More fake UVC "sterilizing" lamps from China! (with schematic)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- I like quack products, but when it goes into the realm of faking medical equipment during a global pandemic they may just be scraping the bottom of the barrel.
This is a "UVC" germicidal lamp with what appear to be 395nm near-UV LEDs. It's built into a mechanic's rechargeable work light, making me wonder if it had an original intended purpose as a coolant leak finder, or if they have just repurposed the case at short notice to bang out a fake medical product. I doubt this has any germicidal action at all.
Update:- I've now tested this with a sensor capable of detecting real UVC germicidal LED wavelengths and it is definitely not germicidal. Although UVA is claimed to have a slight effect on some bacteria the most important area of the spectrum for germicidal and anti-viral activity is UVC due to its ability to interfere at an organic level. The same thing that makes some sections of the spectrum hazardous to skin and eyes.
I'm still waiting on the large COB germicidal lamp (eBay have removed that listing, so I don't know if it'll arrive or not) and have just ordered a GU10 style spotlight too. I'm fully expecting them to have standard ice-blue LEDs in them to fake the same colour as real mercury vapour germicidal tubes, which is scientific nonsense, since the reason the mercury tubes light that colour is because they have several spectral lines including visible ones and invisible ones. With LEDs a real UVC LED should be invisible unless it has a slight fluorescence or an integrated visible LED for safety.
Another update. The "60W germicidal" COB lamp has arrived and is a 30W ice-blue LED lamp with no UV at all. It also has the LEDs referenced directly to the mains supply and poses a shock hazard if touched.
There are some genuine LED based UVC wands being sold on eBay, but it should be noted that their output and longevity is a fraction of traditional mercury vapor UVC tubes.
The 18650 battery was not very generous in this light at less than 1000mAh. I guess that's reasonable for a light that won't get used too much in its original application of detecting leak tracing dye.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of TH-cam's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
As an auto technician I have that same lamp. We tend to use them for Air conditioning leak diagnoses. Some vehicles come pre charged with dye. Some we have to add it.
These lamps were probably never designed as sterilizing wands but just blacklights for say auto technicians for the very purpose you mentioned. Somebody just saw the COVID-19 issue as a marketing opportunity and scooped up a bunch of these barely UV-A lights and labeled them as sterilizing lamps. It's more an indication of a lack of regulation. Just look at the products sold as cold medications in America back around 1900 or even the Whitehouse flouting hydroxychloroquine. All countries will have people willing to scam their fellow citizens if allowed to do so and often the scammers just turn a blind eye to the product and the science so they can claim deniability. Unfortunately it takes government regulation to prevent products like this. We only see more products like this from China because they are less regulated, essentially because they are less "socialist" than the US. We need to be asking marketplaces such as Amazon to better regulate themselves or asking our government's to penalize companies like Amazon for marketing these products.
@@johnwang9914 I picked one up for £3.00 (new & boxed) from a charity shop. The box describes it as an Eyeshield LED work lamp. The magnetic base and does indicate that it is for auto workshops. Though there is a tiny, barely readable badly printed sticker (which is upside down, too) which states "UV light steriliz... ...geable Disinfection Lamp New. Made in China" so clearly there has been a half-arsed attempt to re-brand them as disinfection lights.
@@ThatsViews A bit ironic for them to label the near UV light as "Eyeshield" given that true UV-C light can blind you and of course should not be visible. Of course any plastic near the LED's such as a transparent plastic cover indicates that it isn't UV-C and most likely just near ultraviolet blue light. An actual single UV-C LED would be packaged in metal with a transparent quartz cover and cost in excess of $20 US. It's amazing what people will try to get away with during an emergency like the pandemic, even more amazing what people will accept.
They just don't seem to get it... When they need blacklight effects, they use UV-C tubes, but when it comes to sterilization they use blacklight effects?
@Steve Mclean Are you talking about my wife?! Or my prenuptial contract? Or that little blue pill?
@Ronald Delvax that's because it's geniarse not genius.
Because China really does not like the western world, especially the United States. Want to disinfect something that possibly has a contagious disease on it? Well, We are going to give you a regular UV light that won't do that at all. Want a nice UV effect for a party or concert? We are going to give you a UV-C light that will damage your skin and eyes!
