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GregS[_3_] GregS[_3_] is offline
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Default Strange CFL Failure Mode

In article , "Arfa Daily" wrote:

"Terry" wrote in message
...
On Jul 15, 5:01 pm, "Arfa Daily" wrote:
"Samuel M. Goldwasser" wrote in
...



See:http://repairfaq.cis.upenn.edu/Misc/cflhole1.jpg


This is a ~1 mm hole in the glass near one of the filaments.
Something got hot enough for the glass to melt, and after
that, as they say, the rest was history.


I've seen this on 3 CFLs in 3 different lamps/fixtures. There are no
known
problems that could account for such nasty behavior. They were all high
mileage, so perhaps the filament at that end of the lamp opened
resulting
in the discharge going to one post, near the glass, or something.


The CFLs were all from GE but I don't know if they are of the same
ballast/lamp design.


Comments welcome.


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Hmmm. Another 'dangerous' aspect of these dreadful devices then. If they
don't send you blind, or provoke epileptic fits, they'll get you by
venting
their mercury vapour !! :-)

Arfa


Yep, soon they'll be considered as dangerous as incandescent lamps
that burn fingers, start fires, explode, send molten glass and
tungsten shooting about and electrocute those who try to change the
bulb. ;-)

Terry

My my, Terry. You do live an interesting and dangerous life ... During my
many years of shuffling around on this little orb of ours, I don't think I
have ever had a domestic incandescent light bulb start a fire, explode,
reach a temperature where the glss could become molten, shoot molten
tungsten at me, or try to electrocute me (how does that one work then ??). I
would have to admit to having scorched (rather than burnt) my fingers a time
or two, but that was down to me employing stupid tactics for handling them
.... d:-)

Arfa


No fires here yet.

I just had one infantile failure out of a batch of 6 I bought.
9 watts at 40 watts effective halogen brightness. I don't think being outside
was a problem even thought its not for outside. These are flood
or spots. What I have found, I can get moe light out of a 1.5
watt LED spot vs a 9-12 watt CFL. The reason being, CFL's are
poor choice for spots due to the poor beam width.

A lot of CFL's say, no dimmers or relays. The same for LED's most
of the time. I can't really figure the relay bit.

greg