Plenty of homes keep things lit using overhead floodlights in recessed lighting setups. If you’re planning to upgrade bulbs like those, or if you’ve had one burn out recently, then the answer is almost certainly to go with an LED; choices are on the rise as prices continue to fall. Here are four of the best choices we’ve found so far.
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Cree BR30 LED Floodlight
Product Review: https://www.cnet.com/products/cree-br30-led-floodlight-2017/review/#ftag=CAD187281f
CNET rating: 4.0 stars out of 5 (Excellent)
The good: Cree’s LED floodlight is one of the most efficient and well-designed bulbs in its class and its 10-year warranty is light years ahead of the competition. It was a near-flawless performer in our dimmability tests, too.
The bad: Color rendering performance, though fine, wasn’t quite as sharp as advertised.
The cost: $13.86
The bottom line: If your home needs new floodlights and you don’t want to think about it too much, you really can’t go wrong with Cree.
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GE 65W BR30 LED Floodlight
Product Review: https://www.cnet.com/products/ge-65w-replacement-br30-led-floodlight-2017/review/#ftag=CAD187281f
CNET rating: 4.0 stars out of 5 (Excellent)
The good: GE’s LED floodlight is the brightest BR30-shaped bulb we tested, and one of the most efficient, too. It was also the top performer in our heat test, making it a great pick for enclosed fixtures.
The bad: Though it dims pretty well otherwise, the GE LED wasn’t able to dim down below 10 percent on any switch we tested. Its color quality is also noticeably yellow, especially compared to the GE Reveal LED.
The cost: $9.24 to $13.39
The bottom line: This is a safe, solid pick among floodlight LEDs.
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Philips BR30 LED Floodlight
Product Review: https://www.cnet.com/products/philips-br30-led-floodlight-2017/review/#ftag=CAD187281f
CNET rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 (Very good)
The good: Philips’ current-gen LED floodlight is a well-rounded bulb that offers plenty of brightness, decent efficiency, and solid dimming performance. It’s also one of the most affordable bulbs in its class.
The bad: The Philips floodlight was a so-so performer at best in our heat tests, so it might not be the best pick for an enclosed fixture. Its brightness and color rendering capabilities are also just average.
The cost: $14.90 to $14.97
The bottom line: This is an affordable efficiency upgrade with relatively few tradeoffs.
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GE Reveal BR30 LED Floodlight
Product Review: https://www.cnet.com/products/ge-reveal-br30-led-floodlight-2017/review/#ftag=CAD187281f
CNET rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 (Very good)
The good: The GE Reveal floodlight LED will absolutely make the colors look a little more vivid and true in your home. It’s also one of the brightest floodlights we tested, and one of the top finishers in our heat tests, which means, it would likely be a good pick for enclosed fixtures.
The bad: Dimming performance isn’t nearly as good as we saw with previous versions of this bulb, and efficiency is a little worse than the competition due to the way Reveal bulbs filter out excess yellow light.
The cost: $10.49
The bottom line: This is a decent enough bulb if you don’t use dimmer switches, but wait for a sale.
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The following CNET staff contributed to this story: Associate Editor Ry Crist and Senior Editor Laura K. Cucullu. For more reviews of personal technology products, please visit www.cnet.com.
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