Vent hood LED dilemma

9 years ago

I've found a couple of hoods whose design I like, but they have halogen lights. And another hood that has LED's, but it's more expensive.

Is there a reliable way to change halogen lights to LED's - without voiding the warranty and without messing up anything else on the hood?

Would love to hear from anyone who's actually done a conversion like this, as well as any potential problems or pitfalls.

Zephyr ALLM90A - cool design, but halogen lights.
Futuro Symbol Island - cool design, but halogen lights.
Miele DA6290DSS - cool, has LED's, but it's more expensive.

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Comments (4)

mwkbear
9 years ago
I guess my first question is what do you have against halogen lights?
ci_lantro
9 years ago
I have a Zephyr Typhoon that shipped with halogen lights. I swapped them out for GU10 LED's. I ordered the LightingEver LED's from Amazon. The bulbs are a bit taller (longer) than the halogens that shipped with the hood and stand a bit proud of the hood--i.e., they're not flush on the underside.

Direct replacement. Didn't need to change anything, just remove the halogens and install the LED's. The bulbs have been in service for over a year with zero problems.

Just check to see what bulb base that is used in the various hoods and then see if there is a 120 v LED replacement.

(The reasons to switch to LEDS from halogen are--less heat output, lower energy consumption and vastly reduced relamping. I was constantly--or so it seemed--replacing burned out halogens in the range hood. I've probably already saved the cost of the LEDs from not having to keep replacing the halogen lamps without even factoring the energy savings.

Here is a link that might be useful: LED
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lee676
9 years ago
Both of those halogen-lit hoods use G4 or GU4 20 watt bulbs - small bare bulbs with two pins - and for the time being LED retrofits, while available, aren't nearly as bright. OTOH, if the hood uses MR16 (12 volt) or MR16 with GU10 base (120 volt) bulbs which are housed in small reflectors, you can get good, bright replacements from Green Creative or Soraa (consider only the higher-end 95 CRI versions for good color rendering). I expect equal-brightness LED replacements are a few years away, given the rapid increase in LED brightness each year.
scrappy25
9 years ago
My hood was a craigslist buy, Thermador PHH36 (now discontinued), and didn't come with its original halogen lights so I bought the Ikea LED MR16 base bulbs. At first I bought the 500 lumen which are 45 watt equivalents since the manual called for 50 watt halogens but the light was blinding (my hood is mounted 31 inches above the cooktop) and I don't have a dimmer on my hood. I changed it to the Ikea Ledare MR16 200 lumen, rated at only 25 watts, the brightness is perfect and matches my UCL soft white lighting from Environmental lights. Very sadly Ikea has discontinued selling these in the USA this fall but they are still available on Amazon and Ebay. I may eventually list my 500 lumen ones for sale unless I find another use for them. BTW I have noticed that LED's in general are quite a bit brighter than their stated incandescent equivalents. If your hood has a dimmer you must buy an LED that is rated for dimming. Other than that I can't imagine why it would void the warranty or cause problems.

{{gwi:2134033}}

This post was edited by scrappy25 on Sat, Dec 20, 14 at 8:34