The demand for one makes the other cheaper. Hence the switcheroo shenanigans.
@@realname3538 I dont think that's typical. They may not like westerners but I dont think they would pay the extra money (I imagine large UVC tubes are much more expensive then regular black lights) to make each one. I think it's more simple then that - greed. Just use whatever is least expensive and whatever you can get away with.
Regarding fluorescein green dye: back in the 60s I lived in Nottingham, and in the past, close to the somewhat polluted River Trent, was a system of emergency fire hydrants (with a red H instead of black) fed directly from the Trent after coarse filtration to remove stuff like dead rats - no further treatment other than the addition of fluorescein to act as a warning. So when a couple of workmen used a standpipe to draw water from one of these hydrants, their tea was a remarkable fluorescent green. Their comment was 'We had worse during the war'.
What could be worse than fluorescent, dirty tea water?
Why, that same water but with dead rats in it, of course!
That's the difference between peace and war.
@@soupflood "I'd like one cup of tea without so much rat in it, please." (Any Monty Python aficionados out there?)
Bahaha I love this, greetings from Canada
Sounds like Lake Erie water, in a few past summers. Mmm, mmm: algae-licious!
Everybody knows getting through a world war makes you immune to poisoning and according to my neighbour highly infectious viruses. FYI my neighbour has got the message now thank goodness.
Companys who falsely advertise their products should be severely fined or put out of business. Stop the lies!
That might be the case in other parts of the world but not from China sadly.
Baby milk adulterating companies have had their directors imprisoned for LIFE for that crime.....the Chinese can act where they chose chose
Since it's not harmful UVC, they'll probably claim the Chinese equivalent of "no harm, no foul". From what I've heard from someone who lived there for the last 10 years, everyone is just trying to make money, regardless of the method.
they're actually doing the world a favour, since people are too fucking stupid to realize that waving around a uv lamp is not going to save you from getting a virus, but it WILL cause skin and cornea damage.
@@jasonudall8614 Those were Chinese babies, what happens to foreigners is of no importance.
BMW took a Chinese motor manufacturer to court for copying one of their cars. The cars differed only in their badges, you could even swap things like valve seals and piston rings so the Chinese motor company had reverse engineered the BMW design to less than a 1/10000th of an inch. They even used the same microprocessor and firmware in the electronic ignition system, though the circuit board was marked in Chinese only rather than in German and Chinese like the BMW product. The court ruled that BMW had no claim as the "slight resemblance" was coincidence. If it had been a rival Chinese motor manufacturer such a ridiculous ruling would never have been issued.
I love how the PCB says on it that it is a work lamp made last year, they just changed the LED strip for purple LEDs.
"But it is purple" so it must be sterlilzing. Just ask Mary.
.... and it has electrolytes!
the wind cries, and so do the rest of us
Who's Mary
@@soupflood I think he means Mary Mallon.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon
Scammer Mary
And so the hunt for a true uv-c led goes on!
They are available on eBay, but you have to specifically look for the little gold squares. I bet a manufacturer starts making fake gold UVC LEDs soon.
That wand would work pretty well at finding the urine spots that one of my cats left all over the house with her UTI.
@@bigclivedotcom You mention in the video that they're "barely on the edge of the germicidal range" but really the ones i've seen are 265 or 270nm which is EXACTLY in the middle of the germicidal effectiveness peak and should make that light even more effective than the 254nm light from Hg. Buy one!!! I wanna see how much light they make and what you can do with it!!!
@ThePacman300 thats very surprising given the absorption band maxima for oxygen molecules is significantly lower than 265nm. what led is it
I got an LG UVC LED at 270nm. That is right in the sterilisation range. The part is designed for sterilisation applications. I got it for my fish tank to keep the algae down. Drove it with a laser constant current board. It lasted about a year.
The LEDs not strobing would be essential to avoid possible mishaps when viewing rotating machinery.
Is this how you're supposed to shine the light to sterilize your insides...?
Thank you Professor Farnsworth.
@@lpsowns No, they do it via an LED and a needle/catheter to pass your blood through the LED light.
@@lpsowns Yes, you stick it up your bum. But you also have to inject a little disinfectant.
