Spotlight Fire Hazard!

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Neomorph

Established Member
Joined
26 Jan 2006
Messages
521
Reaction score
0
Location
Redditch, Worcestershire, UK
One of the things I am going to change in my living room is remove the spotlights in my living room and it's a good thing too.

About two years ago my mom bought them for me as I liked the way they looked. Unfortunately looks is something I should have put at the bottom of the wish list as they are a pipper for bulb changing. The bulbs have to be removed by putting both thumbs onto the face of the glass and the rest of your fingers on the steel housing. You then are supposed to rotate the bulb out by pressing with your thumbs and boy are they tight.

OK so they are tough to get the bulbs out... but it's the same getting them back in... so there is another point off the desirability chart.

The final big no-no is that they seemed to keep blowing bulbs. Normally when the bulb goes I chuck them straight into the bin but when four blew in the one fitting within a week I removed all 4 at once and put them onto the side and forgot to chuck them.... which turned out bloody lucky for me.

The reason was the contacts... This is how they should look (this is a blown bulb btw)...

bulbnomelt.jpg


... and this is how one of the bulbs from the same fitting (also blown)...

bulbmelt.jpg


:tongue9:

To say that it is frightening is an understatemen... the reason the bulbs were so hard to remove is because the bloody contacts had arc'd and melted. Looks like tomorrow I'm going to get some completely new light fittings before I go .
flamed.gif
 
devonwoody":dws7yrne said:
Looks to me they were loose not tight! :)

After checking the fitting itself it appears that the ceramic parts had cracked and made the contacts loose which ended up with the arc of electricity causing the melted contacts on the bulb.

Now I live in a first floor flat and the guys upstairs have bought their flat. Can you imagine the problems if they really had caused a fire even if nobody got killed in the process? I'm going to get onto my insurance bods to make sure that things like that are covered in my policy because I can't understand my policy's wording.
 
Neomorph":367207w4 said:
devonwoody":367207w4 said:
Looks to me they were loose not tight! :)

After checking the fitting itself it appears that the ceramic parts had cracked and made the contacts loose which ended up with the arc of electricity causing the melted contacts on the bulb.

Now I live in a first floor flat and the guys upstairs have bought their flat. Can you imagine the problems if they really had caused a fire even if nobody got killed in the process? I'm going to get onto my insurance bods to make sure that things like that are covered in my policy because I can't understand my policy's wording.

You might have to put some more money into your current account :)
 
John,

Are they low voltage bulbs e.g. 12v? I've got some with that type of fitting but they're 220V. I don't like them anyway as they are too directional and very inefficient.
 
Back
Top