True or False

[dicklaxt]

Received this from a friend!! For what it is worth

Any truth to this?
Below is a picture of a CFL light bulb from my bathroom. I turned it on

the other day and then smelled smoke after a few minutes. Four inch

flames were spewing out of the side of the ballast like a blow torch!

I immediately turned off the lights. But I'm sure it would have caused

a fire if I was not right there. Imagine if the kids had left the lights on

as usual when they were not in the room.

I took the bulb to the Fire Department today to report the incident.

The Fireman wasn't at all surprised and said that it was not an

uncommon occurrence. Apparently, sometimes when the bulb burns

out there is a chance that the ballast can start a fire. He told me

that the Fire Marshall had issued reports about the dangers of these

bulbs.

Upon doing some Internet research, it seems that bulbs made by Globe

in China seem to have the lion's share of problems. Lots of fires have

been blamed on misuse of CFL bulbs, like using them in recessed lighting,

pot lights, dimmers or in track lighting. Mine was not in any of those.

It was a normal light socket.

I bought these at Wal-Mart. I will be removing all the Globe bulbs from

my house. I have not decided yet if we are going back to incandescent

bulbs at this point.

I have these all over my house but not by "Globe"

dick

 

[dreamsville]

Typical Chinese product. Big business in this country is selling us out to the lowest bidder. We've spent decades developing a safe consumer product environment here in this country and now we import crap like this.

Somethings wrong...

 

[mcclary's electrical]

Never seen it, but I definately believe it.

That story's been floating around the internet for a while. I'm sure it's a true story

 

[jumper]

Here is an interesting thread on CFL's related to your's.

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?p=1025494

 

[awc]

Received this from a friend!! For what it is worth

Any truth to this?
Below is a picture of a CFL light bulb from my bathroom. I turned it on

the other day and then smelled smoke after a few minutes. Four inch

flames were spewing out of the side of the ballast like a blow torch!

I immediately turned off the lights. But I'm sure it would have caused

a fire if I was not right there. Imagine if the kids had left the lights on

as usual when they were not in the room.

I took the bulb to the Fire Department today to report the incident.

The Fireman wasn't at all surprised and said that it was not an

uncommon occurrence. Apparently, sometimes when the bulb burns

out there is a chance that the ballast can start a fire. He told me

that the Fire Marshall had issued reports about the dangers of these

bulbs.

Upon doing some Internet research, it seems that bulbs made by Globe

in China seem to have the lion's share of problems. Lots of fires have

been blamed on misuse of CFL bulbs, like using them in recessed lighting,

pot lights, dimmers or in track lighting. Mine was not in any of those.

It was a normal light socket.

I bought these at Wal-Mart. I will be removing all the Globe bulbs from

my house. I have not decided yet if we are going back to incandescent

bulbs at this point.

I have these all over my house but not by "Globe"

dick

Just out of being curious, was is horizontal or vertical?

 

[wireguy8169]

Wow, read the post on the link and wonder why they are going to fuses that are safer and less like to explode but CFLs are exspected to go up in flames at the end of their life....never seen it myself, but am not completely sold on them either. But, also know how magnetic ballast end up at the end of their life span (smelly) but usually they are in a fixture that is not going to go up in flames...Hey, if they burn up that is less waste in the dump :-?

 

[SG-1]

Me Too

Me Too

Here is a picture of a simular failure. Not Globe, but it was made in China. Even comes with a UL Label. Goes out in a blaze of glory. Maybe this is the government back-up plan to re-ignite the housing market ?

This bulb was mounted horizontally.

This happened in my livingroom, not on the net. I still have the bulb.

 

[MichaelGP3]

Don't these bulbs have a mercury component inside? My understanding is that they do. To those of you that have kids, is it ok that this smoke goes into the air they breathe? I ask this since heavy metals poisoning poses a greater danger to infants and children than they do to adults, since their nervous systems are still developing.

 

[jumper]

Don't these bulbs have a mercury component inside?

Yes.

Here is a little info on them.

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf

I think the clean up procedures in the link are a bit much, but I do not have kids nor work around them.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Don't these bulbs have a mercury component inside? My understanding is that they do. To those of you that have kids, is it ok that this smoke goes into the air they breathe? I ask this since heavy metals poisoning poses a greater danger to infants and children than they do to adults, since their nervous systems are still developing.

The mercury is sealed inside of the glass and the burning ballast does not let it out. Also there is far less mercury in a CF than in a standard fluorescent lamp.

 

[LEO2854]

Received this from a friend!! For what it is worth

Any truth to this?
Below is a picture of a CFL light bulb from my bathroom. I turned it on

the other day and then smelled smoke after a few minutes. Four inch

flames were spewing out of the side of the ballast like a blow torch!

I immediately turned off the lights. But I'm sure it would have caused

a fire if I was not right there. Imagine if the kids had left the lights on

as usual when they were not in the room.

I took the bulb to the Fire Department today to report the incident.

The Fireman wasn't at all surprised and said that it was not an

uncommon occurrence. Apparently, sometimes when the bulb burns

out there is a chance that the ballast can start a fire. He told me

that the Fire Marshall had issued reports about the dangers of these

bulbs.

