Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - I'm never buying CFL Bulbs again!

Last year, I heard that CFL bulbs were supposed to last a lot longer than the normal incadesent lightbulbs and also be cheaper when it comes to energy costs.

So I decided to buy a few last year. I bought a 4 pack of 60W Maxlite bulbs and 2 75 W lightbulbs which I believe are 13W or 18W in CFL terms. I installed them all last year and guess what! I had three of them burn out recently. They are supposed to last 10,000 hours but I don't think I got 10,000 hours out of those lightbulbs. I called Maxlite to complain and they told me that they couldn't do anything about it because the lightbulbs were no longer warrantied.

I was very upset that they burned out that quick. One of them I saw burn out and I thought I smelled what seemed to be either mercury or some type of burning smell which is a very strong smell.

Where did you used them ?

And is the luminaire is enclosed or open type ?

Was this on the dimmer ? { typically a no no for most CFL unless it marked for dimmer useage }

Do you have lighted switch handle? that useally can shortlife the CFL

the other reltive common issue is surge that get them as well.

Those basic questions will able tell if that is suited for correct appactions.

Merci,Marc

The CFL Bulbs that burned out are in a bathroom light fixture. The top of the fixture is open. It was not on a dimmer switch. and No I do not have a lighted switch handle.

I will suggest try the diffrent namebrand sometime it may got a bad batch or poor manufactering issue,

However in my house in USA I have more than a dozen CFLs in there and it last me more than 3 to 5 years before they burn out.

And in France just about every light socket I have CFL expect bathroom it is on dimmer switch.

again that last me 4 years before burn out.

Merci,Marc

What brand of bulbs do you suggest?

GE, Phillps, Sylivan , Flitch and couple others they seems pretty good so far as any products once a while you will run into bad batch but not very often something like myself I go thru case by case of flourscent bulbs due I work as electrician so like example one brand X have alot of issue with the bulbs in case of 30 bulbs 12 are bad which it is too much for me so I deal with the manufacter rep and he send me a new one no charge at all.

the key issue is try diffrent brand that useally clear up the curpits just the same idea with old school indentscent bulbs are.

Merci,Marc

I may try GE bulbs since they seem to be ok so far. Philips I've had a bad experience with as they burn out very fast, but I usually use incadesant bulbs for those or used them. Only problem with CFL bulbs is that they are very expensive compared to incadesents.

Constant switching like a bathroom fixture would see will shorten the life of the bulb.

Are you saying that by turning the light off and on, I'm shortening the life of the bulb?

Yep.,

Many Flourscent it don't matter which one it is all they hate short cycling aka on/off unless specal flasher ballast it will be ok but for everyday ballast ., no

I will have to find the chart with short CFL /TFL life I have somewhere in my files and you can see why if you turn it on for few minutes then turn it off it the hardes than what it stay on for few hours or more.

And what most CFL do not list the short life listing aka less than 3 hours at all.

Merci,Marc

My opinion is that you ought to go out and buy as many incandescent bulbs as you think you will need to get you through till the end of your life and buy 10 more on top of that.

One thing to remember is that they do not make a 3 way bulb in the CFL - so you need to stock up on them too.

In time the technology will catch up and they just might make a better bulb, but until then just pay the electric bill and let someone else worry about being GREEN.

Being GREEN to me just means some engineer out there figured a way to spend more of my money to come out with a product that works half as well as what I already have.

Just look at treated lumber, asbestos brake pads etc...

One thing to remember is that they do not make a 3 way bulb in the CFL - so you need to stock up on them too.
...


Ya know the funny thing about the 3 way CFL bulbs yeah they are on market you have to look little closer on the labeling and I don't have issue with it at all.

Merci,Marc

Last year, I heard that CFL bulbs were supposed to last a lot longer than the normal incadesent lightbulbs and also be cheaper when it comes to energy costs.

So I decided to buy a few last year. I bought a 4 pack of 60W Maxlite bulbs and 2 75 W lightbulbs which I believe are 13W or 18W in CFL terms. I installed them all last year and guess what! I had three of them burn out recently. They are supposed to last 10,000 hours but I don't think I got 10,000 hours out of those lightbulbs. I called Maxlite to complain and they told me that they couldn't do anything about it because the lightbulbs were no longer warrantied.

I was very upset that they burned out that quick. One of them I saw burn out and I thought I smelled what seemed to be either mercury or some type of burning smell which is a very strong smell.

