Dangerous, CFLs, compact fluorescent light bulbs burning, catching fire.

[numonik99]

It is not just burning plastic that you smell. When they burn they release the toxic mercury gas inside them. They are considered a hazmat and need to be disposed of as a hazardous material. Supposedly we are not to put them in the trash but take them to a hazmat disposal place. Yah, right. After two exploded and filled the office with toxic gas i got rid of all of them and bought cases of long-life incandescent bulbs--bless them.

[SlightyDisturbedNBK]

@numonik99 "hazmat disposal" You mean your local recycling centre, way to blow it out of proportion. I've broken a few of these bulbs, just ventilate the room and clean it up, no need to be so paranoid about a bloody lightbulb.

[jimjam187]

So yesterday then same thing happened to me, my bulbs were also sylvania bulbs. I have 12 in my home and I looked at the other and they are also on the way to doing the same thing. I think this ia b.s. and if we have enough people with the same problems we may have something here..

[PipeOrganistSC]

This comment will probably get voted down, but just let me run something by everyone: Why is the government trying to mandate that we use potentially hazardous lightbulbs in our homes, hospitals, and places of business? It is obvious that there are serious flaws with CFL's. Some say that they could even cause cancer. Call me a whistle-blowing lunatic, but are CFL's an abstract method of population control? I think it very well could be.

[evlwevl69]

6- I am a ghetto building inspector and the poor can't seem to afford 25 cent light bulbs (I haven't seen a cfl yet in 7 years of inspection) 7- let me guess the reason these bulbs are made in china, because they would be $9 a piece if they were made in the u.s. due to our epa regulations. Heres the thing, I will buy more YOUVE GOT NO CHOICE THANKS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

[evlwevl69]

ok I read all the posts, just had this happen the other night right in front of my family, good thing I was home and awake. I bought the hype, green, less energy....blah blah. I hope benhutchinson is being funny because this is an enormous fiasco for a whole list of reasons: 1- the fire risk 2-the cost to buy 3-the cost to manufacture 4-the cost of disposal 5 - the issue of wasted energy=heat (I live in the great white north so heat from my lights is not a problem) not done there's more

[falconer6439]

@evlwevl69 Personally Ive never had, or heard of anyone having these problems with CFL's (I have them throughout my house and two 68w bulbs outside that get left on more often than I would like through the night). The cost to buy is offset by longterm savings (cannot count how many tungsten bulbs ive replaced in my lifetime), and there really is no wasted energy, they give off very little heat relative to a standard tungsten bulb. Im curious whether the bulb always blowsin thatoldlamp

[patricknedz]

it seems like the normal incandescent bulbs are the safest as long as you dont put something on top of it. Even the LEDs use transformers inside them that could screw up and short circuit. dont trust these CFLs or LED lights

[LindaVeeSado]

I had one of these catch fire last week in my bathroom. Anyone who thinks it's that uncommon is dreaming.

[Rachman1337]

One of these just filled my room with noxious plastic fumes when it burned out

[ct1660]

That's what happens when CFL's are made in CHINA.

[Mercury1955]

Yep I've had two do that. One of them was really bad and if I hadn't been home when it happened to turn it off it looked like it could start a fire.

[Ceremare]

Yes. It is just dawning on me that the the three lamps which I have witnessed smouldering were not just coincidences but a sign of a significant flaw in the safety of these lamps. Neighbors who are a couple in their 80s woke one night to find their home full of smoke. One friend has been trying to find a wiring fault since one of his compact lamps burnt out and blew the fuse. I am getting a bit nervous. Where are the industry standards which prevent these occurences.

[MasSergioVEVO]

lol try putting one of these in a dimmer that aren't for dimmers... they smoke up... then burn out... and turn into what you have here. I got one thats dimable now and all problems solved... the guy at the store told me they were safe even though they didn't say they're dimmible and that he uses them on dimmers(yea right).. the dimmable kind say dimmable in big letters dont let anyone fool ya. or your house will turn into smokey the bear and only you can prevent forest fires! ;)

[seanmcpherson97]

My lightbulb just burnt out. I was sittting here on my laptop then it started flickering, then it gurgled. It scared the hell out of me. I cant get my dad to do anything cause its 4:27 Am. I guess i just have to wait till morning D:

[BenHutchinson321]

If I had a 1 in 1-million chance of my house burning down, I'd probably be more likely to die from a car wreck (or even in a plane crash). I think even the chance of being struck by lightning is 1 in 100,000 (10 times greater than 1 out of 1-million) . If I stopped doing everything that could kill me or burn down my house that had a 1 in 1-million chance of doing so, I'd be so scared I'd never do ANYTHING (not go outside for a walk, not use my computer, etc). I'd be living in the STONE AGE!!!!