@@lpsowns That's real and it's done with fiber optics, not new tech either. Remember you can't believe what you see on the news these days, they all have an agenda, and it's far from reporting scientific (or any other) facts.
Considering the incompetence of humans in general, fake UV lamps will probably end up causing *_less_* harm than real ones.
Yep
I'd love to see someone try to get a refund on one of these because the UVC has made the resin deteriorate - what's the seller going to say, you're lying because it's not really UVC? Oh well then I'd like a refund because it's not really UVC then, thanks.
Brilliant :)
@@teebosaurusyou How? If it's not UVC it's UVA which isn't going to cause you much harm...
I just did that dumb mistake of buying this exact same one and was wondering what should I add to my return text and make sure I get a real chance at getting a refund. Thanks for the help!
@@MrK00T I plan to complain that when I shine it on my skin it doesn't smell of burning, which means it's not UVC so I'd like to return it because it was falsely advertised. The real question is whether the seller will give you a refund or require you to ship it back to China, which is very expensive, in the hope that it will make you give up asking for a return/refund.
@@Berkeloid0 If it's false advertising, ebay may step in and force them to give you a refund without sending it back. It's worth a try. If enough people ask for refunds, maybe it'll force these crooks to stop selling them. I did that on a MP3 player from China that was advertised as 8GB and was actually less than 1 GB because they manipulated the software to show 8GB but you couldn't load even 1GB.
Bigclive, thanks for shedding some real truth on the LED UVC sellers and what we as consumers looking need to watch out for. A great channel and I always get excited when I see a new video notification come over.
So can some one please direct me to buy a legit UVC Steriliser
“Work lamp” stamped right on to the board 🤦♂️ They just have no shame.
possibly it was manufactured as a "work lamp black light detector" before the pandemic and shameless sellers repackaging their existing stock
That stamp is a clear warning from the design engineer: This is a work lamp, not anything else. If someone claims otherwise, shame on them.
@Steve Mclean He buy's them and then tests them so we don't find out the hard way.
good work ol' Clive is doing .
better than "Don't Work" i guess
@Brian Nichols Would you rike some shame, we have a vast stock avarlable for quickly dispatch to you?
If it were UVC, that plastic window would absorb most of it anyway.
That depends on the type of plastic. As far as I know, not all materials do absorb UVC.
heyou yeah but if you know a kind of plastic that does that for less price than the metal version you could make some good money selling that to manufacturers.
Acrylics with no additives allow UV-C to pass.
Mike Mondano, I thought quartz glass was the only glass that allowed UVC to pass. Regular glass offers protection but I never heard anything about using plastic.
@@Now_lets_get_this_straight Many clear plastics pass UVC but they still aren't useful for this kind of thing because if exposed to UVC they quickly become cloudy, brittle and crumbly. A few specialist UVC resistant plastics exist but quartz glass is cheaper so they are only used in cases where impact resistance and UVC transparency are both needed.
I think thousands of us should buy one and then raise a complaint. It won't take long for them to get the idea.
Aliexpress has thousands of these....
Glad you’re doing these videos. Even sceptical me would have been fooled by some of these.
Thank you for the service provided.
if the light looks purple it's mostly due to our vision, in reality it's just "blue". Ultraviolet is basically "beyond violet" or more accurately "beyond deep blue" which we see as purple.
Jack Vernian I’m a moderate deutan, for me it’s on or off. No way I can tell purple, blue, cyan, etc.
This is actually in the casing of an Astro Pneumatic LED COB light, which I believe you did a review on as well! I've seen variants of this floating around eBay and Amazon.
Big Clive. We all love your videos. Highly informative, humorous and well narrated. Thanks and stay safe.
Amazon is crowded with this stuff too, from 10 pages of products, maybe 1 contains real UVC leds.
eBay and Amazon are the places Chinese manufactures have been going to peddle their wares on the unsuspecting.
Plus they don't have any agency approvals. They bypass the safety agencies (UL, TUV, CSA, etc) by selling this way.
Both will do nothing to stampout these products.
I was looking at these on EBay yesterday and you have confirmed my suspicions. I considered buying a 'real' UVC lamp but, in all honesty, I can't think how I would actually use one in my apartment, since I don't want to destroy all of the plastic materials in my home. Such as the TV, fake wooden flooring etc... Not sure how the houseplants would like it either.
it's a _homeopathic_ uv-c light, the seller probably couldn't find the word... It emits the barest _whiff_ of uv-c, for _the strongest effect_ against the transparent plastic
Woo
Jason Udall ...han.
