Dangerous LED 'corn cob' lamp test and teardown

CE marked (and before anyone mentions China Export, the European Commission says that this is a misconception). RoHS marked. British seller (Eco Ers). What could possibly go wrong?

Well, you could touch it while it's on, for a start! Imagine putting this into a metal light fitting, holding the fitting in one hand and the bulb in the other, without realising that the supply is still switched on...

INDEX
0:00 Index
0:10 Introduction
0:35 2 year warranty! CE! RoHS! Green!
1:01 A look at the lamp - unlit
2:38 Light output compared to Philips Genie 11W CFL
3:17 A look at the lamp - lit
4:46 It's not all good news
5:12 The test rig
9:22 Leakage current from exposed contacts - 43mA
11:00 Turn it around, more leakage! 83mA!
14:13 And there's more... 157mA!
15:25 Conclusion
15:47 Time to look inside. Stompy stompy!
19:01 Driver circuit schematic

Anyone who has a similar lamp can easily test it themselves. You need:-
A mains plug
Some mains flex
A bulbholder
A small bulb (e.g. a 15W-25W pygmy bulb)
A plastic disposable pen (e.g. a BIC)
Knife and screwdriver to put it all together
Brown wire from flex --- bulb holder --- blue wire from flex --- neutral pin in plug
Thread the brown wire through the pen casing to use as a probe.

UPDATE
Thanks to the folks at AVForums picking up on the video, I'll shortly be doing another one, just waiting for stuff to be delivered. More bulbs! More meters! No swearing! Watch a pygmy trip an RCD! What more could you wish for?

UPDATE 2

UPDATE 3
Pawel Przybyszewski (a.k.a. YouTube user Pablo P) published an address (subsequently deleted by me) in a comment on this video. This has been confirmed as the delivery address of an Eco Ers customer, in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. Przybyszewski is the owner of both the eco-ers and lucemi domain names.

[Photonicinduction]

Excellent vid! 
Here to say thanks again to you for all your effort with the vids you have done:)
( unplug the toaster before inserting bread ?)
( turn off before changing lamp ? )
Nope..these LED lamps will inevitably improve, I'm more worried about fire risks as they are on unattended more than they are handled when on.
Seems that a few of the cob type burn out :(

[bigclivedotcom]

Trading standards are pretty much useless in this area. There are so many instant experts starting up their own online lighting companies and selling low grade imported tat so they can exaggerate the specs, give a worthless warranty and make a quick buck.

[robertphilpott]

Thanks for posting this. I got whacked indirectly off one of these bulbs a few years ago. I was looking for something bright to use in a cooker hood, and the LEDs all over the place of the cob bulb appealed, but it was a bit big and took a bit of effort to put in and it ended up making contact with a metal splashback (unearthed, it turned out) which ran all the way down the wall to the back of the hob. I was surprised by the exposed contacts, but it never crossed my mind that somebody would actually manufacture or sell such a device without the absolutely critical isolation circuitry. Found out one day when the back of my finger brushed the splashback and I got my tester on it, we'd had a 1 metre square live metal plate in our kitchen for weeks. Rather glad we're bad at cleaning the splashback, because a wet cloth doesn't bear thinking about. Rented accommodation then, no RCD. But as a new homeowner, one of the first things I did was get a new consumer unit with full RCD on every circuit. I'd recommend that to anyone!

[SirDarah]

dude i love how you started stomping on the thing then said "Stamp On It Thats How" XD

[AintBigAintClever]

@jairanch39 why the hell don't you use the index? There's one at the start of the video and one in the description.
Also, why don't you enable comment replies in your G+ settings?

[AintBigAintClever]

@Alex walker you need to change your privacy settings to allow replies.

Yes it's possible. If the LED strips were driven by a small switch-mode power supply circuit it could be made safe, each strip of 6 LEDs only needs about 18-20 volts to run, the strips (and the top cap) can be connected in parallel to run on such a supply.

[JulianIlett]

Brilliant idea using that pygmy bulb to show the amount of current available on that nasty bulb. Let me know when you take this public and I'll put a link in the description of my Dangerous GU10 video.

[ikonix]

Is it possible to do a video where each brand is tested to see which ones emit RFI and which ones don't?

Many people who use AM radios (mostly collectors of antique radios) are bothered by RFI from switching power supplies which can nearly wipe out all reception on the AM band.

[SuperLefty]

Is there any way to prevent that leakage current without using a plastic cover?

[hoodafukisalice]

Holy cow. Used to be a big fan of these corn led bulbs from China, until now!

Thanks for educating us.

[magna]

Lovely piece of analysis . What joy did you have with trading standards ? I had the impression that they were designed for a localised, shop, local supplier enforcement, not capable of tackling national / post driven product . How did you get on ? 

[sirstrongbad]

Am I correct presuming that most bulbs that resemble this would suffer from the same problem, and that's why I see others that resemble this design are in fact enclosed in plastic?

[BoomBoxDeluxe]

Nah, that thing's an utter pile of pants!

How did that get past BEAB ?

the back door, that's how!

Exposed conductive parts on that (or anything else for that matter!) shouldn't be so.

As you found out when you flipped the polarity of the lamp, although all that hocus-pocus restricts current to the LEDs connected across the potential, between the live pin of the lamp holder and your test meter, there's very little current restriction, in fact, more than enough to kill.

Yep,  I say contact trading standards. That lamp thing is total pants.

I WANT FLAMES!!!

Good vid, thanxx for showing. :-)

-BoomBoxDeluxe.

_31st January 2014, 13.37_

[Cornz]

Understood exactly when you said you didn't want to blow the fuse in your fluke meter. those buggers are expensive!!

[RollingHousesUK]

in summary then: "it's a bloody dangerous piece of shit, that's what it is"… classic

[croscientistteen]

Thank you very much for this information. I myself own a couple of these but I will not remove them, or destroy them. I thold my family not to touch them while they are lit, and thus solved my problem. I sugest the others to do the same. I think you might have overreacted a bit, but I belive informing the manufacturer is indeed necessary. Cheers!

[subzeroarctics]

Am I right in assuming that the CE and RoHS marks are counterfeit? Doesn't a device need to be tested by them before it can bear their logos?

[Beater]

Thank you for this video! Its important to show people without electronic knowledge how dangerous these ebay lamps are. Btw: CE = China Export ;)

[Lumbeelegend]

good work looking out for the consumers. thanks alot man.

[JamesR]

Good video mate, thanks for bringing this to our attention, I always assumed these new LED lamps would have some little transformer to lower voltage right down.  I guess not.  Will be sticking with for the CFL's for now.