Have been using CFL's for three years now have only one coplaint that in a bathroom setting they need to be combined with regular light bulbs due to the warm up time of the cfl

I have not had a single one burn out in the three years in fact all the lights in my apartment are cfl except in the bathroom and i have to say i love the $10 dollar light bill

i only use GE or the sylvania brand cfl's never had a problem with any of them

although i dont use the three way version of the cfl yet 10-15 bucks for one bulb not worth it to me need more light screw in a bigger cfl LOL

And there are promotionals or sales that allow you to buy the bulbs for about $1 for 60-watt equiv., and $1.50 for 100 watt equiv. I recently paid $8 for a 10-pack. They do last a long time on average, in most general applications, as we have tons of them in college rentals now. And I know they last long on average since I am the one who has to go back there and change them if need be. We started putting them in 10-foot ceiling lights. But now because we get them so cheap, we stick them in all over, just to stop students from changing regular bulbs and putting 100 watt incandescents in 60-watt enclosed fixtures and melting light and house wiring and/or breaking the glass globes. All in all it is a definite positive cost strategy.

Even on fixtures they turn on and off. I think they've improved on previous problems that way. Also I have noticed that at least with some of the CFL brands, that once you fire them up for the first time, and they take a while to get to full brite...some of them come up to full bright quicker thereafter. Unless the temp is real cold.

But it will be interesting to see in the future if LED's becomes the choice and surplants CFL's. We just had some 100 watt metal halide bulbs replaced at a facilitly I help out at, and LED's put in their stead.

My opinion is that you ought to go out and buy as many incandescent bulbs as you think you will need to get you through till the end of your life and buy 10 more on top of that.

I think there's a decent chance Congress will repeal the law making incandescents obsolete. They are going to receive a firestorm of complaints when the last incandescents are taken off the shelves and people realize the tradeoffs with CFLs. There will certainly be a black market forever. I guess I'll have to buy my light bulbs from Hong Kong on ebay!

I've found dimming CFLs to be a complete joke--they can't dim less than 50%! Worthless for my applications.

CFLs often won't work with dimmers or occupancy sensors.

Turning them on and off often drastically shortens their life. (I should just leave them on all the time?) The cost-benefit stats on the side of the box never take this into account. In many applications, there will be ZERO savings from switching to CFLs, indeed they could cost more long-term.

CFLs regularly take a minute or more to warm up--this is annoying in practically any application.

Most CFLs don't like vibration, so you can't use them in a ceiling fan or garage door opener.

If you break a CFL, it requires special clean up because of the mercury.

Check out General Electric's FAQ (http://www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/ask_us/faq_compact.htm) on CFLs--it's an entire page of reasons CFLs are inferior to incandescents. Congress screwed up by forcing this product on us when many of us don't want it.

CFLs are just in the infancy of development, but can be a definite improvement over the 100+ year old development of the old fashioned incandescent. The question is whether they can be perfected before the LED takes over.

The original poster said he smelled something like mercury burning. How many people have even been close to mercury burning, let alone smelling it. When I was in high school our chemistry teacher gave us a glob of mercury to play with and learn how it reacts with around the home. Now the school gets shut down for a week or two if a mercury thermometer got cracked. - I still have my original mercury sample I played with 50 years ago.

The CFLs are reportedly not good under vibration. I kept burning out rough service incandescent bulbs (a week or two life for each) in my garage door opener. I checked the voltage and draw and there were no spikes. Three years ago. I got fed up and put in a $1.50 CFL that is still working. - Who really knows what is really going on?

Many of the warnings are a result of trying to comply with the "big brother" protective policy and driven by possible liability claims from unsupported or unjustified studies.

To accept a new takes a learning curve, but some people like the past or just learn slower.

Dick

Congress screwed up by forcing this product on us when many of us don't want it.

I'm so glad the government decided it was a good idea to trade energy savings for poisoned water supplies. The disposal of these CFL's is going to be a big problem. It's hard enough to get people to recycle batteries let alone light bulbs. Most towns don't have a place for you to take them. LED's are going to destroy cfl's once that technology matures.

Like anything, you'll get a bad production run once in a while.....I have never bought the premium brand CFL's, as I think the trade-off for the far cheaper store brands vs. the slightly-longer life of the premiums, is not worth it. But the public needs to be educated on the operating characteristics
of CFL's......they are certainly not suitable for some conditions. One big "eye-opener" for me was when, I replaced my rec-room flood lights with CFL floods...while regular spiral CFL's seem to initially emit 75% brightness or more when first turned on, I don't understand why the same spiral type bulb enclosed in a flood reflector configuration only emits around 15% brightness, and takes a full 3 min to come up to full brightness. One reason why you do not want to use a CFL Floods for outdoor security lights unless they are on all night.

The disposal problem of CFLs in not nearly as bad as the plastic water bottles (over-priced tap water) present even though the people drinking the water are supposedly ecologically correct. Hopefully, the local sanitation/rubbish systems will catch them before they take of millions of cubic feet of disposal land for centuries.

Dick