I see what you two did there
Juuuust incase you're not up to date with your science, water _is_ capable of retaining memory through dilution and homeopathic medicine consistently outperforms placebo in all serious laboratory tests. For further reading, see the works of Nobel Laureate Luc Montagnier
LexTNeville ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Oh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ahh. Thats funny. EDIT: Yes to Nobel award winner, but then sadly lost his marbles. The only publication on high dilutions (nothing to do with homeopathy by the way - "cannot extrapolate it to the products used in homeopathy" a quote from Montagnier himself) has never been successfully peer reviewed, and has only been published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences, where he is (was?) also chairman of the editorial board (so hardly independently verified). Keep up with real science - it works by weeding out the nonsense, which is why we have medicines and treatments that actually work, and an understanding of the universe that’s consistent with how the universe actually works (not how people think or want it to work).
There are legitimate UVC LED chips for water sterilization in applications where the disposal of mercury lamps would pose a problem. They are definitely NOT blue and emit almost no visible light.
It should be possible to get a rough idea of the wavelength of the light produced using a diffraction grating.
A very rusty bell from A-level physics in the 80s is ringing in my head.
Should in theory at least prove that the light being emitted is at least too far in to the visible spectrum to be UVc.
Then the lack of a metal case around the LED although the less consciencious sellers woul dprobably just get their suppliers to paint them.
if it's monochromatic you can exactly tell the wavelength, not just "rough idea". That is if you know the periodicity of the diffraction grating.
UVA will cure the UV-curing resins used in most SLA 3D printers. At least, it will cure the types that are similar to dental resins. (Dentist have been using UV curing resins as fillings since the 1970's. I asked my dentist asked a while back, and the UV used to cure dental resins is just inside the UVA band, so it's pretty safe, even on tissue with little to no UV resistance, like the lining of the mouth.)
Many of the dental resins use blue light to cure.
The quack product videos are my favorite
Mine too. There's always something pleasing about quackery.
Were most People want to buy nrat thins Clive goes for thè QUACKEY things 😊😊😂😂
XD
Bigclive, I bought three 50W UV LED Germicidal Flood Light Ozone Sterilizer IP65 from Bangood, for two pals who had caught covid, now after watching this, I feel a right PRATT!!!!!!!!!
Keep up the great vids big man.
Explain Big Clive to girlfriend, open TH-cam to illustrate, this video was posted seven seconds ago.
Fate smiles upon us this glorious Big Clive day.
What did said girlfriend said? Also, what's is a girlfriend?
@@Ragnarok540 LoL Beat me to it.
@@Ragnarok540 It's a rubberized inflatable doll manufactured for guys who HAVE been married before and see no need to put up with endless amounts of drama!!!
Does she have sparks flying out her rear end :D
We need to know what she thinks. Is she a convert to the cause?
Excellent demonstration of big cob shucking!!!
Interesting light.
On that second FET that bridges the 33K resistor, it looks like when the charger is connected, the light will automatically turn off because of the 20K pull up. That would allow the light to be left in the ON position while charging, and if the power failed, the light would turn on like an emergency light? Just my random thoughts.
The 'uv' diodes can be used for exposing photosensitive lacquers & such that are sold for making pcb & etching metals. I have used an array of these 'uv' diodes for making photo etched plaques & screen printing stencils for several years with good success as they are repeatable unlike sun light which can also be used, but needs calibrating for each set of exposure conditions. The correspondence between solar & these led 'uv' diodes tells me that the wavelengths of the 'uv' led are in the range of uva/uvb. Thanks for sharing!
The light of the ice blue LEDs is really pretty. It's my favourite colour, and I didn't even know that they existed. I shall get hold of some of these LEDs and make a light from them, just for my own personal pleasure of looking at it.
