On Apr 27, 9:06*pm, "DGDevin" wrote:
Steve wrote:
So far we have had two of about 20 or so to quit working. *We figured
these two were burn't out even though they were only a year or two
old. *But instead of throwing them out right away, I held onto them
for awhile or until we could bring them to a recycling or collection
place. *Then, for some reason, I tried both of them in another fixture
for one last try. *At my amazement, they both worked again! *I just
rubbed off the end that goes into the socket really good with a
cleaning rag and that's all it took. *So before you throw one out that
has quit working, give it a good rub on the end and give it a last
try! *:-)
Steve

I've noticed something like that too, sometimes the bulb then works fine for
a long time, sometimes not. *But it's certainly worth trying in any case..
Cleaning the contacts is also something worth trying with batteries and the
gear that uses them BTW.

I'll have to give Steve's idea a try. I've have several indoor flood
type CFL's go bad within a few months and am not at all impressed with
them. On the other hand, I have some of the spiral types in my
garage and they have worked fine.

One of the biggest problems is there is no std of labeling to help
anyone figure out what applications these are good for. They need a
std along the lines of they take X seconds to reach 60% of full
brightness. Right now, they vary all over the place. The flood
types I bought are a joke. In my kitchen they take about 2 mins to
get to any reasonable brightness. Now, if you knew that up front,
you could still use them in applications where that is not a
problem. But having consumers buy them and find it out later sure
doesn't help getting them adopted.