Aside from the unfortunate shock risk that these lamps pose, the construction isn't too bad.
It looks quite labour intensive, with lots of wire interconnects pressed against an ungrounded metal housing.
It's inevitable that some of these will leave the factory with pinched wires making the whole housing live at mains voltage. As it is, the exposed solder connections can deliver a significant electric shock in the right circumstances.
In this instance they've decided to populate the lamp entirely with ice-blue LEDs. A colour that is quite nice, but wouldn't normally find a large market. However, in this case they're using it because it emulates the visible colour of a traditional mercury vapour germicidal lamp. Then they're selling this lamp as an actual germicidal lamp, which it isn't. I didn't detect any significant UV from the LEDs and their construction and voltage suggests that they are just ordinary LEDs.
The 60W lamp is actually 30W and each of the 13 panels is dissipating around 2.3W, which shouldn't be too bad thermally, although some extra vent holes to allow air to flow through the inside of the aluminium housing would have been useful.
The use of two drivers on a single board is probably to allow the use of standard components and spread the heat. As always with these things the driver will be baked by its own heat and the surrounding LED heat.
This lamp is basically a fake UVC lamp to allow the LED lamp makers to cash in on the global pandemic of 2020. It has no obvious germicidal properties, and instead creates an illusion with colour and marketing. If it is used in a room it will do nothing more than illuminate the room with a lovely shade of pastel blue. Apart from genuine applications where that particular colour is desired, this lamp is basically just more LED landfill.
Hopefully these lamps won't find their way into DIY facemask and equipment sterilisers, as they could potentially lead to the reuse of contaminated masks by medical staff.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
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14 thoughts on “Teardown of a fake uvc germicidal corn-cob lamp.”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Thomas Filion says:

    can you recommend a good UVC light?

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars gui Luka says:

    Hi hello I would like to know for this LED source? The cylindrical LED bulb? These are not germicidal radiation because I would like to know if the LED bulb also burns the skin of a conventional germicidal bulb? Please ? Thanks.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Cyberworldz says:

    Are the UV version one great for reptiles? Will it give similar UV rays like the sun???? Plz help

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Bin Chicken says:

    I had this proberlem when looking for mosquito traps online, all of them had th "UV" led lamps to lure them not real UV emitting murcury bulbs

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars marcux83 says:

    everything's on a cobb!!!

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars hillary clinton says:

    You need to try a 400 watt mercury lamp with the outer soda lime glass and/Or phosphor envelope removed.. see what that does to your meter.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars ThePieDish says:

    Going through and watching your videos a year later now. I love the fact you still warn us about the lights coming back on and to watch our eyes.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ken Haze says:

    I kept thinking "what the tiddy tassel is a 'soda joint,'" until I remembered who I was listening to.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ben Saney says:

    FYI on testing the corn shape light, you misinformed by measuring only one of the light that was 50 microwatt but failed to expalined that there are about 210 of those UVC-led light and each one omiting 50 micro watt will equil out of 10000 microwatts

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars psirvent8 says:

    Hello,

    Now I would like to deliberately purchase blue LED bulbs that mimick the ghostly blue of UVC lamps for the visual effect but I don't want to pay too much for a poor quality product either.
    So should I look for one of those "germicidal" scams or maybe for actual blue LED lamps ?
    In that case what are the keywords I should try ?
    I don't even know the wavelength of that particular blue.

    And you know it very well by now but I already have some proper UVC tubes if I want to sterilize or deodorize a room or a pair of shoes or anything.
    I even have ozone and ozone-free bulbs by now !

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars HULL GUITARS USA says:

    Here’s some interesting info about genuine UVC LEDs. This is a copy/paste of a conversation I had with some fellow electronics/photonics nerds regarding this technology. A lot of us hobbyists and professionals online, in places like the laser pointer forum LPF and budget light forum BLF, and others.

