Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

[eccerr0r]

Well, I just had a 100W (23W) CFL buy the farm. Behaved like an incandescent when it croaked -- switch on, one flash, darkness forever.

The lamp had been mounted base-up in an reflect-down fixture. I figure it had been used a good 4 hours a day for several years so I think I got close to the expected life out of it. Base got hot enough to heat off all the markings on it - I wouldn't know this lamp wasn't an "EcoSmart" branded bulb if I hadn't another from the same package to replace it. Apparently the base got hot enough to break the glue that held the tube to the plastic so the tube is loose.

Time for autopsy and possible organ donation...

[stj]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

if it flashed, maybe the heaters burned out.

usually the heaters go open or the electrolytic dries out in the ones that die here.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

Time for autopsy and possible organ donation...

I have done this in the past but I find that it either one of two things happen

Either the filament is burn out on one end or on both ends

Or

The capacitor or capacitors depending on the design of the circuit

In worse case scenario it fried the mosfets or transistors depending on the circuit and capacitors

I have gotten to point that to me it is not worth the time or effort unless it is a high wattage light output bulb and they are hard to find then yes it is worth the time and effort if you have more than one of the same light bulb and the same exact brand

I used to do this when had several cfl yard light bulb that were 60 to 100 watt ones and they were made by Light of America but the company went out of business if I remember correctly or they just stopped making them but the most common failure of these were the mosfets would go bad I would replace a couple of times and by then the clf tube be at the end of it life or it would fry the circuit board traces and really not worth repairing them anymore now I have gone to high power LED yard lights and even with them I have had to recap the switching power supply board and the electronic electric photo eye capacitor on its little board

The use of non brand capacitors is out of control and this type of high power LED yard lights are not cheap either

[eccerr0r]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

It's a good thing that lamp organs can be kept indefinitely

I figure it's most likely a tube failure so I just need to dispose of the tube ... components get kept if they're still good, no sense throwing away perfectly good components
(I had a Commercial Electric CFL that had filament failure, the ballast was still good. Repurposed the ballast into a linear fluorescent lamp that had a magnetic ballast with neon starter...ooh hate those blink blink starters.)

BTW, the fixture is probably hell on CFL or LED alike. Not a fully enclosed fixture, but heat rises and the fixture does its best to trap all the heat as it rises...

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

Yes the heat that is generated by both type do not help either non brand name or brand name capacitors but they were not even 6 months old before I had to recap it

They were non brand name capacitors in it originally so I guess that was not to bad
One thing though

I keep see brand name that I have never seen before so I do not know

[stj]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

if you need high wattage cfl's then the chinese have loads on ebay/ali including high-cri ones for fotographic studios.
those arent cheap btw!

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

But the quality is in question as far as I am concerned I have bought with the blast included and they might last a year or so if you are lucky

They also use non brand capacitors in them to so either way you still have to work on them anyway

[eccerr0r]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

Cracked open the base:

- Tube filaments are intact.
- both 13003 driver transistors appear intact
- Sinecon 200V 22uF ("105°C") capacitor about 3Ω ESR.
- Series fusable resistor open (hidden in heatshrink).

Interesting, did not expect this. Usually transistors protect the fuses.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

Any idea of what is the issue with it other than the capacitor with a 3 ohm ESR value to me seems to be a little high but I am not sure because of the capacitor rated voltage

[eccerr0r]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

I think at that voltage and capacitance (my ESR meter is fixed frequency) it probably is still fine. I don't know why the fuse burned, other than perhaps the environment was still hot and that little bit of inrush current finally pushed it over the edge.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

The reason I say this is because a 22uf@50 volts ( new capacitor) I find that it about 1.7 to 2.1 this why I question the results that you have posted

I could be very wrong with this but I just going on my experience

[RukyCon]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

I know i'm a bit late to the party, but i thought i'd add a couple comments.

The Ecosmart CFL might be made by TCP, most of TCPs older CFLs would last a really long time, though some older TCP CFLs had issues with the case plastics melting if they were used in enclosed fixtures or if used base up (though most of those CFLs were sold under the Commercial Electric and N:Vision brands). The older types of TCP CFLs are pretty easy to spot, since the plastic bases are usually very smooth/shiny compared to other brands.

Most dead CFLs i've dealt with that "only" had a blown fuse, typically had more wrong with them than a blown fuse, in one case, i had a Feit electric CFL that had a blown fuse, so i replaced it, plugged it in, and BAM. The transistors blew up.

Sometimes if the tube fails, it can take out the ballast, due to the excessive amounts of current being drawn by the frying electrode/filament, and just because the electrodes test fine, does not always mean they are fine, as they could have burnt off all the emitter off the electrode. The best way to look for this is to look for any signs of heavy banding around one of the ends of the tube (banding = a dark black band around one end of the tube).

[eccerr0r]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

I was kind of surprised about that, nope, the tube ends are not blackened, still fairly clean compared to other CFLs that clearly used up all the cathode coating. But no question there was some other factor than just the fuse, just not sure what. At least this CFL probably has seen its days. Whether to harvest the transistors now I'm not sure.

I also have a Greenlite CFL that burned out way too early, unsure how it failed yet. It too does not have blackened ends before it failed...

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Another Dead CFL...that seemed to have lasted.

Sometimes if the tube fails, it can take out the ballast, due to the excessive amounts of current being drawn by the frying electrode/filament, and just because the electrodes test fine, does not always mean they are fine, as they could have burnt off all the emitter off the electrode. The best way to look for this is to look for any signs of heavy banding around one of the ends of the tube (banding = a dark black band around one end of the tube).

That seems the most likely to happen to certain F15T8 tubes. I had one that made the ballast blazing, but luckily not damaged, AFAIK.