Skip to main content
Home Improvement

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

12
  • 18
    1) Touching a halogen bulb with your fingers can do that. 2) Halogen specialty bulbs often have a very short life because of crappy quality. So 3) It isn't likely the wiring. Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 11:26
  • 9
    Doesn't need to be velvet gloves; cotton or latex is fine :-) (or even using a tissue or paper towel between your hand and the bulb). Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 11:42
  • 7
    "One exploded after an hour" as indicated by @fixer1234 this is caused by finger oils or other contaminates on the lamp envelope itself (not the reflector). "We regularly have bulbs dying" is likely a socket problem, replace the bi-pin socket the lamp plugs into. When heat is generated by the lamp pins this type of bulb will prematurely fail. (I know as hot as the lamp gets while burning this is hard to reason, but when the bi-pins generate heat from poor connection the result is premature failure.) Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 13:16
  • 2
    Thanks. I will likely replace the whole lot with LEDs anyway, but certainly want to avoid further explosions in the short term. If anyone wants to expand the grease issue into an answer, I'll accept it. Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 13:52
  • 4
    CE means nothing, it means the builder swears on a stack of bibles that they used non-leaded solder when they soldered it, and other trivial EU requirements, mostly environmental and not safety. Nobody checks this. There's no testing lab like UL, CSA or TUV. Look for those marks. Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 18:09