Ledwholesalers 20 Watt 4 Foot T8 T12 LED Tube Lights Failure and Fix

Less than a year ago I bought these tube LEDs from Amazon to replace some very old fluorescent tubes and ballasts in my kitchen that were driving me crazy with their incessant buzzing and frequent failures. Not to mention they used a lot of energy. I purchased two packages of four (eight tubes total) along with non-shunting tombstones and went to work. After an hour or two of removing the old ballasts, wiring in the new tombstones and installing the new LED tubes, I turned on the light and everything looked great. I had new efficient LED lighting that was also quiet.

Unfortunately the satisfaction didn't last long. Recently one of the tubes stopped working correctly. Half the tube was lit but the other half was not. I started looking through the user comments on Amazon and found that this was a commonly reported problem.

The culprit is a loose wire connection due to poor soldering. It can be fixed easily enough, but requires a little work disassembling the tube to reach the internal wires which are located in the center. Below is a quick walkthrough with a couple pictures.

Tools needed: A very small Phillips screwdriver (to remove the end cap), a pry tool (to remove the plastic cover), and a soldering gun.

Step #1: Remove the end cap (Figure 1). Use a small screwdriver to remove the two screws and it should pop off. Make sure to remove the cap on the non-energized end (the one without all the printing on it).

Figure 1: End cap removal.

Step #2: Unsnap the translucent plastic cover. If you look closely at the end of the tube where you removed the end cap you can see how the plastic cover is attached. Use a plastic tool (or something equally safe) to unsnap the cover by sliding the tool almost all the way down the length of the tube to dislodge it. I had to do this on both sides. You need to be able to expose the middle of the tube where the wires are located. These wires connect one half of a string of LEDs to the other (2ft sections).

Step #3: Inspect the two wires (Figure 2). Chances are one of them is loose because it does not have a good solder connection. Connection may be intermittent, so don't rely entirely on an ohmmeter for this check.

Figure 2: Center of tube showing the two wires. Above it is the cover along with some pen markings.

Step #4: Solder the loose wire. If you have some basic soldering skills this should be easy enough. Be careful not to overheat/burn the adjacent LEDs and plastic cover.

Step #5: Reattach the plastic cover by snapping it into place along the length of the tube.

Step #6: Reattach the end cap by screwing it back on.

Step #7: Reinstall the light and turn it on. With any luck all LEDs should now be lit.