Upon doing some Internet research, it seems that bulbs made by Globe

in China seem to have the lion's share of problems. Lots of fires have

been blamed on misuse of CFL bulbs, like using them in recessed lighting,

pot lights, dimmers or in track lighting. Mine was not in any of those.

It was a normal light socket.

I bought these at Wal-Mart. I will be removing all the Globe bulbs from

my house. I have not decided yet if we are going back to incandescent

bulbs at this point.

I have these all over my house but not by "Globe"

dick

Heres a good look at one

 

[LEO2854]

In 2012 incandesent Bulbs will be illegal
1.CFL BULB SHOULD not be sold unless they can be used in all apps
they should all be dimmable and should have thermal protection.The fact that they have been approved for general perpose use when the fact remanes that the consumer has been led to belive that they work just like incandecent bulbs is nuts .
Most people do not know that they can not be used with dimmers unless they buy the dimmable type wich cost 3 time more and not many people read the box beond the price and wattage.
the same problem with LED's that are up and coming
These bulbs have come a long way in 20 years
But there should be no way that they can catch "FIRE":-?:-?:-?:-?
http://www.threedonia.com/archives/10595

 

[hurk27]

I have been using CFL's for as long as I can remember, ever since they first hit the market, When they first came out, they were notorious for letting the smoke out at the end of life, I had contacted UL about this and they just said it was a normal part of their life cycle, and they shouldn't located near flammables just like incandescents, I thought this was kind of blow off, but not much else I could do, the problem is the public will knot know this and if you get a post fire victim, who is scared to death of a fire, things like this can really freak them out, I have had a few where it also blackened the fixture and ceiling paint, now try to explain that this is normal to a home owner?

Well after going through several brands, I found that the Sylvania, Phillips, and GE brands, don't seem to fail in this way, they just go out, I no longer use the off brands, and even though I have had a few bad bulbs, I have had great luck in doing so, the house I live in now, has 100% CFL's, as did the trailer I was living in, and I have yet to replace a CFL, and my electric bill stays below $80.00 month for a 2800 sq, ft 4 bedroom house with air, and in the winter it goes down to less the $30.00 because it is all natural gas heat, so in my opinion the CFL's are here to stay, just treat them like incandescents when placing them, and don't locate them in places where there are flammables.

 

[LEO2854]

I have been using CFL's for as long as I can remember, ever since they first hit the market, When they first came out, they were notorious for letting the smoke out at the end of life, I had contacted UL about this and they just said it was a normal part of their life cycle, and they shouldn't located near flammables just like incandescents, I thought this was kind of blow off, but not much else I could do, the problem is the public will knot know this and if you get a post fire victim, who is scared to death of a fire, things like this can really freak them out, I have had a few where it also blackened the fixture and ceiling paint, now try to explain that this is normal to a home owner?

Well after going through several brands, I found that the Sylvania, Phillips, and GE brands, don't seem to fail in this way, they just go out, I no longer use the off brands, and even though I have had a few bad bulbs, I have had great luck in doing so, the house I live in now, has 100% CFL's, as did the trailer I was living in, and I have yet to replace a CFL, and my electric bill stays below $80.00 month for a 2800 sq, ft 4 bedroom house with air, and in the winter it goes down to less the $30.00 because it is all natural gas heat, so in my opinion the CFL's are here to stay, just treat them like incandescents when placing them, and don't locate them in places where there are flammables.

I have been using them for a long time my self and use only american brands
without any problems in my house.
its the cheap anything goes brands that come here from china that have the problems consumers are for the lowest price so they will by a ten pack no name type then install them on dimmers not knowing that it is a fire hazard to do so they do not read the box and or do not understand the warnings
and thats why i say they should be all Dimmable and that goes for LED's as well ..

 

[mike scicutella]

i could be wrong on this but i just finished a big lecture on harmonic distortion in class and one of the things brought up was about the ballast in the cfls , now i know that this issue is something more faced in bigger commercial applications and industrial applications or all things with lots of dc switching power supply's( VFD'S computers electronic ballast etc...) but don't clfs have an electronic ballast as well ? and if there going to out law your regular incandescent whats it going to do to these bigger size residential houses ? will houses start to have problems with harmonics and the issue they can cause ?
just a thought

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Okay this exact story is in snopes.com and is listed as false. Read about it here.

 

[SAC]

I pretty aggressively converted to CFLs some years ago, and have had about 3 failures similar to those pictured (but never actually witnessed the flames if there were any). They were all "name brand", but don't now where they were made. I haven't seen anything like it in probably the last five years, though. I've had them go out without any big "burn out" in the case. I was very disappointed with the lifetime when I first converted, but things seem much better now.

 

[al hildenbrand]

Okay this exact story is in snopes.com and is listed as false. Read about it here.

Good catch, Dennis.

Received this from a friend!! For what it is worth

Any truth to this?
dick

Dick, looks like what you shared of what you received, including the photo are a straight cut and paste from the item at Myth Busters that Dennis links to.

I vote "no truth" to what you received.

 

[SG-1]

The mercury is sealed inside of the glass and the burning ballast does not let it out. Also there is far less mercury in a CF than in a standard fluorescent lamp.

If you look closely at the CFL I posted the glass is compromised.

I do not know if the mercury is in a from that could escape.

The odor tells you that something is on fire in the room.

 

[luckylerado]

Under Voltage will cause CFL bulbs to do this.