Why You Can Trust CNET Utilitech 16W (100W Equivalent) Warm White LED review: Utilitech's brightest LED doesn't quite shine
This 100W replacement bulb is an underwhelming value pick.
- 10 years product testing experience with the CNET Home team
Ask people what they want from their light bulbs, and you're likely to hear a rather obvious answer: brightness. 60W bulbs (and 60W replacements) are fine for most purposes, but if you're looking for something extra bright, you'll probably want to push it to 100W. With LEDs in particular, that typically means paying a premium.
Utilitech 16W (100W Equivalent) Warm White LED
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Fortunately, that premium has been shrinking steadily over the past year or so, with prices falling from $40 or $50 per bulb down to less than $20 in some cases. Utilitech's 100W equivalent LED is one such bulb, costing just $17 at your neighborhood Lowe's. With over 1600 lumens from roughly one-fifth the power draw of its incandescent predecessors, Utilitech's affordable LED offers both brightness and efficiency -- but it isn't as well-rounded as some of its competitors. For basic needs, it'll do a fine job, but competitors that cost a few dollars more might actually be the better deal.
Utilitech's 100W Equivalent LED isn't inconspicuous to look at. At just under 8 ounces, it's far heavier than its incandescent counterparts and even some other comparable LEDs. Its white, plastic body is lined with long, narrow fins, creating channels that help disperse heat.
Utilitech promises a light output of 1600 lumens, which is right where it should be as a replacement for a 100W incandescent. Unlike that incandescent, though, Utilitech gets you there with a stated power draw of just 16 watts. That gives it a very impressive efficiency rating of 100 lumens per watt, tying it with GE's latest 100W replacement LED, which also puts out 1600 lumens from 16W.
That level of efficiency adds up to noticeable energy savings. Assuming you're paying 11 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), a 100W incandescent's power draw would cost you about $12 per year to run for 3 hours per day. Switch to the Utilitech LED, and that number falls below $2. In less than two years, you'd have covered the cost of the bulb and would continue saving money for the rest of its lifespan.
That lifespan is clocked at 18,000 hours, or about 16.4 years at those same 3 hours per day. That's certainly a great deal more than you can expect from an incandescent, a halogen, or a compact fluorescent (CFL), but it falls a bit short of other LEDs, the majority of which have settled on 25,000 hours as the average lifespan.
| Cree 100W Replacement LED | GE Energy Smart 100W Replacement LED | Philips 100W Equivalent LED | Sylvania 100W Replacement Ultra LED | Utilitech 100W Equivalent Warm White LED | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lumens | 1600 | 1600 | 1680 | 1600 | 1600 |
| Watts | 18 | 16 | 19 | 19 | 16 |
| Efficiency (lumens per watt) | 89 | 100 | 88 | 84 | 100 |
| Estimated yearly energy cost | $2.17 | $1.93 | $2.29 | $2.29 | $1.93 |
| Color temperature (stated / measured) | 2,700 K / 2,663 K | 2,700 K / 2,602 K | 2,700 K / 2,628 K | 2,700 K / 2,664 K | 3,000 K / 2,999 K |
| Lifespan | 25,000 hours | 25,000 hours | 25,000 hours | 25,000 hours | 18,000 hours |
| Color rendering index | 80 | 81 | 80 | 83 | 85 |
| Weight | 5.80 oz. | 5.65 oz. | 8.50 oz. | 11.45 oz. | 7.80 oz. |
| Warranty | 10-year | 10-year | 5-year | 5-year | 2-year |
| Price | $20 | $21 | $22 | $22 | $17 |
The Utilitech LED puts out its light at a stated color temperature of 3,000 K -- a slightly hotter, slightly less yellow shade than you'll find with most LEDs, which aim for 2,700 K. When we turned the bulb on in front of our spectrometer, we measured its color temperature at 2,999 K, which is as spot-on a result as any bulb we've ever tested.
Our spectrometer can also shed some light on a bulb's color-rendering capabilities, measured on a 1 to 100 scale. Bulbs with higher scores will do a better job at making colors look accurate and vivid. Most household LEDs score right around 80, which is decent enough, yet unspectacular.
In the Utilitech LED's case, that score came out to 85. While still not as good of a number as you'll see from a bulb like the Cree TW Series LED or the Editors' Choice-winning GE Reveal LED floodlight , it's still a good result, and a better one than we saw from any other 100W replacement LED.
One last number worth keeping in mind: the warranty. With Utilitech, you'll get two years of coverage, which falls well short of the five years offered by Sylvania and Philips, and shorter still of GE and Cree, which each offer 10-year warranties. While all four of those competitors cost more than Utilitech, the additional years of coverage might alone be well worth the extra expense -- especially if you're left skeptical by LED longevity claims.
Something else to consider is dimmability. The Utilitech LED is explicitly non-dimmable, saying so right on the packaging. We didn't let that stop us from trying it out on our dimming rig though. The bulb actually dims up and down to an extent, but dial it down to a low setting, and it'll begin strobing violently. That might come in handy if you're running a haunted house -- for normal use scenarios, not so much.
One last concern is directionality. Competitors like the Cree 100W Replacement LED offer omnidirectional light output, meaning that the light shines out in all directions. The hemispherical Utilitech LED, however, only promises 180 degrees worth of light output, meaning the light shines brightly up and out from the bulb, but far less so at downward angles. For something like a bedside reading lamp, where downward lighting is key, this wouldn't be ideal at all.
Conclusion
At $17, Utilitech's 100W Equivalent LED is a good bargain bulb, and one that's efficient enough to cover its own cost in energy savings within two years if you're upgrading from an incandescent. It offered a satisfyingly bright light output, along with the highest color rendering score of any 100W bulb we've tested. For basic household lighting scenarios that require a little extra oomph, I think it'd do the job nicely.
Still, the limited directionality of the design, the relatively short warranty, and the lack of dimmer compatibility all give me pause. While none of those concerns are complete deal breakers, they do stop me from recommending Utilitech outright. With this crop of bulbs, you get what you pay for, and paying a little extra for something more well-rounded probably makes sense, especially given that it's a purchase you'll be living with day in and day out for the foreseeable future.