Seegal Galguntijak The ambient lighting and speedo etc in my car is this colour, it’s beautiful
@@sinista6536 What make and model is your car? (I only know blue from the early 2000s VWs, but they have a much darker blue)
Seegal Galguntijak Ford Fiesta Zetec S but I’ve resoldered the ambient lighting to match the speedo and dash ice blue
@@sinista6536 I see. I always thought that Ford had green or white speedo illumination, so I guess yours is a custom job. Nice! Although too much work for my car and what it's worth (besides, I don't think my '99 Seat has LEDs already, but still small bulbs, and it's all red :( )
Seegal Galguntijak No, most if not all Fords have blue speedo illumination after about 2013, except for ST models that have red. The only things I modified were the cupholders light rings, strip above the glovebox and the door cars lights. And yeah at that age it probably is small bulbs although you may be surprised. It’s cheap enough to do, I think I paid £7 for a cheapo soldering iron and then about £3 for a load of ice blue SMD LEDs
It may be intended for use in the automotive industry for identifying tracer dye used to locate leaks in vehicle air conditioning systems.
1. Germicidal UVC provides percentage disinfection (it does NOT sterilise)
2. If you place a plastic or glass cover over the face of the UVC bulb it will not emit any UVC
3. UVC does not kill mites. It's only effective against microorganisms. (# there are tests showing that they have a killing effect against dust mites but the dosage is enormous)
4. energy x time = dose (if this sentence makes no sense to you, you shouldn't be making any comments pertaining to germicidal UVC and its effects)
Well done Big Clive for exposing these toys ... which can also be dangerous
I was inspired by your videos to buy a Mercury UVC tube from a water filtration company and built a death-ray closet in my pantry. SSR and a switch so it only turns with the door closed.
I hope you don't smell the sweet air of ozone as a side effect. You can put a rubber balloon in there and see if the rubber decays to broken pieces by the effect.
Beware of the current leakage in SSRs.
I sent the 'cob' back after realizing the LED were not germicidal. It was being sold on Amazon. Thank you for what you do.
Oh 😨
That is why the UV inks I use did not react with this type of LED.
I thought my paints were out of date. Lol
Thank u
I am disturbed by the prevalence of these lamps on Amazon. It is taking advantage of people's gullibility during a health crisis. Amazon should pull these products.
Real UVC LEDs are rare things - they have metal cans with quartz windows. And they tend to be pricey.
I suspect many are resellers who themselves are being scammed from their product provider.
Thank you very much for your technical expertise and exposing this consumer thieves
Bet you're on Beijing's Most Wanted list mate. Lol
14:41 I thought this was a family friendly channel! 🤣🤣🤣
He was illustrating a corn cob covered in butter. Very family friendly.
It was a long lonely winter on the Isle of Mann, and now they've got social distancing on top of that! Lol!
Great few videos on the LED UVC quackery. I was looking at all of what's out there but will definitely look elsewhere for glass tube styles only. You confirmed my suspicions of fakery. THANX
Hey how about 59s uv sterilizer wand? Please make a video for that.
The struggle to find geniune UV-C emitters is real!
I'm making a UVC chamber to sterilize things out of an old stainless steel tub dishwasher. Trying to get real UVC devices to install into the tub, racks and door has been a pain, but I eventually got enough after much trial and error. On the plus side, I like UV-A/B lights, and can now make my dream of having a blacklight array installed into the crown molding of my house a reality.
fish tank guys have been using UVC for decades. They have UV tube inside a quartz tube, then
sealed inside light proof housing. Water that pump through got sterilize. You just need to cut a
window in the housing.
We use uv lights like that to test for air conditioning leaks on cars after adding the uv dye.
Those lights are also used for looking for A/C refrigerant leaks on cars as well since they are only semi-hermetic and tend to leak a bit. The manufacturers will typically mix fluorescent dye in with the refrigerant oil so you can spot if a compressor or hose is starting to seep.
Shame of how many outfits are taking advantage of the current climate. Great content as always Clive & a good watch, thank you from Minnesota, USA. Stay safe my friend!
Its true , they are taking advantage of people, but these things often sell for less than $10.00, which should THEORHETICALLY tell you something, almost immediately
I’ve seen a very similar circuit in a rechargeable night light. The R7 value was 8k2, not 33k. When on charge the LEDs lit dimly as a night light, but when the downward pointing cylindrical torch style night light was removed from the mains plug charger (or the mains failed) it came on at full brightness.
I’m starting to think these videos need a drinking game associated with them.
