Are there any markings on the bulb?

I buy a Lowe's brand flood that's 3000K that I actually use in the same
sets of lights with the GE Reveals. I've been very happy with the brand
and the light quality. It's called Utilitech. But every house will be different. I photo'd the package but houzz' crappy photo upload flips it sideways. They need to fix that.

justgotabme - I'll have to check it and see.

rococgurl - The picture didn't come up. I found some CR reviews and Utilitech was one they gave a top rating to. Is yours a CFL or LED? The one they reviewed was an LED.

I had to buy a new light bulb changer, so I stopped to look at the bulbs while I was at HD. One thing I noticed is most of the flood lights are smaller than the used to be. I have one LED now and it sits further down in the can making it more like a spot light than a flood light. Has anyone found a bigger LED? When I got home, I got two of the bulbs down that I don't like the color of and I'm thinking my best bet is to go back to the soft/warm. They're both CFL, so I don't know if LED would be any different, but one is 3500K 23W (120W equiv). The other is 5000K 23W. The 5000K is really bad. I don't really think of it as being brighter at all, just a weird color.

I also like the utilitech bulbs-- I have the r20 45 watt bulbs to put in our cans... I have cfl's and leds where I can, but I didn't like the led or cfls in our recessed lights. when we moved here the recessed all had the flat 50 watt halogen flood lights in them, but I find the utilitech bulbs with the frosted glass are a nicer light, so I've replaced some and am replacing the rest as they burn out...

busybee - How old is your house? I figured out that I need an r40 and most of what I saw at Home Dept was the r30. Even online, the r40 isn't as common. My house is 13 years old, so I'm wondering if the newer houses are putting in smaller can lights.

@msrose -- Mine are LED from Utilitech. When I first started switching out bulbs I bought the GE compact fluorescents but the light was SO bad, ugly and so dim I have them in closets I don't often use. The fluorescent light has a different color spectrum. I don't care for that at all.

The 3000 K LEDs are what I found works for us. These come in sizes. There may be a sticker in one of the cans that tells you the right size. Mine have them. I use Par 38, pretty large. I've also bought Par30 for smaller cans. If you know the diameter or the style number of the can you can look up appropriate bulb size on the manufacturer's website.

The Utilitech have been very good. Early days I had 1 go bad and Lowe's replaced it no questions, no fuss. So I buy them there. If the bulbs you bought don't work and you still have the packaging they will likely take them back.

They keep changing the bulbs though. First there was a lot of metal, now mostly plastic. Whatever. My bill dropped and the light in the house is actually better. My house and yours are about the same age. Do you have dimmers? We do so for now I do workarounds with 1 incandescent in each room. That throws enough electricity to the switches to keep them working. I had stockpiled some incandescents but eventually I will need to replace all the switches.

this house is 6 yrs old... the house we just moved from had the 6"cans... I'm wondering if the r40 reflectors were the 'really big' bulbs that were haphazardly in a couple of the cans when we moved into our old house 14 yrs ago among the rest of the r30's... I had the r30 size in the 6"cans in our old house and they were fine- they didn't 'fill up' the can, but that was fine! I liked the Philip's halogen relectors at the time- they had a 50w=65 and a 75w=90w I think... but I haven't bought those bulbs for 2+yrs now so don't know if they're still made!

I used cfls in a lot of the cans in the basement and in the row of cans in an upstairs hallway-- places where I knew the lights might be left on for long periods of time and where the quality of the light didn't bother me.

i like the reflector bulbs (rather than the flat, clear glass- PAR?- bulbs) best for sure-- much better light-- try the r30's and see how they look!

Thank you so much! I think I'm going to try the Utilitech LED, but I have to decide on the r30 vs r40. I have one that is r30 and the light doesn't spread out as much since it's sitting further down, but I may be forced to go to it one day anyway since the r40 are getting harder to find.

I don't have dimmers, but one thing I'm concerned about is the amount of light. The 65W equivalent seems to be pretty popular, but mine are all 100W equivalent. I can't remember if my ceiling are 10' or 12', but I would think most of the newer homes have tall ceilings and the need for more light.

They should not stick down below the rim. The broader the face of the bulb, the wider the arc of the light as it goes down from the ceiling in a triangle shape.

If I wasn't sure I'd buy one of each and return the one that doesn't work as well.

OMG, There were so many different LED bulbs made by Utilitech. Roco, I appreciate you posting the picture, because it gave me something to look for. They didn't have the one you have and I could only find one similar, but it's 2700K, 1150 lumens. They had a lot in the same packaging, but they were labeled "short" and were too small. Is Utilitech a Lowe's brand? I only see one on their website that's a Utilitech Pro.

Yes, Utilitech is made by Feit as a proprietary Lowe's brand. I looked it up.
You are not alone in confusion about light bulbs. The whole technology is in flux and I think everyone is confused. There was a post I read from the professional lighting association and they are confused too.

Here is an outdoor bulb -- non-dimmable -- which might work for you.

Utilitech 15-Watt (75W Equivalent) 3,000K Par38 Medium Base (E-26) Warm White Outdoor LED Flood Light Bulb

Here's another:

Utilitech 2-Pack 16-Watt (90W Equivalent) Par38 Medium Base (E-26) Warm White Dimmable Outdoor LED Flood Light Bulbs

The "short neck" bulbs are new to me. Again, they are changing these all the time. But the bulbs do have a very long life. I have only had to change the incandescents as they burn out. I have used outdoor bulbs indoors in the past -- recommended by the electrician. They were fine.

But what size are the cans? Mine are 5" d. by Halo,

Do you know the manufacturer? Any little stickers on them? That info might help.

The guy at HD told me the can lights were either 4" or 6", so I assumed mine were 6". I guess I'll have to measure them or see if I see any stickers. Thanks for the links!