last time I got ablaze at least 1/4 were DOA. Never tried Titan. I tend to just always get Comet and have like a 0.5% failure rate.

If it costs less than 60-65 cents a bulb it’s most likely not a smd LED and it’s garbage. They are too dim and have a high failure rate.

Comet.

Comet is the best. I've bought a lot of LEDS but they have great lasting bulbs with great color consistency. You really get what you pay for in LEDs and I can't recommend Comet enough.

PS: I have no affiliation with them other than being a really happy customer.

I've bought tons of cheap Chinese and ebay LEDs and other suppliers that just dim quickly over time. It's just not worth it.

Comet hands down. Great folks to deal with.

I've always used comet. I've been happy with them.

Out of the thousands of bulbs I've gone through, I don't recall getting a single DOA bulb.

Ablaze? What it this 2008?

Go with Comet. Swapped out my last 3 games with them with no problems (other than me miscounting) and they look great. Customer service is top notch and answered all my questions I had before ordering.

kinda partial to Comet Sunlight....no one else has......

They are very good at customer service. Tried a few suppliers, Comet is now my go to. The *very rare* problem is handled promptly. Very good about feedback, even noted something I suggested ended up on their site so they take customer feedback seriously.

I know, why aren't genuine VFW's in the mix? Or PHoF's by Poly Paks?

Comet 2smd frosted.

Buy in bulk.

I prefer warm white

Black Friday sale coming up.

I have had good luck with comet. Good customer service too!

They are about to have a massive sale on Black Friday. Buy tons then.

Another vote for Comet

Comet frosted warm white 100 pack

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The key is to get the hundred packs. I'll be stocking up for the coming year on Black Friday as well. I like the retro smds. I don't color puke stuff so it's easy ordering for me. I wanna try some blinkers and stuff also.

Same. Easy to get what you need when you only use one bulb type in every game. Haha

Frosted dome 1SMD for backglass (warm white or sunlight white)
Frosted or clear 1SMD for inserts (natural white)
Clear dome 1SMD for GI lamps in warm white.

2SMD or even 4SMD for an insert you want to really POP.

Do the red/blue/green inserts with red/blue/green LED.

Warm white vs sunlight LEDs?

I tested both colors against brand new #44 and #47 bulbs on my workstation with variable power source.

Sunlight looks very much like a well powered #44

Warm white looks very much like a slightly under powered #47

GE incandescent bulbs seem whiter than the eiko bulbs, but just could be the batch I have.

Games originally came with #44 bulbs.

In the end it's up to personal taste, but in all cases I'm going with frosted dome 1 or 2 smd sunlight.

Mostly 2smd unless it seems too bright.

I'm also running all 5smd cool white towers in place of #906 flashers.

As well as 8smd cool white for #89 bulbs.

As far as whites, it used to be either Cold or Warm. Is "Natural White" supposed to be the same as the old cold white? Sometimes I like to use the cold white frosted, like in some blue or space games. But the natural whites don't seem to be as "cold" as they used to.

Who's got the coldest whites? Ha...

Natural = cool

Sunlight is semi cool. Still too cool for me

Warm is warm. My favorite.

The blue cast can affect the surrounding artwork.

Sometimes for the better.

That said, using #44 bulbs as a guide is a good way to see things the way the original artist/light designer saw them.

I let that thought guide me.

Too many colored lights casts a brown hue to everything and doesnt work well at all.

This machine was originally LED anyway, I was just experimenting with different whites, as those clear-dome whites don't disperse quite as well in GI. I put some cold whites in and also some weirdo 5-smd 2835's I got from China. Those seem to be the best at not washing out the blues, which anything on the warm side does.

Yeah, I have some natural whites, and they're cool, just not sure if they're as cool as they used to be, ha. I need ice cold...

Warm White is still whiter than 44/47 IMHO. I have them deployed in several machines.

Just did Black Hole backglass chaser circuit in bullet clear dome retro warm white and still notably brighter and whiter than the 44's that were in there.

I can’t tell any difference. LED us just brighter.