[BenHutchinson321]

In other words, of the total people who have at least one of these, the rate of catastrophic failures is SO SMALL, that it doesn't warrant the stoppage of using these bulbs. They save the environment. Less power drain = less coal burned at power plants = less CO2 going into the air = less global warming = less powerful hurricanes = less cities destroyed by hurricanes = less people dying. The number of lives saved by using these FAR outweighs the risk of a few house fires.

[Mercury1955]

@BenHutchinson321 I don't think it's that small given I don't have many and had two go..................

[BenHutchinson321]

@Mercury1955

I've had several and they all die by just one day they don't turn on. They never smoke. They never spark. They never make electrical zapping sounds. They just silently die.

[BenHutchinson321]

Should we stop saving the environment just because a few people had bad experiences with these? No house ever burned to the ground because of one of these. Even if a few did, it would make up only a tiny percentage of house fires. Just because a few people are complaining, even if several HUNDRED are complaining. That's a VERY SMALL fraction of 1% of the total US population (of the US population, like 99% have at least one of these in their homes).

[BenHutchinson321]

I've used these before but never had that happen. We should NOT risk damaging the environment with the gas guzling incandecent bulbs. We should continue to use CFL bulbs and phase out incandecents. Why? Cause these CFLs are more stable than you thing. They've never failed catestrophically for me. They always just "stopped glowing" at the end of their life. The only way I know it's burned out is if it doesn't come on when I flip the switch. There's no smoke are sparks or pops or any other drama.

[macsrule94]

I have had at least 4 of the Sylavania ones do this. I contacted them and they had me mail it back and promised to send a coupon for a free one at Lowes. Well I never got the coupon and they don't respond to emails either.

These greenies seem to care more about the environment than peoples safety. If one of these bulbs bust near you it isn't good. Damn Al Gore.

I'll buy LED ones or incandescent ones in the future!

[84randomdude]

Use LED's!!

[bigwigtom]

Solution: Don't buy cheap and crappy CFLs.

[electrictroy2010]

@bigwigtom You mean I have to spend 8 dollars for expensive CFL bulbs instead of 40 cents for the old-fashioned (and safe) bulbs??? How is that supposed to save me money?

.

From my electrical engineering viewpoint, moving to CFLs is as illogical as throwing-out your iPod and going back to cassettes. CFLs are an *inferior* technology compared to the simplicity of glowing incandescent bulbs

.

[alexmacelectronics]

One more thing - Magnetic Ballasts are just coils of wire wrapped around an iron core. Not all of these complex and failure prone electrical parts. And the new instant start can even cause the bulb to lose vacuum releasing mercury. Preheat ballasts also has a thermal shut off so they cannot over heat and it will not cause the glass to crack and loose vacuum at EOL.

[alexmacelectronics]

... Endlessly. So they can never burn up like this. But - I would never put an instant start CFL in my house again.

[alexmacelectronics]

I had this happen but much worse about two years ago in my ceiling fan. However, there is one type of CFL that can never burn up like this. It is a Magnetic Preheat CFL (2 Part lamp- Ballast and bulb can separate). You can buy the ballasts from 5-22 watts from Enertron. Then you can buy any kind of 2 pin PL tube you need (in the same wattage). I use them and they are great. But they do not turn on immediately and they do blink a bit when turning on but a dead tube will just continue to blink en

[jgadrillana]

Happen in our home tonight bu the burn was worse verdict CFLs are not worth the savings in electricity. Anyways how much green house gas is really saved by using such a dangerous product. Global warming from humans is just a theory anuways.

[randacnam7321]

tl;dr: That is because all of the emitter is sputtered off of the electrode on the burnt end of the discharge tube. Because the crappy ballast has no end of life protection, it does not detect the increase in the discharge tube potential difference due to the high cathode fall on the burnt end. The increased cathode fall causes substantial resistive heating of the burnt end, and the result is what happened in the video.

!tl;dr: These lamps are garbage.

[stickedU]

The bulb didnt do this. She put a lighter up to the plastic to give it a burnt look. This has never happend to any of my wonderful CFL bulbs all lies.

[andycflbulb]

@stickedU yeah ive seen it happen on youtube and seen bulbs like this, but after the fact in person

[koreflex]

@stickedU this happened to me last night. its not fake!

[macsrule94]

@stickedU I had this EXACT same thing happen, so it isn't her using a lighter.

