10/19/07
OK, 50% IS ENOUGH!!!
When the first two GE "Reveal", light bulbs exploded I excused it as bad
luck. Really bad luck as I have never had a light bulb explode in my life. I
knew it was possible, but two in a row.? Anyway, I replaced the blown-up, GE
Reveal, 100 watt, "Color Enhanced" / "Full-Spectrum" bulb on my work bench
light fixture with yet a 3rd. The first one exploded into many small pieces
all over my work bench, chair and floor while I was in another room. I heard
what sounded like a dull firecracker and walked into find the glass shards.
This particular bulb was about 2 weeks old and the first one from the
package. Having never actually had a bulb explode on me, I thought it was
interesting more than anything. Pain to clean up, but none the less,
interesting. The second was much less dramatic and it simply cracked the
glass completely around, just above the base. It was only a few hours old.
Well today's was much more dramatic. I had my work lamp angled to my left
while working on a Pioneer Integrated Stereo Amp. It had been on for about a
hour and had been in service for a couple weeks. It exploded about a foot
away from the left side of my head, with such a "bang" that 2 hours later,
as I write this my ear is still ringing. After I shook the glass shards from
my ear, hair and clothes, I snapped some photos of the aftermath. I think 3
tries with these bulbs is enough. I have 1 new one left in the package we
won't be using and now have to figure out which fixtures have these bulbs in
them so we don't have any more bulbs exploding on us. I will not be
purchasing anymore of the GE, "Reveal" bulbs. I know GE is a respectable
company and have built many good products, and will continue to, with
probably billions of successful light bulbs out there. I just think there's
an issue either with the batch of GE Reveal bulbs I purchased or the design
of the product in general. I did speak with a specialty bulb supplier that I
purchase projector lamps from about this after the first two had blown, and
they said they had not heard anything about it, but that their supplier had
stopped carrying GE versions of the "natural light" type bulbs and that they
were being offered at "blow-out" prices (pardon the pun). He said he thought
it might be that GE was using a less expensive coating to achieve the
"natural / blue" characteristics, than were the other companies. This page
took a couple hours to create, and my time is valuable, but if these keeps
someone from getting injured, it is worth it. Just FYI.
Now I gotta go clean up the mess.
Be careful if you own these GE, Reveal bulbs as my
bulbs are exploding.

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