Exploding lightbulbs

[gcol]

Thursday night, me and Mrs gcol were watching TV when all of a sudden one of the small spotlights in the kitchen light takes it upon itself to explode. Pretty loud bang and glass is flying all round the kitchen. Good job there was nobody in there.
This raises a few questions:
If someone had been injured (maybe "blinded by the light" - Manfred Mann ) then would the lightbulb manufacturer be liable? If so, how would you prove it was their product when it's in a million bits?
How can manufacturers get away with making a product that could possibly explode and injure someone?

 

[2scoops0406]

How can manufacturers get away with making a product that could possibly explode and injure someone?

Firework manufacturers having been getting away with it for years.

 

[eggplant]

Not sure on where you stand legally, but just imagine if you had installed the lights (and bulbs) for someone else....

 

[mlb3c]

if you think about, since it was discovered....the shape and design of the bulb itself, hasnt really changed.....they come in colors and different types ....but the average light bulb is basically the same....they are tough and fragile at the same time...they package them in thin cardboard and you feel like they're going to shatter in your hand when you put them in the lamp.....if they blow....and you throw them away....you have to package them special so they dont break through the trash bag......of course saying this, I realize that maybe it is different there....but here....I wonder why they havent come up with a safer way to package, handle and dispose of light bulbs. And to answer the question....yes...I had one to explode....but it was an outside light and there was a cover around it.....but it was loud and the glass bulb ended up as millions of teeny shards inside the cover.

 

[BoxBasher]

We've got 4 littel halogens in the kitchen over a dresser and a different fitting that holds 4 as a ceiling light. They both consistently burst one of the four. If we don't replace the bulb none of the other fail. If we do replace it then the same one will go first (not straight away, but after a couple of weeks).

Bloomin' thing.

 

[securespark]

one of the small spotlights in the kitchen light takes it upon itself to explode.

This raises a few questions

Indeed it does!

But I don't believe the light bulb wanted to dessicate itself. I believe an external force was acting on that lamp, and that it was powerless to resist its own dreadful fate.

I hope you gave the poor mite a decent burial & have arrested electricity as the main suspect.

 

[tim west]

Depends on the type of lamp, it's application and location to some degree.
For instance, a Halogen Lamp burns much hotter than a normal tungsten lamp and the glass envelope reaches a very hot temperature, if the lamp is used in a draughty place it just takes a gust of cold air to make the glass crack and then implode, linear halogen lamps are notorious for the filament drooping into the glass envelope weakening it and finally cracking it. Water ingress can also cause catastrophic destruction.

 

[gcol]

The bulb was one of four R50 40 Watt spotlights - Like this http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/variant_detail.asp?var=2861
The bulb had been in use for approx. 4 months. The light was on in the kitchen, there was nobody in there, the back door was closed. The bulb was the third furthest away from the door.
I can't imagine what force could have been acting on it.

Only problem I've got now is trying to get the screw thread out of the light fitting.

 

[tim west]

after making sure the light is switched off and dead use a pair of pliers to grab onto any part of the screw exposed if unable to, put head of pliers into thread and open out against the thread and twist to remove.

 

[gcol]

Yeah I'll have to do the second suggestion cause there's nothing to grab onto.

 

[Steve]

The light was on in the kitchen, there was nobody in there.

. . . . . . .

 

[Steve]

The light was on in the kitchen, there was nobody in there.

. . . . . . .

 

[gcol]

I must have missed something Crafty.

 

[Steve]

I must have missed something Crafty.

I think i was missing a piece of my brain when i wrote that. My computer was missing a bit of its brain too, when it posted it twice.

I was being sarcastic - it serves you right for leaving the lights on when nobody is in there.

 

[gcol]

Well the dog was in there, but I know he can't reach the lights. I don't think he could spit at them either.