“UVC” - Drink!
Take a shot every time he says the word "shall".
Thanks so much for saving me a few hundred US dollars. I had order a couple of these at around $60/ea. After watching this video, I cancelled the orders immediately. I also looked up COB work lamp on Amazon and turned up a series of virtually identical products using different color LED's described as Mechanics Rechargeable work lights. They start at $14.99
China, just keep on making us proud....
That lite can find "leaks" in hotel rooms just as well as it can find refrigerant leaks.
Thank you for that visual image
Thanks for reminding us that nocturnal emissions left on bed sheets glow in the dark.
It can also be used to find scorpions as they glow under not quite near enough to UV.
I got one of these from ebay and I've been waving this thing around the room like crazy because I thought it's the real uv light that kills viruses until I watched this video lol.
On the other hand it may have saved you your eyesight by being a fake UVC light. The real UVC lights tend to have safety interlocks to stop you damaging your skin and eyes (and others' skin and eyes too).
waving it around achieves absolutely nothing .. even if it was the real thing
Clive as you say in the description they are "faking medical equipment during a global pandemic". Been watching you for years and I'm always impressed how restrained and fair you are when dealing with crappy imported stuff. But this time I was hoping you'd switch into full rant mode however again, you were reigning it in. One day I hope you'll let all that exasperation out with a verbal tirade of monumental proportions. It won't change anything but at least you'll enjoy it and I certainly will!
"I want to return this carvery meal, it appears to be a sausage roll on a cardboard plate."
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH IT? IT HAS MEAT IN IT, HASN'T IT? YES IT HAS."
Do I hear that in CMOT Dibbler's voice? Yes, I do!
Those are bleak words coming from you... CMOT Dibbler’s sausage in a bun... I don’t reckon what’s in them can still be called meat!
I mean, it is a vegan sausage roll, but it still counts as meat doesn't it?
But I paid for named meat
@@tonywalton1464 It's got a name, "Sausage onna bun". No refunds.
they have uvc light meters. it'd be interesting to see how much/little light they emit, and compare that to the amount necessary to disinfect
Could this be a urine detector or for reading ink from those security pens?
It might work for both those, but probably wouldn't be as good as the deeper UVA tubes.
@@bigclivedotcom I see
Every thing I have read specificlally about UVc (200-280nm) is that it bearly penetrates the dead skin cells or the outer tear layer, while not disirable is not dangerious. The near UVa & b frequebcies, longer wavelengths, however have the ability to penetrate and cause damage that lead to cancrs, cateracts and retibnal damage.
I've sadly seen one rather popular radio person advertising what looked like a similar quackery, fortunately fake lights aren't seem to be that popular. The current advancement in quackery that have reached the part of the world i am in, are "virus blocking" "air doctor" badges.
Ok. This one looks more suitable for internal use.
I like it when a rechargable battery-powered device has protection against explosions.
It makes me happy to know they care.
Oh, these need to be branded with Trump's name and advertised as a rectally inserted "light cleanser."
It's even the right shape to use it "inside the body" :)
In younger and more foolish days - three weeks ago - I bought one of the corn-cob style "UVC" lamps, with which Amazon seems to be replete. I suspect it is fake, but am unwilling to spend the great deal of money that a UV 'light' meter costs in order to measure the wavelength output. If you don't get your Ebay corn-cob lamp, Clive, I'd happily send mine to you, and I have meantime bought a proper quartz UVC lamp, which indeed produces the characteristic smell of ozone (and which I use with great care).
In addition to your lovely Scottish burr(I could listen to you all day), you have just saved me a lot of money and a lot of potential pain. Glad I found you.
Agreed! I bought the same sterilizer, I realized it was not UVC because it was the wrong color, too violet and didn't have any warning labels!
Thanks for doing these Clive. Good to see these fake products called out!
You've got hold of some sort of UVC sensor now Clive ? Is it wideband or only for specific wavelengths ? Does it cover UVB too ? Tell us more please - with all this UVC fakery around, it's pretty relevant !
The first one is a workshop leak detecion lamp. For diagnosing AC systems.
These are all over Ebay and we are buying these like crazy. This is a serious health hazard.
Really appreciate your rather scientific approach to this topic. It helped me validate the item I bought.
