ALL my LEDs have worked in my Lightolier wall globes from 1980
Ergo it might be the fixture if ALL are bad, since Lightolier is the best, always
but some LED R40s in other Lightoliers have been an advertising lie 10-20% of the time.

Frok said:

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I've tried a lot of different bulbs that claim to work and they all start flickering or go dim within a year. It's making me think this whole LED bulb industry is bogus.

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I'm disappointed as well.

AFAIC - "Lasts 13 years" = "The check's in the mail."

I've tried 'name' brand, off brand, etc., etc. --

I had an electrical supply salesman tell me that heat kills those things, right after he tried to sell me LED replacements for all my old T12 8' fluorescent tubes in my buildings with 20' peaked ceilings that probably get 120 degrees or more in the summer! I passed.

Others' mileage may vary, I'll admit.

The $7 LED bulbs I purchased in ~2013 lasted much longer than today's junk. Have had the best luck with FEIT recently though.

My LED Flashlights, lamps, outdoor lights etc. work wonderfully.
LED bulbs are absolute trash & seem to "burn" out quicker than incandescent ones. Maddening because they cost more, burn out faster & are full of non recyclable plastic.

Same frustration here. My latest GE Reveal bulbs are also flickering over my bathroom mirrors. I've tried the Feit brand with same result.

I don't think the issue is the LED. The issue with the "bulbs" is the Chinese labor camp boards that handle the conversion of your 120V AC wall power to the 12V (or whatever it is) DC needed to power the LED.

I've seen some YT videos where the guy tore them apart and troubleshot them and the problem was always on the power conversion, usually poor solder that let go.

Whatever the internal issue may be, the end result is the expensive bulbs I but to last for thousands of hours, don't. And it sucks.

Somewhere on the box (usually in fine print, unfortunately) it should say either "not for use in totally enclosed luminaires" or "can be used in totally enclosed luminaires". (This was true of CFLs also; most of those were not rated for enclosed fixtures, but they seemed more tolerant of it than the LEDs not rated for it.)

The bulbs rated for enclosed fixtures just last longer in general. In addition to better heat tolerance they usually have more LEDs for the same total light output, so each one isn't driven as hard. Sometimes they're marketed as "double" or "extended" life. IMO it's worth paying a little more for these.

With one exception (a box of Ecosmart from Home Depot), I haven't had any bulbs rated for enclosed fixtures fail on me yet! I've had plenty of failures of various brands of bulbs not rated for enclosed operation. I won't be buying any more Ecosmart, but to be fair, they warrantied them right in the store and the replacements have been good for several years.