CFL Light bulbs from China are dangerious

[A DRAGON]

Below is a picture of a CFL light bulb from my bathroom.  I turned it on the other day and then smelled smoke after a few minutes.  Four inch flames were spewing out of the side of the ballast like a blow torch!  I immediately turned off the lights.  But I'm sure it would have caused a fire if I was not right there.  Imagine if the kids had left the lights on as usual when they were not in the room.
I took the bulb to the Fire Department to report the incident.  The Fireman wasn't at all surprised and said that it was not an uncommon occurrence.   Apparently, sometimes when the bulb burns out there is a chance that the ballast can start a fire.  He told me that the Fire Marshall had issued reports about the dangers of these bulbs.

Upon doing some Internet research, it seems that bulbs made by "Globe" in China seem to have the lion's share of problems.  Lots of fires have been blamed on misuse of CFL bulbs, like using them in recessed lighting, pot lights, dimmers or in track lighting.  Mine was installed in a normal light socket.



I bought these at Wal-Mart.  I will be removing all the Globe bulbs from my house. CFL bulbs are a great energy saver but make sure you buy a name brand like Sylvania , Phillips or GE and not the ones from China ..

cid:x.ma1.1279043128@aol.com
  PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS............

[Scott]

Jerome,
you cannot link to pictures in your yahoo mail box, it wont work
take a look at this post it may help
Topic: How to post pics and create Web hyperlinks here & SCR

and thanks for the PSA im checkin my CFL bulbs as we speak!

[n10sive]

Here is a great youtube video on this subject. Makes me laugh...and want to cry. Oh the idiocy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZalyKzXnlo

[GreenMachine]

Mr. Congressman left out the part about coal fired power plants used to illuminate all bulbs.  They too put out mercury, a lot of mercury, but I'll get to that in a bit.  When compared over each bulb's lifespan, CFL v. incandescent, the antiquated incandescent bulb's mercury footprint is actually 2.4 times greater than the CFL bulb.

According to the U.S. Dept of Energy, U.S. coal fired power plants put out about 51.5 metric tons of mercury into the air last year and account for fully one-half of the total 103 metric tons thrown up into our atmosphere. They are considered the #1 human caused source of mercury emissions.  Given that CFLs last 10 times longer, are 75% more energy efficient, will save the owner $30-$40 over their lifespan, and are generally regarded as paying for themselves in 6 months, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see why CFLs are catching on.

LEDs will probably be the next generation bulb, but for now the CFL is our bridge to leading a less ecologically destructive existence.

And lastly, for the record, Thomas Edison also brought us Direct Current.  I didn't hear Mr. Congressman ranting about DC not being the standard electrical power form and how changing to AC wasn't expressly written into our Constitution.  No, we don't use DC to deliver power to our homes, we use the vastly superior Alternating Current or AC, based on the work of Nikola Tesla.  If we didn't, we would all huddle our homes within a couple miles of every DC powerplant and the area above our heads would be filled with electromagnetic power lines like these:

Artists rendering of New York City streets in 1890.


So if this is Mr Congressman Ted Poe's vision of our future, I'll gladly change all of my bulbs to CFLs, listen less to his loud uninformed ranting and give consideration to what the other side has to say.

[Scott]

im totaly for cfl bulbs, 9/10 bulb in my house are cfl. but im with ADRAGON dont buy cheap crap.
and contrary to this "mr. Poe of texas" here is a link to buy american made CFL bulbs.
Lights of America

[cobra23]

Allow me a moment of your time.

The environment, you guys can debate that all you want.

China:

Stop buying Chinese garbage, save the landfill. Chinese manufacturing is notorious for "on again off again Quality". If the light bulb were to start a fire, and the bulb were made in the United States, you would have legal recourse, and could actually sue the manufacturer. This sounds very simple we are all aware of it.

This is why aircraft are not produced in China. If the Chinese light bulb starts a fire, you may get to the distributor of the defected bulb, but you will never get to the factory. Hence there is absolutely no motivation to correct the issue.

When you buy goods manufactured in the United Staes you support those in the United States. The retailer puts Chinese crap on the shelves because the mark -up or profit is much higher.