Now, I haven't had a problem out of the Phillips brand, mostly problems out of the sylvania ones.

[Sirrom0206]

Buy LED bulbs instead. This happens a lot in CFLs. This happened to me several times. We Americans refuse to up grade to better fixtures thus technology is reversed engineered to work with existing lamps. USA CFLs are integrated with a ballast. When the Ballast dies, it dies! European CFLs don't do this because the ballast is built into the fixture not the bulb, thus improved safety. We refuse to upgrade & we settle for crap. Dont leave CFLs on when you're out. All CFL's R made in China.

[stickedU]

Green fingernail polish?

[RobertoCPR]

I think you just had bad luck with a defective bulb. I've been using CFL's for 12 years and right now there isn't a single light bulb in my house that isn't a CFL. I have never experienced something like this. The closest I've gotten is one bulb that went off releasing a funky smell, forcing me to open all windows for half an hour to get rid of it. But that was only one bulb and I use CFL's in the craziest places like bathroom vanities and ceiling fan kits (before these began coming with CFL's).

[stickedU]

Oh but they will grace your doors again. Soon they will be your only choice. Ha.

[RobertoCPR]

@stickedU Not true. Halogen and LED light bulbs will continue to be available for those who don't want fluorescent bulbs. It's the old-fashioned incandescent light bulb the only one going the way of the dodo.

[cyberlight22]

WELL STARTING 2012 THAT AND LED ARE THE ONLY THING YOU CAN BUY! WELL THE 100 WATT IS GOING OUT IN 2012 75 WATT IN 2013 AND 60 AND 40 IN 2014 SO STOCK UP!!

[n310ea]

Not to mention, those CFL's are a toxic health hazard because they contain mercury gases. If those bulbs break, you'll be breathing in the mercury gases which can cause serious health problems to humans and pets.

[roll2996]

This happened to me also. I thought I had

an electrical fire on the house and called the fire department. It ended up being the cfl burning out. And no , it was not on a dimmer. This is how CFLs can sometimes burn out. I am getting rid of them!

[97bosko]

I think CFLs wouldn't catch fire if they made them with a metal case for the electronics instead of the plastic case.In my cfl the transistor overheated and unsoldered itself from the pcb and yeah it did smell horrible.

[Cadegoestocollege]

This just happened to me :(

[2Steppa2]

Just had a 30w Lyvia branded burn out (literally) after 3 months of (most) evening use. As usual the tube was fine and likely would have 'gone the distance' but the electronics were totally fried. Sounded like a fire cracker and stank my place out for a day. Now trying those Xenon GLS replacements.

[musicman0150]

I can relate to your discovery. Fortunately all of the CFL bulbs that I use and have used did not go that far extreme. Before jumping to conclusions in banning those kind of bulbs in your home, I would highly do a thorough check to see if the wiring in your home is up to code and also check the lamp itself for any signs of possible shorts in the socket or switch. Next, make absolutely sure that you do not have dimmers on your lamps because certain CFLs will catch fire if on a dimmer.

[Keelhaul52]

Does CFL stand for Chinese Fire Lights?

[MALI1185]

Sue the company!

[c1umpdud]

Watch out! There are toxic chemicals and heavy metals in those new CFL bulbs!!

[Tnat1on]

Aren't they supposed to work for 10+years?

[1988tq]

@Tnat1on I haven't had one last over 5 years (except for those I don't use very much)

[melevy]

Green nails?

[RCM442]

Electrodes overheating at EOL, pretty common, even with the most expensive ones! That's why I don't use them, but I've had Sylvania one's burn out and just go out, not do this!

[Garcansdad]

You are not alone. I just had a cfl burn out/up. It's common but this is "normal" according to the manufacturers. CPSC says they are "not aware" of any fires from these bulbs. Australia has rescinded their phase-out of regular incandescent bulbs because of the hazards of cfls. It's time the U.S. consumer spoke up.

[bamaslamma1003]

I guess the environazis don't care how many people's houses burn down as long as we're using "green" lighting.

[mrsdontuwantoknow]

@bamaslamma1003 I'm sure a house fire leaves a mighty big carbon footprint.

[fournier1592]

@mrsdontuwantoknow lmfao

[suzukir122]

If you want to save energy, you should

either use fluorescent fixtures that take "tubes,"

or you could use older "preheat" compact

fluorescent. These are the type that flash

before starting... and their safe... you could

also switch to LED bulbs as well.

[suzukir122]

Yeah... one of the reasons why I don't much

like the "compact" version of fluorescent

bulbs.