Why does every small appliance or useful home electronics item have the BRIGHTEST LEDs in them?

I bought a new fan for our bedroom Sunday. It has 4 speed settings, and LEDs to display which setting you’re on.

Just like every other electrical device in our bedroom, I had to cover the LEDs with electrical tape because they are TOO DAMM BRIGHT. That one light was more than bright enough for me to see in the room with all the lights off.

I can’t sleep well if there’s a lot of light like that, especially blue light, and it’s like every fucking electronics manufacturer used the same extra bright blue LEDs.

All of our power strips have them. Same brightness.

The fans have them.

Don’t even get me started on digital clocks and the plague of bright LEDs that they bring about

Many charging plugs have them built into the plug itself.

Even some fucking light switches have them now!

I have about 6 different things in our bedroom that have electrical tape over their completely unnecessary LEDs.

Why has this become such a common thing? Is this really something most people want? To have a room that is never actually dark even with the lights turned off?

You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments
197 points

Electrical tape to black it out.

Painters tape to dim it.

permalink
report
reply
49 points

The electrical tape approach is what I did and it did wonders. Went from having a myriad of green and blue LEDs on my fans/portable AC/etc to complete wonderful darkness when I retired for the night. Made a distinct difference in my ability to fall asleep faster at night. I hate having lights when going to bed. Darkness or bust.

permalink
report
parent
reply
35 points

You can actually buy tinted tape to dim them without completely blacking them out. So you can take your clock from “bright enough to keep your entire bedroom lit” to “just bright enough to read in the dark.”

Found out while watching Technology Connections. Bright blue monochromatic LEDs are one of his biggest pet peeves, and he mentioned the tinted tape off-hand in one of his videos.

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points
7 points

Bingo, there it is. Thanks!

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

I bought some pre-cut led dimming stickers on a sheet. Any new electronics that come into my house get one. As someone who likes to sleep in near complete darkness it’s a must have.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Yep I have a pack of various shapes and sizes for dimming LEDs. You just stick it over the light. Works great

permalink
report
parent
reply
18 points

Do this and never look back

permalink
report
parent
reply
15 points

May the LED’s I tape not light the way

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

With the tape over the LEDs you can look back though. You won’t be blinded. It’ll be OK.

permalink
report
parent
reply
15 points

I literally travel with a roll of black electric tape for this exact reason.

permalink
report
parent
reply
13 points

No officer, I use it to cover the lights on electronics in my hotel room. Honest!

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

I mean, just carry a small roll of it, not one that’s like an inch or two wide…

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Thanks for reminding me. Gotta pack that for my next holiday.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

Didn’t think about the painters tape for just dimming the light, great idea.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

I have a black pen that can write on plastic. I’ve used that to dim the insanely bright LED on a smoke detector. If you are careful (I wasn’t) then this method looks nicer than putting some tape on a device.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

Use cut pieces of sticky notes. It’s the correct width and doesnt look as jank

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

I use tiny balls of patafix/blutac to cover exactly the LED surface.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

…or one or more layers of nail polish.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Mildly Infuriating

!mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world

Create post

Home to all things “Mildly Infuriating” Not infuriating, not enraging. Mildly Infuriating. All posts should reflect that.

I want my day mildly ruined, not completely ruined. Please remember to refrain from reposting old content. If you post a post from reddit it is good practice to include a link and credit the OP. I’m not about stealing content!

It’s just good to get something in this website for casual viewing whilst refreshing original content is added overtime.


Rules:

1. Be Respectful

Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.

Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.


2. No Illegal Content

Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.

That means: -No promoting violence/threats against any individuals

-No CSA content or Revenge Porn

-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)


3. No Spam

Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.

-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.

-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.

-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers

-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.


4. No Porn/Explicit

Content


-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.

-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.


5. No Enciting Harassment,

Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts


-Do not Brigade other Communities

-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.

-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.

-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.


6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.

-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.

-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.


7. Content should match the theme of this community.

-Content should be Mildly infuriating.

-At this time we permit content that is infuriating until an infuriating community is made available.


8. Reposting of Reddit content is permitted, try to credit the OC.

-Please consider crediting the OC when reposting content. A name of the user or a link to the original post is sufficient.


Also check out:

Partnered Communities:

1.Lemmy Review

2.Lemmy Be Wholesome

3.Lemmy Shitpost

4.No Stupid Questions

5.You Should Know

6.Credible Defense


Reach out to LillianVS for inclusion on the sidebar.

All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules.

Community stats

  • 6.3K

    Monthly active users

  • 979

    Posts

  • 58K

    Comments