In article , Jim Yanik wrote:
"Ozzie" wrote in :

I've been reading some of the recent posts, on CFL's. Maybe I haven't
read enough of them, to find the same thing, which happened to mine.

First, I'm really disappointed, they don't have the life span, as
normal bulbs. My packages claim to have a life span, up to 7 years.
That's probably the "got cha", the "up to". But, I've never had to
replace my bulbs, as often as I do these. I've now replaced a grand
total of 14, which failed prematurely. This is in a 5 month time span.
These are/were the dimmable mini's, 75 watt, with a power factor of
0.90. They are listed as UL, and energy star, and claims to use only
15 watts.

Something else about these things. I've now had 3 of them go out,
which let out a puff of smoke. It's a foul smelling odor. Exactly what
is being released?

probably an electrolytic cap venting,in the electronic ballast.
many electrolytics only have a lifetime of a few 1000 hrs.

Many electrolytics are rated to only last a few 1,000's of hours at some
specific high temperature, usually 85 or 105 degrees C.

If the odor is "burnt electronics", then I suspect some other part (or
other parts) blowing due to random failure or age/heat failure.

I have heard of CFLs with design that hasthe electronics blow when the
bulb part has aged into "a state of failure" (my words). I do think that
manufacturers of those would do well to add a fuse that blows as a result
of electronics failure, and blows to keep the electronics (fuse-acting
subset thereof) from having to serve as a fuse with smoke output.
It's a shame that American businesses have so much pressure for
profitibility on short-term basis that they are sometimes rewarded rather
than punished for improving their bottom line by layoffs of their
employees that will make them grow longer-term (salespeople that gain new
customers and R&D).

- Don Klipstein )