    Clive, I think a cheap Spectrometer would be a cool DIY build. Like the one shown on “les’s lab YouTube channel” Not really necessary, but it would be a fun build, and I’ve seen several instances where you’ve wanted to measure the wavelength of light. Once you have a spectrometer…,you can’t imagine all of the incredible uses!
    ————————————————————————
    Here is the copied info…Maybe it’ll help some folks….. and it’s just interesting stuff regardless!

    All genuine UVC LEDs have a quartz/sapphire glass window and/or ceramic Gold plated body. This is necessary because UVC easily damages Plastics and other materials used in UVB and all other LEDs. Therefore if the window wasn’t quartz, it would quickly degrade and discolor.

    I’ve Bought and tested close to 100 different UV LEDs over the past few years… Including deep UV (UVC) i’ve tested everything from the dirt cheap Chinese knock off‘s, to the highest end chips costing $100 or more from Nichia and other quality manufacturers. (usually as a sample or with a big discount because I can’t afford $100 for a single LED 😂)

    I’m not a professional optics engineer, but I have an industrial electronics servicing business and lab… so already had the equipment. I was interested in this stuff for my own hobby and professional uses. And it was fun as hell!! UV photonics technology is super interesting, even to regular folks Who aren’t nerds.

    I’ve always dabbled in optics and lasers. I spent several years putting together a professional optical “breadboard” and test bench. All dirt cheap from government and Academic auctions. It really is the golden age of science and electronics! Over $20,000 worth of optical equipment, and decommissioned military/medical/industrial lasers. Photonics and laser stuff is about the most expensive hobby there is. Besides burning money 😁 A simple mirror, lens, or optical mount can be hundreds of dollars new. no way I could’ve afforded it. But I paid pennies on the dollar! Or less. Government auctions are awesome.

    There are genuine deep UV LEDs being made in China that are pretty darn cheap. $1-$2 each! Pretty low power but decent quality.

    But UVC LED technology is still so new, that the output powers are exceptionally low when compared to UVB. So you need an array of about 25 LEDs to approach timely “sanitizing“ power. Which is not going to be cheap, especially if you get Nichia or other high end chips. For a 25 LED array of decent power UVC nichia LEDs… You’d be looking at over $1000 easy. And if you went with their most powerful chip, a array of 25 would be about $2500 😂

    But power density will increase slowly just like it did with 365nm UV LEDs. Cost per milliwatt of “radiant flux” will go down with time.

    Currently, decent cheap quality UVC LEDs average 5-15mw (Milliwatt) of optical output power. So when they sell UVC LEDs labeled as “1 watt“…. that means 1 watt of input power. You have to look closer to find the optical output power rating.

    If you got 1 watt of REAL UVC optical output… That shit could fry your skin and eyeballs really fast. Even worse is that real UVC leds can be almost invisible. Which is Dangerous shit!!😂

    thankfully many chips include a visible LED inside the same package. Usually 365 nm or higher UVB. As an indication light, so people don’t accidentally leave it on without knowing it… Easily burning their eyes. Or the board it’s eventually mounted on….in a finished product…. has a tiny colored LED next to the UVC led. To indicate when it’s on.

    Although 100 mV is pretty much the limit for current UVC led technology…… its possible to get 1000MW (1 watt) of optical power out of 365nm UVB leds… or even more. It will be incredible if UVC LEDs reach this level of radiant flux in the next few years.

    Sorry to ramble on. Hope this helps someone or you find it interesting.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Kim Sleep says:

    Once again….no guarantees that Big Clives big bushy Beard is Germ-free…take note if you plan on kissing him

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Elaine Short says:

    Ty very much .I want to buy one looked on Amazon But one person said is a scam .looks just like the one u have . I wanted to kill mold with it .so then I could clean the dead mold after I killed it . With the light . So sad . Cleaning mold can couse big health problems .

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Hugh's garbage trucks says:

    Good if you like the blue light

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