On Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:43:50 -0700, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

On 4/11/2010 9:42 AM Roy spake thus:

What's with the 8000 hr. b.s.? I've had a number of them last only
about 500 hours and of course I had thrown the packaging away. Now, I
write the installation date on the sleeve and file it away. Of course
if you don't have the freakin receipt, you're up the creek as well.
Even some from the same lot have different life-times. The ones that
lasted the longest were in outside enclosed fixtures and were turned
on for eight to twelve hour durations all year long.

This seems to vary wildly by individual case.

I've got a bunch of CFLs, including some decidedly "old-school" ones (20
watters from Ikea, which were the cheapest ones at the time) that I've
been using since 2002 with no problems.
The OLD ikea bulbs were the only ones I EVER had any luck with -
made in Germany or Belgium or someplace like that. So I went the 80Km
to get some more a year or so later, and "Made in China".