Attention restorers, techs, shoppers, and flippers: I would like to hereby announce that I will gladly take the donations of your old bulbs(preferably your old GE's) for use in my machines.

In all seriousness, I still love the look and feel of the incandescents in my TZ and TAF. I don't think I'm emotionally ready for a pimped out pin, yet. Once LED technology gets to the point where they're almost indistinguishable from filament bulbs, then I'll jump in whole hog. But until that day, only a couple fun locations will get LED's. I don't have anything against LED's or those that use them, they're just not for me.

As for my bulbs, I'll usually "attack" a region of the playfield at a time and completely disassemble it, top and bottom, and clean EVERYTHING with whatever is best for the medium(Novus, 92% RA, Windex, water, etc.). I typically clean the bulbs last and use a terry cloth towel wetted with the 92% rubbing alcohol. I just grab the bulb by the base and twist and turn and roll it around in the towel until I hear the squeaking, hold it up to the light to check for clarity, and move onto the next one.

Well, the main reason I would make the switch to LED's, once they're indistinguishable from incandescents, is because of places on my pins that are stupid to get to and most of the new crap bulbs don't last but a few weeks and they're out again. Case in point: the uppermost pop bumper that's UNDER the ramp on TAF. I would gladly pay the 39¢ to never have to change that bulb out again. Wouldn't you?

For me, it's never been about cost savings. It's about time savings. If someone could quantify it to the point where they figured out that an Eiko bulb in a machine that's on for two hours per day lasts 4 months vs. a domed retro warm white LED(closest look to filaments right now) will last 5 years with the same amount of "on" time per day, imagine how much time and peace of mind you'll gain from not having to change it out 15 times over that span. By the third time I change out that pop bumper bulb under the ramp, I'll be replacing it with an LED. I won't care how it looks.

It seems like every other week, on either my TAF or my TZ, I'm replacing some sort of bulb: insert, GI, or otherwise. My machines see as little as 1/2 hour up to three hours of "on" time per day, too. These new bulbs are just plain junk. I've only got two games and all it seems I ever do is replace bulbs! But again, I'm not taking that plunge until LED technology closes the gap to where it's almost nonexistent.

And I'm sorry, but science is science, resistance is still resistance, and heat is still destructive, lifts inserts(or melts them!), and bubbles mylar. Just because boards have performed well for the last twenty years, doesn't mean they'll perform well for the next twenty. The heat cycling still works the boards and they will eventually fail. Metal that gets worked will fail in time. It's an eventuality, not a probability. Whatever I can do to prolong that, I will. They're only original once. Besides, I don't need any more burned GI connectors.

Don't get me wrong, my first love is incandescents since they were original to machines and to date, no LED can replicate the look/feel of that nostalgia that takes you back to when these things were new. Furthermore, it's a monumental task to get LED's to act as their incandescent counterparts do. That's why we have guys like Herg who make things that force them to "behave" more like a normal bulb. But even he still uses incandescents in his TZ for the same reason I do: LED's just don't look right in it. So for now, it's not really an issue. When LED's get there, I'll address it then.....

That's why I said "If someone could quantify...". If.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the scientific method: Hypothesis, test, result, conclusion? The hypothesis behind switching to LED's includes all the "benefits" as reasons why people are switching to them(long life, less energy consumption, lower resistance, etc.). The pinball community is, collectively, testing that hypothesis right now as a whole. If it works out over the next year or so that people are changing their LED's out, due to failure, once a year or once every 18 months, then I see no massive reason to make the switch(for me, anyway).

Perhaps LED's(or their internal circuitry) can't take the increased number of times a game is switched on and off in the home environment(as opposed to just being left on all day with an op). Maybe they can't withstand the voltage variances as well as an incandescent. Who knows? I agree that there could be a myriad of reasons why LED's may end up not lasting as long as we all think they should, but they were designed from the start to have a long life compared to an incandescent bulb. Therefore, the hypothesis(assumption) is they'll last a very long time. Without knowing the specific parts that are being used inside of these LED's, nor their origin, nor their track record, only time will tell whose LED's from whatever company last the longest and remain the brightest.

Let's just hope they really all don't come from the same factory in China....