Cree (Nasdaq: CREE), which recently had to recall more than 700,000 LED-equipped tube lamps, receives much better news in tests of its updated 90-watt equivalent dimmable LED bulbs. from Consumer Reports.

“Newer Cree LEDs shine in Consumer Reports’ tests,” the headline reads at the Consumer Reports website.

“After an initial failure, Cree PAR38 lightbulbs show improvement”

Consumer Reports reported “the most failures we’ve seen for LEDs” in its first step of the dimmable products. A big reason to purchase LEDs is supposed to be a 23-year or longer life span as well as saving energy, it noted.

However, Cree says the performance has improved in more recent tests.

A Cree executive told Consumer Reports that the Durham-based company had made modifications and was accepting returns for the $24 bulbs that had failed.

“When we spoke to Cree’s Mike Watson, vice president of product strategy, after our initial tests, he said they discovered that the electronics had failed in a small number of these LEDs,” Consumer Reports reported. The magazine said Cree had made “a minor modification that provides more protection to the electronics.”

According to the tests, Consumer Reports said the newer bulbs “have a significantly lower failure rate, only one in nine died, suggesting that these were the modified bulbs.”

For more details, see:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/06/newer-cree-leds-shine-in-consumer-reports-tests/index.htm