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I hoarded light bulbs
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Location: Werribee South, VIC
Member since 30 September 2016
Member #: 1981
Postcount: 485
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When we 1st moved into our current house in 1996 (built new) it had no light bulbs supplied so off to Bunnings to buy a fist full.
I would normally only buy Crompton or Phillips brand globes but they had no 100W in those brands, only Nelson brand in 100W globes were in stock.
I bought half a dozen or so and fitted them in various rooms that needed 100W globes.
One position was over the kitchen table.
One evening a few months later dinner had been served and we were all sitting at the table when I decided to turn on the light above the table.
It was still in the standard batten holder as we hadn't bought light fittings yet.
There was a fizz and a pop and the globe disintegrated showering the table with glass!!
Dinner was ruined as the fine shower of glass went over our plates of food.
I contacted Bunnings the next day only to be told by the person on the phone "Well that's what you get for buying cheap globes".
I then told her to put me through to the manager but she hung up on me.
My blood pressure went up several notches so I rang again and asked to be put directly through to the shop manager.
I explained the whole story to him including the episode with the initial person on the phone.
He was very helpful and apologetic and asked if I still had the remains of the globe.
Fortunately I had kept the globe base and some of the swept up glass in a zip lock bag.
He promised to follow up with the manufacturer (Nelson) and get back to me.
The next day I received a call from a representative from Nelson who made arrangements to make a personnel visit to our house at a time that suited us.
When he arrived I showed him the where it was installed and gave him the remains of the globe.
His theory was the filament had some how shorted inside the globe and the fuse built into the base has some how ejected the glass envelope but said that a proper inspection of the remains would be done to find out exactly what had happened.
He then gave me a box of compact flourescent globes (8 in a box I think) as compensation for our trouble.
That was back when CF globes were quite expensive so they were well received.
I can't complain about their follow up service but never bought Nelson globes again.
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Location: Belrose, NSW
Member since 31 December 2015
Member #: 1844
Postcount: 2449
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That is normal behaviour for a lamp with NO fuses when it fails open circuit filament. The arc from the break travels down into the base.
You have to be a bit unlucky for the spectacular arc to happen, the failure and arc strike have to happen on the rising edge of the AC waveform.
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