Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After reading about the different brands of rechargeable lights, their characteristics, their prices, and the customer reviews, I ordered a pack of four rechargeable 9 watt bulbs from JackonLux. Three of them arrived in good shape, but the fourth bulb arrived broken. (The part inside that encloses the LEDs had broken off; you could hear it rattling around when picking up the light. I turned it on, and it did light up, but the "light" inside was rolling around and would not have been safe to use.) I contacted the seller, who responded immediately by shipping me TWO bulbs (a replacement for the one that had arrived broken, and an additional free bulb), both of which work fine. For that, I would rank them as having excellent customer service. WHAT I LIKE • They’re very bright. 9 watts is the equivalent of a 65 watt light bulb. Each bulb provides 850 lumens, so if you put two of them in lamp, they can completely brighten a large room. They’re so bright that, like any light bulb, you can’t stare right into them; you have to look away. • Some LEDs are cool (and their bluish light can interfere with sleep), but the light produced by this bulb is warm and pleasant. So they're nice to use either during the day or at night. • They don’t flicker. • Even when used for hours, like other LED bulbs, they stay cool to the touch. They do get slightly warm around the base; I expect the warmth is from the internal battery, not the LEDs. But it’s never warm enough to be dangerous or to burn anyone. • They’re a novelty, and are fun. It's fun being able to stick the charged bulb in a lamp that's unplugged, and enjoy 2 or more hours of very bright light... as bright as the light from a regular 65 watt bulb... before they finally run out of power, dim and die (and need to be recharged again). • I haven't had any power outages since buying them, but just for fun, I charged them all day in my living room floor lamp, then stuck one of the bulbs in a little bedside lamp, which was unplugged, and turned it on. (I slipped a metal key ring in the prongs of the unplugged lamp's plug to complete the circuit.) • I like running them in an unplugged lamp enough that I’m thinking about taking a classic old lamp, cutting off the power cord, and using it as a wireless desk lamp using recharged bulbs. Most rechargeable desk lamps just aren’t bright enough; these definitely are. • One thing to be aware of is that rechargeable bulbs don’t turn off immediately, if you’ve been using them for a while. If you put one of these in an (unplugged) lamp, leave it on for a while, then turn it off, it can take about a minute for the light to completely fade. I mention this because the first time I tried to turn off the lamp, the bulb didn't go out, and I kept switching it on and off with no luck... it seemed to stay on all the time. But this was because I wasn't giving it a minute or so for the light to actually go off, after turning the switch to off. • One thing I like about these that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is that they're very comfortable... I'd almost call them a comfort light, in the sense that some foods are comfort foods. They feel homey and familiar, in an odd way. It's nice knowing they'll "be there" for a while when the power goes out. COMPARING THESE BULBS TO OTHER BRANDS • Some rechargeable bulbs change from a warm color to a sort of irritating bluish color when they go into battery backup mode. These don’t; the color stays warm. • Some rechargeable bulbs "go dim" during an outage (when running off battery power). These stay just as bright, with good color. • Some complain about poor customer service. My response was the opposite. The company immediately fixed the problem of the bulb that had arrived broken. TWO TO FOUR HOURS OF LIGHT PER CHARGE (OR THEREABOUTS) As much as I like these bulbs, and recommend them, you should be aware that, like other rechargeable bulbs, they only stay lit for a few hours. The ones I've tested have a "life" of 2 to 4 hours, even when they've been charging all day. After passing 2.5 hours or so, they start dimming, as their internal batteries run down. So the last couple of hours of light aren't that useful. They last 4 hours, but have an effective life of just a couple of hours, then start going dim. A bulb that lasts 2 or 3 hours (before the next recharging) can work well for some things. For example, if I'm using the bulbs when the power is out, I might go to bed, read for a half hour, turn off the light, and still have two hours of bulb power left in the morning. Used this way, one bulb can last for several days, because you’re only using it for short time periods at a time. Turning if off (using your regular lamp switch) saves the power for later. But if you need CONTINUOUS power, as when the electricity is out for several days, the 2 to 4 hour battery time presents obvious problems. For a long outage, you'd be better off with a little UPS battery/generator to plug your lamps into. (The generator that I use, put out by Chafon, has 280 watt hours, so can keep a ten watt bulb lit for 28 hours, MUCH longer than the little battery in a rechargeable bulb!) So why use rechargeable bulbs at all? One reason is that when the power goes off, they stay on. You don't have to go wandering around in the dark looking for a power battery or generator. They're a good solution for rooms that only need PERIODIC light (rather than needing the lights on full time) during an outage, and for ceiling fixtures in hallways (which can’t easily be plugged into portable generators, and which don't have to be kept turned on full time). So, yes, I DO recommend rechargeable bulbs for outages, but only as PART of the solution. Once you've made that decision, JackonLux is an excellent brand to go with.