Long Lasting Light bulbs die too soon?

[Jim Thompson]

I bought a torchiere lamp last September. This one uses a GE Super Long
Life Torchiere bulb. The bulb looks la little like a pretzel with a
plastic center piece. It plugs into the lamp using 4 prongs.
The thing is, the bulb's been going out a lot lately. It'll stay on for
about 5-10 minutes, then just die. If I turn the lamp off for about 20-30
minutes and turn it back on, the light will come back for another 5-10
minutes then die.
The bulb's advertised as lasting up to 7 years. I know that doesn't mean
it'll last 7 years, but shouldn't it last at least 1-2 years?
I'm not sure if the problem is in the bulb or the lamp. Anyone have more
experience with these lamps and bulbs?
I called GE and they said that there's no way this thing would die in less
than a year. But since the lamp is not a GE lamp (the socket says
Magnatek), they can't do anything about it. I dont' want to go out and buy
another bulb for this and have it die again so soon. They're around $20 a
pop.
The whole reason I bought this lamp was so that I wouldn't have to keep
buying new bulbs.

You didn't get the BEAMER version ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:[phone] | |
| Jim-***@analog_innovations.com Fax:[phone] | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

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[a***@MIX.COM]

Sounds a lot like a bad solder joint in the torchiere to me.

This sounds a lot more like a thermal circuit breaker in action
to me. I see this all over the world on just about a daily basis.
Lights go off and come back on. This is because the MORONS pretending
to be architects and engineers who "design" this sort of fixture or
lamp don't have a fucking clue about what they're doing when it
comes to what happens to this sort of stuff when it heats up.

But it could also be a cold solder joint too. If we have lunch in
Irvine this Sunday I'll bring my soldering stuff and we'll find out
soon enough what the trouble is...

Or, just turn on your air conditioning and get it pretty cold in
there and see what happens to the light then.

Billy Y..

[h***@oddkarma.com]

Where did you buy the lamp? Do they have other lamps just like it for
sale? If so, you could take your bulb to their showroom (assuming they
have one) and try your bulb in one of their lamps. If the problem
persists, you can thank GE for a defective bulb. If it doesn't happen,
you know your torchiere is most likely the culprit.

Lowe's. That's a good idea. I'll swing by there later if I can to
see if I can do that.

It took me a while to find this thing last year. I wanted to find
a way to cut down on my power bill, and I figured this was the way.
Argh.

Of course my power bill hasn't changed a bit since.

[Wotan]

As part of a Turing test

I bought a torchiere lamp last September. This one uses a GE Super Long
Life Torchiere bulb. The bulb looks la little like a pretzel with a
plastic center piece. It plugs into the lamp using 4 prongs.
The thing is, the bulb's been going out a lot lately. It'll stay on for
about 5-10 minutes, then just die. If I turn the lamp off for about 20-30
minutes and turn it back on, the light will come back for another 5-10
minutes then die.
The bulb's advertised as lasting up to 7 years. I know that doesn't mean
it'll last 7 years, but shouldn't it last at least 1-2 years?
I'm not sure if the problem is in the bulb or the lamp. Anyone have more
experience with these lamps and bulbs?
I called GE and they said that there's no way this thing would die in less
than a year. But since the lamp is not a GE lamp (the socket says
Magnatek), they can't do anything about it. I dont' want to go out and buy
another bulb for this and have it die again so soon. They're around $20 a
pop.
The whole reason I bought this lamp was so that I wouldn't have to keep
buying new bulbs.

And you think you need an MBA. Why didn't you just get the long life
bulbs that fit into normal lamps?

[h***@oddkarma.com]

Post by Wotan

The whole reason I bought this lamp was so that I wouldn't have to keep
buying new bulbs.

And you think you need an MBA. Why didn't you just get the long life
bulbs that fit into normal lamps?

Because they look stupid. These are much cooler looking, and don't stick
out.