The best appliance bulbs

Appliance sockets look like ordinary sockets and are not treated like them. The bulb is smaller, usually an A15 on a standard E26 thread, and the environment is hostile in a different way in each appliance: heat in an oven, cold and vibration in a fridge, steam and grease over a range.

The headline rule is the oven. Appliance makers still specify an incandescent there. GE Appliances tells owners to use a new 40 watt appliance bulb and specifically not a standard 40 watt bulb. Whirlpool describes the oven light as a standard 40-watt appliance bulb. Neither offers a retrofit LED, and LEDVANCE's own oven lamp - one of the few with a published temperature rating, up to 300 C - is incandescent.

A refrigerator is the opposite case. GE Lighting sells an A15 LED as a refrigerator bulb, and LEDVANCE says appliance-rated models withstand the temperatures found inside a refrigerator. Cold does not bother a driver the way oven heat does.

It is a size and a build, not a heat grade. LEDVANCE defines an appliance bulb as one with a more rugged filament and the correct base size and wattage. That rugged filament is there for vibration - a fridge door slamming, an oven door dropping - not for temperature.

The clearest evidence that the label is loose: Feit's own 40W A15 appliance incandescent is listed for ceiling fans, microwaves and small appliances, with no oven claim and no temperature figure, and Feit also sells an LED A15 whose stated use is general purpose lighting. Same word on the box, different products.

This matters when you shop. Third-party listings freely print numbers like 500 degrees that no major brand publishes for any A15. One of our own picks below carries exactly that contradiction on its own page, and we say so rather than repeating it.

GE 40W A15 appliance bulb - the pick for an oven. This is the plain incandescent that appliance makers describe in their own manuals: 415 lumens, 2700K, A15 on an E26 base, in a two-pack. There is no driver to cook, and it is the type - not just the wattage - that GE Appliances and Whirlpool specify.
Cons: 1,500 hours of rated life, a fraction of any LED; no maximum temperature is published for it either; and GE Lighting no longer lists the bulb on its own site, so the listing is the only spec you get.

Vgogfly A15 LED refrigerator bulb - the pick for a fridge or a range hood. 600 lumens at 5000K from 5 watts, rated 25,000 hours. In a fridge that is opened several times a day, replacing a 1,500-hour incandescent with a 25,000-hour LED is the whole argument.
Cons: never put it in an oven - the maker does not claim it and the appliance makers specify incandescent; 5000K is stark if the fridge light spills into a warm kitchen; and the listing contradicts itself on power, with no manufacturer site to check against.

Spolico 40W A15, 4-pack - the cheap spares. Four plain incandescent appliance bulbs at the lowest cost per bulb, in the right format for an oven, a range hood or a microwave that takes a standard appliance bulb.
Cons: the listing contradicts itself on heat - the title says 500 degrees, a bullet says 300 degrees or 570F - and no manufacturer site or test standard backs either; the OEM cross-reference list includes a part number that is actually an LED fridge bulb; and rated life is 1,000 hours. Buy it for the format, not the claim.

Read the appliance manual, not the bulb box. Every quote in this page comes from an appliance maker, and they are the ones who know what the shield, the housing and the cavity were designed around. GE Appliances tells range hood owners to read the sticker near the lamp, because the answer changes by model.

Match wattage exactly, and do not go up. Appliance sockets are small, enclosed and close to things that melt. The general rule for fixture wattage ratings is in can you put a 100W LED in a 60W fixture, and appliances are the strictest version of it.

Buy the size, not the shape you assume. A15 is the common appliance size and an A19 will often foul the shield. The shape and base naming is in bulb shapes and bases explained.

Keep the oven bulb as a spare, not as a plan. At 1,000 to 1,500 rated hours, incandescent appliance bulbs are consumables. A two or four pack in the drawer saves the trip you would otherwise make mid-roast.