Bulbs keep blowing

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15 Nov 2006
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Buckinghamshire
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United Kingdom
In the entrance hall I have a 3x60w candle light, one bulb keeps blowing, I thought it might be cheap bulbs but the actual bulb seems to pop out of the connector. At the moment there is only 2 bulbs used, I don't want to risk the hot bulb popping out again.

Any ideas what the problem might be???
 
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Sorry I haven't explain this very well, the bit of the bulb that connects to the socket (silver bit) has broken off from the actual bulb (glass casing). The socket that bulb goes into is fine, but the one keeps blowing.
 
Relax !!! This problem does not mean you have a major wiring fault. This is a never ending problem which has been looked into for donkeys years. A wiring fault in your circuit will be picked up by fuses and MCB's long before it gets to the bulb.

There are a few reasons bulbs can blow, the major one being cheaper bulbs. The elements in cheap bulbs are much thinner and any surge of power, however slight, simply breaks them. Always go for expensive light bulbs, its cheaper in the long run.

A loose connection in the lamp holder can also cause bulbs to blow. This is because the circuit is not completed as tightly as it could be and the electricity may have cause to "arc" or jump across the contact, rather than simply flowing through it. When this happens it produces more heat in the fitting than is expected or catered for by the bulb, and the bulb can blow.
The same can happen if the spring loaded connection in the bulb holder is slightly loose. This will cause electricity to arc across the contact, cause too much heat and blow the bulb. This can very often be diagnosed by looking at the contact on the bottom of the bulb to see if it is pitted. Arcing electricity effectively melts the metal it is arcing onto ( This is how arc welding works) so if the bulb contact is being subjected to arcing, tiny little indentations occur, called pitting.

It is sometimes possible, if the live connection in your light switch is a little loose, for this to happen here also. Heat will be generated and it is possible, though very very remote, for the bulb to blow as a result of this.

When a bulb blows, 99% of the time the fuse for the lighting circuit will blow or trip also. This makes the problem seem rather bigger than it actually is. The reason for a blowing lamp tripping an MCB is that the lamp element gets thinner during its life to the point where it breaks at the thinnest point, this point will melt just before failure. The resistance of the overheating element will momentarily be very low and a current surge is caused, this is picked up by MCB's but generally not fuses.

So, three things to look into if your bulbs keep blowing. Your bulb supplier, The wire connections inside your bulb holder, and if the spring loaded connectors are working properly inside the bulb holder. As a last resort you can also check the tightness of the connections in your switch.
 
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If it's the same one everytime then I would just buy a new fitting.
 

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