blowing bulbs

[big john]

Except that the solder on the bottom of a light bulb is not the air seal. The extruded glass piece inside the bulb that supports the filament standoff is the bottom of the envelope.

Right, see this video. The bulb itself is complete piece of sealed glass.

Is it still possible the heat is damaging some component of the bulb and making them fail prematurely? Sure. But I would tend to think that you'd end up with very severe fixture damage by the time the happened.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

A number of times I have seen the yellow deposits inside the lamp from the tungsten filament burning in air. I had just assumed that the heat from the poor connection caused the seal leak, but I can't imagine that the heat would be enough to soften the glass and cause a leak, at least not on standard bulbs.

In high school, I hung some 500 watt stage lights with the base up, that should have been hung base down. The fixture design did not let the heat escape as it should have. The heat did soften the glass enough that the envelope enlarged to the point that we could not remove the bulb without breaking it, but they did not develop air leaks. Maybe if we would have left them on longer, that would have happened.

 

[Sierrasparky]

interesting

 

[Mark Price]

most common occurrence I have found is folks using lamps rated a 120v on systems where the voltage tends to run 130+. Second most common for me has been poor neutral connections causing higher voltage on one leg.

the readings at the panel and the outlet are both a constant 120v