Three mid 80s CFL powering up

Those were the good ol' times products from the 80s, unlike the today's easily breakable, prone to catching fire spiral shaped CFL.

Those had magnetic ballasts, which the negative part is heavier lamps, but they are more immune to failing and coming out in smoke! Also the base is metal instead of plastic meaning no yellowing, burning or anything like that!

Some people liked the flashing of those older lamps while others may get annoyed which is understandable.....but I myself find them fun most of the time.

Those lamps have very special feature...if you look at the very middle lamp, you will see some sort of bluish arc coming out from 2 separate tubes....those actually go out from one tube then around the vacuumed capsule (the outer glass) then back in to the other glass tube...makes it more efficient...but more expensive to make! Those were made in Japan by the way!

All those are 20 watt and the 2 are never used while the middle one has been used which is why it's dimmer.

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• comments

[deadendersblog]

Stay away from Walmart's Great Value brand of CFL's. Major fire risk.

[jecwhiz]

not surprised....you get what you pay for..]

Those older CFL were kinda more expensive, in fact some were a lot more.....but quality was top notch!

The ones sold in mid 1990s (1995 etc) were really good and didn't flash a lot like the older lamps in the video...One of the very good CFL that I still have are Philips Marathons...(3 U shaped tubes) Some are still made today but slightly lower quality though...

[jecwhiz]

nope the older style was very reliable and actually lasted OVER the rated hours too, the one in the middle had about over 10 years of life! They were only made up about 3 electrical parts or so, the ballast, the tube and the starter and ran cooler...very simple preventing fires while todays are too complicated and is too ....the twisty are actually not 100% efficient and actually not made well, for example look at the bottom of the "twisty style" youll see thick coating where it doesn't light...

[BPatches701]

I had no idea that newer CFLs can catch fire. I have some but I ALWAYS buy name brand so I shouldn't have trouble. My GE bulbs have been in service for 3+ years so far and one is NEVER shut off.

[jecwhiz]

GE seems to be one of the most reliable ones, however there we a FEW GE CFL fires reported found at the webpage called Impact Televideo which showed all the CFL lamps that were victims of fires reported...some CFL pics looks NASTY. also my recommendation to prevent fires is to use CFL ONLY base down (meaning spiral pointed up and the screw in base down) Most of the CFL fires happened while they are base up (example screwed on ceiling, not table lamps)

[SilverlinerOV50]

Uh no the old ones are reliable and DO NOT catch fire they are made of metal and glass

[DavidFromAE]

These preheat compact fluorescents are good stuff and they last a while too! They're also a lot more rugged and when they do burnout, they just keep blinking. Nothing like those spirals you see today. Now, if they started making the spirals with good preheat ballasts instead of the cheap electronic ones they have, then the move to change to CFL would be much better.

[poiiihy]

i think its a waste of money. contain a lot of mercury and flicker a lot. the best is the latest n:vision bulb.

[1tatscca]

@mewhor GE makes a CFL that looks just like a old-style Type A bulb. (You can get them a Target.) Most home centers sell a slightly larger CFL that has a glass bulb.

[kreuztraeger]

@deadendersblog - Let me guess ... did you put a box of matches on top of your lamp with the CFL bulb burning?

[FoamPackingPeanuts]

0:07 Bink!

[mewhor]

What ever happened to the cfls you could by a few years ago that very much resembled a standard light bulb? All I can find now are the spiral shapped cfls

[Membrane556]

@deadendersblog

The irony was the lights of America brand ones they used to carry which were actually made in the USA where really good and actually would last for years.

The made in china bulbs are so bad you might as well switch back to incandescents.

[smoothfags]

I`ve still got 4 of the GE bulbs i bought in 1990, they are the lantern type, very large and, very heavy. The cost of each lamp was £ 11.49p but, it would be hard to find any now. I can buy the newer stick ones in the Pound shop and, get a pack of 5 for £1 but, if i change electric supplier i can or, used to be able to get them free. I`ve got a cupboard full of these bulbs that i`ll never use - i won`t live long enough to use them all.

[Knaeckebrotsaege]

i still have a 1992 Philips 15W CFL with the huge-ass transformer ballast around.

no problems whatsoever. fires up quick and every time. even the ends of the CFL tube are barely gray.. so not really much wear on them.

almost all the new ones with electronic ballasts are more or less crap.. the longest i've had those last was 4 years. usually the ends of the tube go near black before they fail.. excessive voltage or current kills them (coming from the cheapo electronic ballast failing)

[vmelkon]

I didn't know they manufactured this stuff in the 80's. I guess I was too young to notice.