I once bought a bench vise for my father in law, which was made in the United States. The next week my wife went to get the same vice at the same price, it was made in China. Now, what was the difference? The hardware store has the same attitude about Chinese crap I do, so the manager explained this to me. They then searched a warehouse to get the last American vice they could find for me. That particular model was made and sold in the U.S. The cost was lower to the warehouse for the Chinese version, so they stocked it and sold it at the same price as the U.S. model, more mark-up.

When you are shopping ask for goods made in the U.S.


http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/made-america-shocking-truth-13032785

[cobra23]

Not done yet..

Chapter 2:

I started in Manufacturing in 1980. Still at it. I now hold a good position after starting at the bottom in 1980. My company is constantly trying to make things as fast as possible to reduce cost, and increase Qaulity at the same time. I am not against buying high quality stuff from overseas...when it is high quality.

After all i ride a Ducati. What I do not like is competing for price against a country that has no concern for liability or quality. Now I am forced to try to get jobs done in short timeframes, and threatend (from customers you would be surprised by) that if our prices increase, they will take the work to China.

Fellas the China thing is hitting home, and we just need to stop and think about what we are buying. If it's the only thing you can find, and it's made in China you are forced into it. A few years ago it was easy to find a better made int he U.S. bolt for instance. Go to any retail hardware store now and try to find a U.S. Bolt sold retail. I work in a shop that makes now only "specialty bolts", I could hire 5 people "right now" if I had one good size regular  "bolt" contract.

We just purchased 50 dollars worth of ARP bolts, because the chinese bolts we were using on a fixture to load parts were fracturing (too brittle). These ARP bolts are made in the U.S. and are of consitant quality.

Please look at what you buy from China, it will end up in a landfill sooner than you think.

Thanks for your time,

Ted

[GreenMachine]

  I'm totally with you Cobra.  I make a concerted effort to buy American and turn  when I'm resigned when the only option is something else.  I once went to a tools store for a special tool, a super large wrench.  There were two models in the size I needed.  The one made in the U.S. was over double the cost, if I remember, something like $60.  When I took the $60 wrench to the sales counter, the salesman  at me and said, "you know we have another for half that?"  I said, "I know" and had him ring it up.  To me, that's what a wrench costs and I feel good that my $ are staying within the system, going to the retailer, who'll buy another wrench to replace the one I purchased, that will trickle back to the company that manufactured the wrench, that paid for the wage earners that live here in America and so on down the line. The bench vise store has my loyalty if you want to PM me who that was. 

My first response to Scott's post about CFLs made in U.S.A. was, we still make stuff here???  That's a sad state of mind when you think about it and seems to be happening more and more.  That kind of trend can only help to erode our standard of living.

And to ADragon,  ...F-WalMart!  They should just call it ChinaMart along with ChinaAid (Rite Aid).

[Scott]

 
i bet all of Cobra's light bulbs are milled from solid titanium! 

[youngster775]

 

i bet all of Cobra's light bulbs are milled from solid titanium! 

[cobra23]

Thanks all!!

Smart bunch of folks here.

I just thought I would add something I witnessed today that I thought was amazing.

I went to Sears today to get a Craftsman speed wrench for work. This guy is mulling over what tool set to buy, for like ten miutes. The sales guy talks him inot one of the cheaper sets.

The guy brings it to the counter to pay for it, and the sales guy is all set....Then the guy asks where the set is made...

Sales guy says "china". Customer says no thanks, and walks away, leaving the set on the cashiers counter...... Friends that may be the most patriotic act I have seen in a while.

It's catching on!!!


No bailouts no new lawsneeded to get out of this financial mess, just buy American (I know most bikes are not American), or at least don't buy China and we fix it ourselves!!

[GreenMachine]

If we can just steer the masses heading in two lanes at a time to WalMart. 

So Craftsman is made in China now too?  Damn.  My old sets were will made in U.S.A.

[Scott]

check this out
directory to thing still made in the USA

[A DRAGON]

Scott real nice link. I really like this. 

[cobra23]

If we can just steer the masses heading in two lanes at a time to WalMart. 

So Craftsman is made in China now too?  Damn.  My old sets were will made in U.S.A.

Craftsman tools are still made in the U.S.A., they have a cheaper line ( I don't know the name ) that is made in China.

Craftsman tools are still golden...

Just a clarification.