I chanced upon your video just after making a purchase for a glass tube UVC lamp. Thus my research is essentially independent of yours. Nonetheless I came to the same conclusion that most UV LED lamps are at best UVA and UVB.
When searching for UVC LEDs on Farnell, RS, Mouser, Digikey, they'll cost around USD10-50 per piece, and in most cases they're not stocked.
Yet on Aliexpress, and the likes, UVC lamps, with more than 30 LEDs were going at USD8-USD30.
In short either the stockists are making a giant profit or the specs on Aliexpress isn't real.
Thank you for making this video. I bought this exact wand UV light off Amazon and when I received it, I immediately knew something wasn’t right. Luckily I was able to get a full refund. I greatly appreciate your thorough analysis and explanation!
I was watching this thinking "omg I just blew thirty quid on a fake" ... then you produced the exact lamp I just bought on Amazon. Close cal.
Thank you for this video, it really matters and makes a difference given the current circumstances in the world.
I really like watching your videos, I learn something new (if not multiple new things), from every one of your videos. Its just great, plain and simply put. Keep doing what you do! 100% love your channel
Glad i found a real one wich also produces the unmistakeable smell of ozon.
It's like a fluorecent tubelight in the same 8 watt armature with a clear glass tube. It also takes a while to start up.
Found it on ebay uk but they are not available anymore.
I like how the PCB even says COB work lamp on it, revision 1.0 as well so they presumably didn't even change it.
I know garage mechanics use a uV light to locate leaks in vehicle air conditioning units, and those lights look very suspiciously like this one, so I reckon you're on the right tack there, Clive. One other noteworthy point is that when the guys were checking my own A/C in my Volvo, they were wearing 'special' goggles, and gloves, while they were using the light.
14:39 - Demonetized. LOL
This purple wand, aside from being rather pretty, is definitely useful under the hood (bonnet) of the car. Not only will the yellow/green coolant fluoresce without the need for leak-detection additives (I've never tried it on GM's DexCool, nor on Toyota's red coolant), but you can use it (deliberately in the nighttime or very dark lighting) to find small wisps of smoke under the hood, which is helpful for tracing odd smells from a running engine. The UV-reactive leak detection dye is often used also for finding leaks in A/C systems - both in home and auto applications - I see others have commented as well about this.
This is one of the best video's you've put out there. Thanks for helping to keeping we consumers from getting ripped off or worse yet and most important being injured from these rip-offs. I looked around and these fake germicidal irradiation devices are everywhere. UVC is a very interesting subject and I've been studying this more deeply since watching this video.
I saw article from university calling to develop led uvc light diodes, so believe it's safe to assume you cant buy led diode light that is UV C, must buy a mercury UVC bulb! I got burned by purple blue disco bulb called it sterilizing doesnt do anything, bought mercury 25 watt UVC bulb that's made with glass so emits ozone also real deal unless you want to go ozone free bulb must be made of quartz instead of glass
if you want an ultraviolet light show that will blow your mind, shine the light on a hotel room's linens and then strip the bed and light up the mattress , try not to scream as the Jackson Pollock of bodily fluids reveals itself to you. just pick up your bags and back out of the room
I've no desire to do that, but had the same result when I moved in here and was playing with a UV light when I discovered that the previous resident had very wide toilet spray technique.
I hate it when they use several identical connectors on a pcb because that means you can plug the wires to the wrong sockets if you don't remember which way they go.
as I understand
, there is a diference between germicidal and ozone lamp, the smell you mention is characteristic of ozone -some electrical taste-, also, to produce ozone is needed to generate radiation with a specific wave length (185nm), unlike germicidal uvc length, for which is enough to produce a 285nm wave. Greetings from Colombia
buy "UVC" germicidal lamp from UK ,USA or Japan.
People should understand the most basic thing... violet and ultraviolet are as different as "red and orange and yellow and so on". It's just called uv because there's nothing visible to base any name upon.
Why not use A Euro (€) bill to detect UV-C light, as a security feature some print detail only shows up in UV-C illumination.
I have one of these with white leds. Its a knock off of a more expensive but for the price its fantastic for working on a car and getting into a hard to reach/see area.
They are very good. I made a video about the astro version and clones.
