Flykillers, LED or Fluorescent?

Flykillers, LED or Fluorescent?

By Michael Morrison on Mon 23 May 2022

We’ve covered the difference between fly killer units that use an electric grid and those that use a glue board. That’s for dispatching the insects, but what about the means of bringing them in and getting them to that point and more importantly, away from where you don’t want them!

Most fly killer units will use UV light to attract insects as we mentioned previously. Traditionally this was done with good old fluorescent tubes, but nowadays more and more are starting to use LED lamps, as with everything else that we are seeing. 


So why the change to LED? To be fair this isn’t just a case of energy saving, but there are actually a number of advantages to the swap. Some are not as obvious as you might think.


  1. Energy Saving

It’s hard not to address this right away. As with everything LED the financial and sustainable savings are phenomenal. If you operate a busy restaurant, hotel, butcher, or anywhere that might be running a few of these bad boys and you’re saving 75%+ on energy then it will most certainly make a difference to your pocket. 


  1. Durable

Fluorescents are thin glass tubes with a tendency to shatter, LEDs are tiny plastic strips, that don’t shatter. When working around food, or even the general public this is a game-changer as it means you aren’t worried about contamination from the lamp shattering. 


  1. No replacing lamps

LEDs can last over 20,000 hours meaning you will get years out of them without any worries. Fluorescents need replacing pretty much every year to be on the safe side, see above. The reason for this is that Fluorescent lamps use a phosphor that breaks down and degrades over time VS LEDs that don’t. 


  1. Silent

If you’ve ever been sat or stood near a traditional fly killer unit you will most likely have heard a buzzing noise. No that’s not the surviving flies dying off in the tray, that’s actually the magnetic ballast that’s used to run the lamps. LEDs on the other hand don’t use a ballast just the driver which is much quieter, even silent. Perfect for when you want your protection to be running at all times and not be heard, especially in public places.


  1. Lightweight

LEDs are tiny and don’t take much to run, unlike the larger fluorescents with their big heavy ballasts. This means that you can easily pick up and move an LED unit around as opposed to the traditional one which is usually bulky and overly heavy. Another benefit in the weight loss comes when mounting it, not only does it open up more places for mounting but also makes it easier for the person doing the installation as it's easier to work with.



Bonus - Temperature

An often overlooked fact is that LEDs are a lot cooler than traditional lamps and as such the running temperatures of anything that uses them is a lot lower also. Maybe not so critical but still it's good to know, especially if you have several of them all running at once in a single area.


Now that you know a bit more about Fly Killers and why more units are moving to LED-based then why not spend a little bit of time looking at what we have to offer…