LED TV's - Are replacement LED strips any good?

[Fordiesel69]

I got a mint trash picked LG 55" LED LCD TV. It turned out to have two entire LED strips that were dead and quite a few more that were out. I ordered new strips off of ebay and installed them, and it is as good as new now.

Question.....the old LED strips were simply fiber circuit boards with LED;s bonded to them. I saw no way for the actual LED to dissipate heat, hence why they failed after 4 yrs. The new LED strips are solid aluminum with double sided tape, and the overall design looked identical, however my thought is the new aluminum backing may actually extend the life.

Does anyone know if the chinese knockoff LED strips actually last? For $39 + shipping either way im not going to complain, just curious.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Good job. In my old job they take big LCD TV apart to build them in to metal frames for specialty
Tele-Conference Monitors. I learned you could take these things apart without destroying them
but all had the display sealed with crimped metal frame with three boards attached to the back, I dont know how you got THAT LCD panel apart !

The oem Lucky Goldstar boards were probably "knockoffs" too

 

[jayjr1105]

Only one way to find out. Always seems like way too much work to replace LED strips from the video's I've seen. Just too many clips and removing the screen and all the other layers. If they have a metal substrate, it could be a lot better in the long run. Some people will find the bad LED's, remove the diffuser lens and replace the actual LED with hot air from underneath the PCB. A lot cheaper option. YMMV

 

[oggb]

I'm guessing that if you hadn't replaced them all at once the backlighting would be uneven. By replacing them all with identical parts (both in parts used and age) you've given these new backlights the fairest of chances.

You're the guinea pig, I guess! I have a ~5 year old Vizio 50" I use as my monitor so it's on quite a bit. If they're good please report back. These TVs are known for bad backlights as well.

 

[Andrew1972]

Not sure if that area is what catches fire. We have had two run of the mill LCD TV's we use for development QA testing (we build Roku and WebOs catch fire from being left on at work.

 

[Fordiesel69]

Burst into flames or just smoke and smell bad?

Reason I ask is the HV power supply has fuse links that will burn open, in addition to all of the parts inside being build out of flame retardant materials. If you hold a propane torch to the plastic, I should melt and smolder out. It should not accelerate into a real self feeding fire.

 

[Dennywires]

call me lucky 10 yr old lg led 42 incher picture is crystal clear. like day one.

 

[Andrew1972]

Burst into flames or just smoke and smell bad?

Reason I ask is the HV power supply has fuse links that will burn open, in addition to all of the parts inside being build out of flame retardant materials. If you hold a propane torch to the plastic, I should melt and smolder out. It should not accelerate into a real self feeding fire.

We had some flames and burn marks on wood walls. Maybe it was a fluke.

 

[jayjr1105]

call me lucky 10 yr old lg led 42 incher picture is crystal clear. like day one.

2000-2009 or so TV's (even expensive ones) suffered from the capacitor plague (google it). Stuff made 2010 and later seems to be really solid. I still have a 2010 model 47" Vizio working well in my basement. No smart functionality, just a plain TV. Just had to watch out for black friday junk and early gen smart TV's that were just ticking time bombs. I've never heard of TV's catching fire before. Usually they have protection circuitry built in that would blow the fuse or trip something well before a fire started.

 

[Kawiguy454]

As someone that used to do tubes/modules/component level replacements Move on to LG Oled and never look back The ampount of electricity $$ youll save will pay for the new TV in a few years usage. The same heat that blew the LED's you can think of as money escaping the vents on the back.

 

[PandaBear]

Does anyone know if the chinese knockoff LED strips actually last? For $39 + shipping either way im not going to complain, just curious.

Nope, people cannot predict more than statistics in a large sample. You can have some lasting 10x as long as another and gradually dim to unusable, or a sudden death. Unless you have a repair business and you can mix and match them regularly into sets, I'd just use it till it breaks / not worth fixing, or until you find another great dumpster diving score (say a free 75" 4K TV 10 years from now) and recycle this one.

 

[PandaBear]

2000-2009 or so TV's (even expensive ones) suffered from the capacitor plague (google it). Stuff made 2010 and later seems to be really solid. I still have a 2010 model 47" Vizio working well in my basement. No smart functionality, just a plain TV. Just had to watch out for black friday junk and early gen smart TV's that were just ticking time bombs. I've never heard of TV's catching fire before. Usually they have protection circuitry built in that would blow the fuse or trip something well before a fire started.

I had a 32" Polaroid died after 3 years that I paid $1k for. Back then I thought might as well pay more to get 1080p during the HDTV conversion and moving out of my parents. It turns out there was an industrial price fixing going on and the bad cap. I would not complain if it was just one but both together just pissed me off. The power supply was fine but the ATSC receiver died, I ended up using analog cable with Tivo just for conversion for a few years until they too went to digital, then I got an antenna and ATSC receiver until finally the price went down and I got a 46" refurb Sharp Aquos for $600.

 

[Fordiesel69]

Well mystery solved.....
I went into the service menu and found out it has 16,691 hours on it. No wonder the LEDs failed, and when I first booted it after the repair the picture was in standard mode with the backlight at 100. Again no wonder they failed...

I now have it in vivid mode with the backlight at 70 which will help prolong the life and the rest of the settings make it appear bright.

People on youtube are nuts, nobody is going to set the backlight to 50 and consider it acceptable. It will be dim and look terrible. I will settle at 70 and enjoy the brightness and still probably have extended life over 100 setting.

 

[tiger862]

I won't buy another LG TV. I bought first 4k tv that was an LG6090 50 with problems from first month. Picture went double and LG wanted a restart which temporarily fixed then software fix. You couldn't get a reliable internet connection unless direct. After 3 years Picture was getting blurry and people skin texture was a mess. I had 5 year warranty from best buy but that doesn't kick in until factory warranty is over and is only good if tv quits with a restart not working. Got tired of losing volume, apps not working or just freezing so I gave it away with 2 year warranty left. My Samsung from 2012 is still going although no app support and past its half life. Backlight is set to 100 and is the dedicated tv for security cameras but still going despite being on 24 hrs a day for last 4 years. Our tvs run an average of 14 hours a day so I don't expect more than 5 years out of a set.

 

[CKN]

I got a "mint" TV but it was in the trash can and some LEDS are out. Think about that for a while................

 

[dishdude]

I won't buy another LG TV. I bought first 4k tv that was an LG6090 50 with problems from first month. Picture went double and LG wanted a restart which temporarily fixed then software fix. You couldn't get a reliable internet connection unless direct. After 3 years Picture was getting blurry and people skin texture was a mess. I had 5 year warranty from best buy but that doesn't kick in until factory warranty is over and is only good if tv quits with a restart not working. Got tired of losing volume, apps not working or just freezing so I gave it away with 2 year warranty left. My Samsung from 2012 is still going although no app support and past its half life. Backlight is set to 100 and is the dedicated tv for security cameras but still going despite being on 24 hrs a day for last 4 years. Our tvs run an average of 14 hours a day so I don't expect more than 5 years out of a set.

I used to like these LG sets but they really do seem to be junk. My parents had a 60" that died at the 3 year mark - just wouldn't power on. Now they have another 43" that the LEDs are going bad, apparently LG has an issue where they discolor like a composite headlight that sat out in the sun - the output dims and it gives off a blue tint to the picture.

 

[kc8adu]

i would assume the aluminum led strips would transfer heat better it the tape is designed to be a proper thermal transfer substance.
thats still no guarantee if the leds are poor quality.
the set in the picture above has low quality leds where the phosphor has failed.
a white led is a blue chip with phosphor on top.