CFL Lighting Question

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2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 12, 2001
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I just bought a pair of 23 Watt from Wal-Greens (100 Watt equivalent house brand $3.99) and I am experiencing the ring in the tube problem Only one of the two lamps experiences this problem (Both bulbs in different fixtures but on the same circuit) After a while it will go away but the ends of the tubes are already noticeably blackened (Like when they are ready to burn out) I know I probably have a defective lamp, and I will not worry about that I am just mostly wondering what causes this? I have never seen it in a CFL lamp before only the linear T12 4-8' lamps Thanks I really am interested just to know the problem or what causes this ring in the tube and the ends to blacken like they are ready to burn out (These are the Self-Ballasted, All in one screw in lamps)
Thanks
 
bad ballast 90% of the time.. i realise they are new, but so many people have jumped on the 'green bandwagon' that they are haveing to make them cheaper... we retrofited my old store with newer systems which required replacing 140~ ballasts with in a week 40 of the new ballasts had to be replaced with in 4 mounths 40 more, and then nothing else for the next 2 years...
 
I really don't like the whole "Green" thing either I just bought them for an older fixture (40 Watts max) and I wanted a lot of light from that fixture without over lamping (Or replacing the fixture) with a "Regular" Incandescent bulb. Sure they are energy efficient but Certainly not "Green" as they have mercury in them and the ballasts are crap/Don't last as long as the rated hours say. if the Government really want us to be "Green" they should make it a crime to dispose of any mercury containing bulb in the municipal trash bin and to back that up they should make every city have one of those big boxes for any mercury containing bulb (Fluorescent, Metal Halide, Mercury Vapor, High Pressure Sodium, ETC) with the municipal trash (I know that is a dream) But I hate driving to Home Depot or Best Buy just to get rid of a few "Toxic" Items. I try to be Eco friendly by doing that though (I just put the dead CFL's in a padded small shipping box with a piece of foam around each lamp to prevent breaking and when the box is full of "Toxic" Items I drive to the store to dispose of them, While buying more toxic items in the process:rolleyes::D)

I do remember the CFLS of "Yesterday" that the Power Company was giving out in the 1990's
even though they did not fit in every fixture or had the "Office Fluorescent" look. or were heavy they were a lot better then the new made in China lamps made today
1. The actual lamp part burns out replace it
2. The screw in ballast fails replace it
3. I actually liked the 2 Piece lamp kits that they gave out then
4. Combined with the mini spirals of today and the quality screw in ballasts of yesterday company's Could create a quality lamp that could be UN-Plugged from the ballast should either part fail
 
Seriously? Are we complaining about a 3 dollar light bulb? If it has a bad ballast then just take it back and get a new one. Infant mortality plays here just like anything else. If it's gonna fail it's going to do it fast. If it doesn't fail fast it's going to last forever.

Only eco tree nazis buy CFL because they are "green." I buy them because they use a ton less energy and have to be replaced like never. Both of these things save me MONEY which is the only thing I give a crap about in this case.

If one does fail? Again they are 3 bucks. Who cares. Whine in an email to the manufacturer and I'm sure they'll send you a coupon for a free 3 pack.

BTW check with your county/city waste management agency. Chances are very good that they do infact have a place you you can drop these off to be disposed of. I know here there is a small building near the landfill that will take pretty much anything and dispose of them.
 
I am not complaining (Well maybe a little:rolleyes:) I was just asking what causes a problem that I only once saw in the old T-12 4-8' lamps. I only buy them for hard to reach fixtures which is like every fixture in my house that is not a portable lamp. My home has 10' Ceilings so I hate replacing lamps and the batteries in my Smoke detectors (The detectors are hardwired/interconnected with a battery backup)
 
Don't buy your bulbs at walmart or whatever - they're crap. Hit up a lighting supplier and buy professional bulbs.

I run GE Biax FLE13TT3/827's everywhere. 15000 hour lifetime which I can vouch for, 2700K color temperature that doesn't burn your eyes, etc.
 
I would love to do that and I even have a couple of those style of bulbs on hand (For my automotive drop light and my fish tank uses those bulbs. I kind of like those bulbs they are very bright for 13 Watts, but one thing I noticed they run very hot though unless it my cheap fixtures over driving the tube (Just a mag. ballast and I assume the starter is in the base of the tube??) I would do this to all of my fixtures if I could just find the proper socket for them (I think it's a GX23) but I don;t know the exact number off the top of my head I do know where to get cheap ballasts for these though
 
The Biax fixtures I was referring to above are self-ballasted bulbs like your standard CFL. They have a folded linear tube instead of a spiral tube, but they're the same thing otherwise.

As for the bulbs you're referring to (also named Biax) I've got several fixtures around the house that take those. Most of them are low wattage, G23 things (5-9 watts) with a few higher wattage (GX23, 13-20 watts) in a couple of places. They do run a bit hot - part of the reason is they've got a thermal starter in the bulb, which sucks a watt or two whenever the bulb's running. Also the magnetic ballasts used with these things tend to be crap, and dissipate a good bit of heat, and make a racket.

I'm a bigger fan of the 4-pin plug-in bulbs (2G7, 2GX7 base, called "BIAX-L") which use an external ballast. I converted a pair of GX23 fixtures to run 2GX7 bulbs with an electronic ballast, and I'm happy with it.

But for the effort to convert the fixtures, and considering that even the professional self-ballasted screw-in bulbs are cheaper than their bare-bulb equivalents it seems, I'll probably end up converting everything over to self-ballasted eventually.
 
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