Looks like you don't have the correct placement of your 455s
Edit: Duh not a Whirlwind, apologies

Comet. I have found Comet to be most consistent in color and brightness. Comets were the only ones that worked in my Funhouse mirror. The mirror has 4 yellow bulbs. Comets are the only ones I tried that all 4 were the same color and brightness. The ones from Marco, CT and PL were too dissimilar for me.

My last order was for over 100 bulbs. One non ghost was not working. Contacted Comet. Got two bulbs in the mail no charge. Great customer service.

I always use comet and always buy in bulk. Rarely have issues. They ship super quick too.

Bally Grand Tour with Comet warm white retro clear dome bullet in the GI, just finished replacing all the sockets.

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Just ordered 300 comet bulbs last week.

Looks great!

Absolutely these. I’ve used the 2SMD frosted and it gives games that incandescent look but brighter (yet not too bright) but doesn’t heat up or destroy things or strain the power supply.

I haven’t used those retro bullet ones yet. Probably a good buy but I still have lots of comets to go through. I actually bought probably 200 two years ago and JUST had my first dud after all this time. So 1 DOA out of 200 is pretty stellar. Also their customer service is incredible! I placed an order and asked for some stickers (they hadn’t had them made at this time) and probably 5 months later I got a random package with like 50 stickers in it. How awesome is that?!?

A couple questions. Why was Cointaker not mentioned? Are they mostly selling games now? They were my go to for years. I've been buying modern games for the last 4 or 5 years and haven't had a need to buy LED's so I'm out of the loop. Also, is color matching inserts considered a waste of time now? It's a PITA and requires so many lamps to stock. I'm about to LED a Judge Dredd, probably take advantage of the BF sale. It would be much easier to bulk buy a bunch of whites than deal with all the colors. Are you finding similar results?

Too expensive for me. Good bulbs though.

Imo yes.

Gives off a brown hue. Looks like crap.

I used almost all Comet sunlight in my TSPP for GI and inserts. I did a few color where I could see the bulb when playing. I do not like the blinding white light!

Almost all the bulbs I buy are Comet 2SMD frosted in some variety of white. I use warm whites behind backglasses/translites and under colored inserts. I use sunlight for GI and under white inserts. About the only time I use color is if it's a visible bulb that needs to be a color other than white or occasionally under a green or red insert. For most inserts warm white looks best .

My only request of Comet would be that it would be nice if you could identify the temperature of white on the bulb without having to plug them in or keep them in their separate baggies. The bulbs all look identical when they aren't plugged in. Aside from that they are awesome bulbs and a great company to order from!

Agreed.
I've LEDed dozens of machines. Ablaze bulbs have a VERY high failure rate. They are also not as bright. Either are Titans.

When I had to LED several machines at once, I did a "Pepsi challenge" and tried every major LED provider (and some not so major). Comet had the very best bulbs, most options, and best customer service. They are still very competitively priced, though you can get cheaper bulbs. There is a reason they are cheaper.

Quality is remembered far after price is forgotten.

Comet is the best choice. Easily.

IMO, cointaker is second best behind Comet. They are more expensive than comet, don't have as many options, have more failures (from my experience), they don't fit well into some machines, and they don't have the incredible customer service/help desk that Comet has.

You complained that one bulb was not working? Who knew Mr Pink was into pinball?

Sounds like Comet for the win!

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten”
I actually have a mixed bag of Comet’s, CT’s and other LEDs... after using Comets I can’t justify using cheapo crap, you can’t even mix them because you have gorgeous lights next to anemic, ugly lights.

I believe this is to simply highlight the fantasy customer service. I’m not bothered by 1 or 2 duds. But even if you’re the most anal person in pinball (wait isn’t that basically everyone??) they’re still awesome to you.

Orange and yellow inserts aren't worthwhile to color match. I color match pretty much everything else, though.

Yup. They get white, red/green/blue get red/green/blue.

Gottlieb made pins with purple inserts, they turn red nicely when illuminated with a 2SMD red LED under them.

I use purple bulbs with purple inserts.

On my Gold Wings the "shoot again" is purple, heck with that! I want it to scream bright red when it lit.

Siren cracks me up, never fails to bring a smile.