Years ago, Costco sold Verilux UV sterilizing wands.
I’m glad that found this video. Because I am thinking of making something with uvc leds. I had a few companies lined up as well. Cheers for that 👍👍👍👍
Sure this is useful in a workshop. Maybe not for engine coolant, because you can see the drips, but it is very useful for detecting airconditioning leaks after you have added the fluorescent oil. The standard UV flashlights that you get with the oil are a bit dim.
When viewing the spectrum of UVC activity and viral effectiveness, it purely depends on the virus being affected which proteins are created in the disruption of the DNA. This effect runs between 220 and over 280nm where the difference between 254 (most lamps ) and 280 spectrum 'end' and is in many cases better at the upper end ( dropping swiftly above 280) - reference Kowalski 2009 Ultraviolet Germicidal irradiation handbook
The cheap UV LEDs have a great purpose. They show up golf balls very well at night (especially the ones hidden in long grass or shrub). They also make most of the ammo from air-soft toys fluoresce in the dark. Also useful for when you need to clean up.
I love the construction of this one, the modularity increases repairability, and it seems generally thought out at least. As for the housing, ehh, I don't have any basis of opinion on that.
Useful for finding coolant or air conditioning leaks on a car maybe, but I wouldn't shine it on the seats (or the roof liner for that matter)... some things are best left unseen!
Well mine finally arrived - 53 days shipping. Surprisingly enough although it was listed as a UV-C sterilisation lamp, the manual says "blacklist" and lists the frequency as 365 nm. Also interestingly the seller has removed it from eBay "due to an error in the listing" so it sounds like they may have had a large number of returns...
If the seller refuses to believe that the lamp is not germicidal, call in the Trading Standards people (assuming seller/dispatcher is in the UK). Even if the seller is not in the UK, Trading Standards can give eBay a kick up the arse to get something done.
As a rule of thumb if the light isn't a Fluorescent tube it probably isn't UV-C (unless its very low output or really expensive)
We might also be seeing some repurposed "super glue" curing lamps. Not UV-C but contain UV components sufficient to energize those cyano-acrylates that cure with UV exposure.
Bought one of the "sterilizing lamps" for this purpose.Turned out to be about 405nm not 250nm or 250nm + 180nm like real ozone-producing lamps they use in hospitals. Per IEEE, true UV-C LEDs DO exist, and you can buy them on Digikey, but they are about 100x as expensive and inefficient compared to tube lamps by about 10x. The lamp I have claims 7200lm intensity, and I tend to believe that is fairly accurate. It is bright and way too visible to be what it says it is. Fortunately for me, 405nm cures UV stereolithography resin so I have a backup use for it. HOWEVER, I was making a video about using this with a remote control toy and Ryobi inverter to tele-op disinfect rooms. I did an experiment with bread slices over the course of a month. Took one slice of bread fresh from the store and bagged it, took 2 others and rubbed them all over dusty objects to pick up mold spores. Irradiated one slice about 30 minutes per side in close proximity to the lamp and left the other dirty one as-is. After a month, the virgin bread and irradiated bread are mold-free in ziplock bags, and the untreated sample was devoured by mold. Seems perhaps the UV-A lamp that claimed to be UV-C actually might work on certain typed of biological life!
I think this needs to be brought to the attention of Trading Standards dont you?
Especially amidst the corvid-19 pandemic.
People could well become infected while thinking they are safe due to using such a device.
And yes I have seen you testing the units on your other youtube video.
Thanks Clive
LED based UV-C lamps might actually be beneficial. Since the LED is a single wavelength source, they should have it at 253.7 nm wavelength, which kills viruses but doesn't generate ozone (O3). To generate O3, you need a wavelength of about 185 nm. The fluorescent tubes will emit a spectrum that includes the 185 nm, so you can smell it.
I actually prefer having the ozone output as well, since the UV-C light can't reach around corners very well. If I want to sterilize a room, I want the sterilizing properties of the Ozone as well, since it will kill stuff inside and behind cupboards, inside the carpet etc.
However, ozone will break down rubber products, be warned! (The ozone in the air is what causes e.g. cracking of tires... )
My guess is that it's supposed to be a white LED mechanics' light, that they loaded the PCB with the 395nm LEDs instead of the white LEDs.