"they start by getting a darker patch in the bottom of one of the tubes"
Tubes? Presumably you're talking about CFLs, not LEDs? 5 years ago, household LED lamps were still in their infancy and were really expensive.
My experience with CFLs was pretty similar to yours. They didn't last, and dimmable ones especially would often fail within months. And the quality of light from fluorescents was never all that good anyway.
But out of around 25 Philips LEDs I've installed, most of them dimmables, not a single one has failed or had any problems so far. The oldest ones were installed around a year ago now.
The Philips A19-style bulbs kinda look like futuristic tube-ish light bulbs. It's just a circular ring of LEDs inside. One section goes out, then the next, in a cascading failure.
Tubes? Presumably you're talking about CFLs, not LEDs? 5 years ago, household LED lamps were still in their infancy and were really expensive.
My experience with CFLs was pretty similar to yours. They didn't last, and dimmable ones especially would often fail within months. And the quality of light from fluorescents was never all that good anyway.
But out of around 25 Philips LEDs I've installed, most of them dimmables, not a single one has failed or had any problems so far. The oldest ones were installed around a year ago now.