Does the LED have a lifespan when not operating, or is there a possibility that you store it while it is working, but after a long time you find that the LED has died?
Does the LED have a lifespan if it is not turned on?
Assuming it’s not stored in harsh conditions it shouldn’t really be aging. Should only degrade when powered. I’d worry more about the driver components than an led itself anyway though
Current_Treacle5159
Thank you and I wish you a happy day
Dmitri-Ixt
LED lifespan is measured in operating hours. Sitting unpowered I’m sure there is some aging effect, but you’d probably have to leave it for a hundred years or something to notice. On a realistic time scale, the battery will degrade a bit over time, less if you store or right about 3.7V but not much even if you leave it at 4.2V. The electronics on the driver probably aren’t going to degrade much while unpowered.
If it has an electronic switch (that light looks like it does), there will be a small power drain even when turned off; if it’s poorly designed or flawed, there might be a pretty significant drain. That could kill the battery while it’s working around. If it doesn’t have low voltage protection, or there’s a flaw in the way it was implemented, it could actually ruin the battery (by draining it below a safe level).
Edit: LED lifespan is also an enormous number of operating hours; it’s unlikely the LED is what failed unless it was given too much voltage or current. In either case, that could only happen while in use, not while sitting off.
not_gerg
To add to this, even tho a lot of flashlights over drive leds, the life span is really high compared to how long they’re powered for
GraXXoR
LEDs should last decades in storage. It’d be more likely that a capacitor might leak or leadless solder blobs grow dendrites and short themselves out than an LED spontaneously stopping working.
saltyboi6704
The die will degrade slowly when exposed to oxygen, so will all encapsulants. Thermal paste drying out will be your largest concern, but the LED package itself should be able to last decades.
FalconARX
To add to the other comments, there are some natural degradation, such as oxidation, that could affect the emitters themselves without ever powering them up. But these degradation factors are so minimal that you would have to observe their effects over 25, 50, 100 years. If you store the light without any batteries and the storage area and ambient conditions are ideal, outside of simple oxidation of some metal components, the LEDs should work virtually like new.
7 Comments
Assuming it’s not stored in harsh conditions it shouldn’t really be aging. Should only degrade when powered. I’d worry more about the driver components than an led itself anyway though
Thank you and I wish you a happy day
LED lifespan is measured in operating hours. Sitting unpowered I’m sure there is some aging effect, but you’d probably have to leave it for a hundred years or something to notice. On a realistic time scale, the battery will degrade a bit over time, less if you store or right about 3.7V but not much even if you leave it at 4.2V. The electronics on the driver probably aren’t going to degrade much while unpowered.
If it has an electronic switch (that light looks like it does), there will be a small power drain even when turned off; if it’s poorly designed or flawed, there might be a pretty significant drain. That could kill the battery while it’s working around. If it doesn’t have low voltage protection, or there’s a flaw in the way it was implemented, it could actually ruin the battery (by draining it below a safe level).
Edit: LED lifespan is also an enormous number of operating hours; it’s unlikely the LED is what failed unless it was given too much voltage or current. In either case, that could only happen while in use, not while sitting off.
To add to this, even tho a lot of flashlights over drive leds, the life span is really high compared to how long they’re powered for
LEDs should last decades in storage. It’d be more likely that a capacitor might leak or leadless solder blobs grow dendrites and short themselves out than an LED spontaneously stopping working.
The die will degrade slowly when exposed to oxygen, so will all encapsulants. Thermal paste drying out will be your largest concern, but the LED package itself should be able to last decades.
To add to the other comments, there are some natural degradation, such as oxidation, that could affect the emitters themselves without ever powering them up. But these degradation factors are so minimal that you would have to observe their effects over 25, 50, 100 years. If you store the light without any batteries and the storage area and ambient conditions are ideal, outside of simple oxidation of some metal components, the LEDs should work virtually like new.