escape and Reace sent me two replacement fixtures, under warranty, which I now have as spares.

I like the light these things give off. It will be interesting to watch the failure rate of these LEDs in the months/years ahead.

[caddoster]

Ours (2017 19') just started to flicker on the most recent trip too.

[johnp271]

caddoster: Looks like a replacement is in order. Contact Reace at Escape if still under warranty and he should get you one (or two). In addition there is the amazon link given by witzek in his 6/6/18 post on this thread above. I bought one from there and it has been working fine.

[caddoster]

Originally Posted by johnp271

caddoster: Looks like a replacement is in order. Contact Reace at Escape if still under warranty and he should get you one (or two). In addition there is the amazon link given by witzek in his 6/6/18 post on this thread above. I bought one from there and it has been working fine.

Thanks for the info. I've sent an email to parts and service asking about the light. It's a little over a year so should still be under warranty.

[James Gang]

The center one started to flicker/strobe effect a week and a half ago in Mammoth Cave NP. When I get home in another week and a half, I will call ETI and get a replacement

[caddoster]

For ours they need a picture of the light itself (they said they've used different styles overtime) and the location. We just got our replacement in the mail, very efficient service.

[Defenestrator]

Starting to think I got a bad batch of these things or something. A few months after getting mine home, the main/center light developed a flicker. No big deal, contacted support and Reace sent another one. Replaced it, but now that we're using the trailer full-time they're dropping like flies. The main/center one went out again, the one above the dinette started flickering, and so did the one over the bed and even the one over the kitchen sink. Luckily none of the shorter lights off to the side has had a problem yet. I'm sure Escape will send me some more, but it's not really worth it if they're just going to die again after a few weeks. Eventually I'm going to run out of wire to cut and crimp the new light onto.

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by Defenestrator

Starting to think I got a bad batch of these things or something.

If yours are the "newer" fixtures with one soldered in strip instead of the pancake LED with a wedge connection, I think you'll always have to deal with that unless you change to another fixture type. They're poorly built, at least the ones I've seen in person. Ours with the changeable bulbs are working fine and flicker free after 3 1/2 years.

[cpaharley2008]

Yes, the current semi-permanent LED installation makes replacement harder. I remember asking for the old style clearance lights on my 2014 Escape so that the bulbs could easily be replaced vs the entire light which was riveted to the shell. Now it looks like the issue has moved indoors.

[Defenestrator]

Yeah :/ I was kinda hoping one of the responders in here would say something like "after that one bad batch, they've worked well" or "the capacitor on the board is undersized. Solder on a slightly larger one and they work great"

Guess I'll just replace the whole fixture, but that means finding some that aren't junk.

[wetzk]

You can easily unsolder and remove the defective LED board and either solder in a socket for an LED bulb or a LED strip. One of my replacements and another original failed so I removed the defective light bars and soldered in some indoor warm white flexible strip light. Similar to what you install under your awnings. Depending on where you buy it it can be cut in different lengths. Mine was every 3 inches so I put 3 rows 6 inch long in. Not as bright as the original harsh white light, I like the slightly dimmer warm light.

[caddoster]

I think with the way some of the LED lights are constructed there's no bad batch there's just high % of bad on every batch... ETI must have known that and continue to search for more reliable ones that's why they had to know which style we have before sending out replacement.



I am also wondering if the reason we only had one failed so far is because we don't spend a whole lot of time in the trailer awake and 90% of the time the only light used was the center light.. (which is the one that is flickering) ..

[steve dunham]

Our 2013 Casita has LED lights with replaceable lamps and we have had zero failures
I would believe the problem is not with the fixtures being LED but with the fixture manufacturer and their QC
Knowing Escape , when they discovered the problem they took steps to eliminate the issue .
Changing out a fixture seems like an easy fix