Light bulbs keep blowing

[the ozard of wiz]

Greetings, first time poster here,

Can anyone help me figure why the outside light by my front door keeps blowing bulbs. I've tried all watts incandescent and compact fluorescent. The most recent compact fluorescent lasted less than 2 months, the previous compact flourescent lasted a few months. This happens in all types of weather. In 2 years, it has blown probably 8 bulbs. 3 of them being compact fluorescent.

The fixture does have a globe over the light, and I do not see any imperfections.

No other lights blow like this one.

Could it be a short in the fixture itself?

TIA.

[scty2hty3]

just a curious question but how does your front door close? does it close and latch easily or do you have to give it a god push? seams like after our mh settled the front door was hard to close and it started blowing the bulb outside. if it is your door you may need to relevel your mh or try a rough service bulb.

[Guest]

This is a question I'd love to have answered also. I have 2 outside lights, one at the entry door and one on a lamp pole. Incandescent bulbs had to be replaced every month or two, so I switched to compact florescents and neither one had blown in 4 months. Then I added a timer that specifies using only incandescent and I'm back to replacing the bulbs every month or two. The CF bulbs definitely last much longer, but why are the regular bulbs so short-lived? The one on the lamp pole blows twice as often, so I doubt it has anything to do with vibrations from door opening & closing.

[Greg]

TIA, I would look at a vibration problem, possibly from the door slamming shut, that would be the most common. Try rough service bulbs avalable at auto parts stores .
Wayne, The first thing I would do it check the voltage with a meter, Voltage that is high, low, or not constant can do strange things. since you have 2 giving you problems I doubt it is a vibration problem, you will need to look for something common to both. Greg

[Demolition]

It might be worth it to change the OFF/ON switch and the light fixture at the same time.

In summer camp we would Unscrew the light bulbs just enough they didn't make good contact. So when the camp counselor came in to check on us...
all the light bulbs blew.

So the lesson here, if there is not positive contact in the system, this can cause light bulbs to blow.

I agree with all these other posts also, mainly because I hadn't thought of them.

[the ozard of wiz]

Thanks all.

I hadn't thought of the vibration angle. The front door is not at all hard to close. At first, the back door light blew incand bulbs, but a compact flourescent cleared that up.

I don't have any problems inside, so it must be something unique to the front door.

I do leave it on 24x7.

[Brenda (OH)]

My utility company gave us coupons for compact bulbs, and I happened to have checked the instructions on the compact bulbs box.\es last night.

most cannot be used in "pendant lights" which I think means you cannot use them in enclosed fixtures.

and unless you get the right types, they also cannot be used outdoors, or with dimmer switches.

and the higher the wattage of the bulb, the worse the problems, because the bases can heat up...

so if you are putting a high wattage compact bulb in an enclosed fixture outside, you really are way outside of the suggested use criteria..... and the bulbs can fail...

Brenda (OH)

[Guest]

Compact florescent bulbs are the ONLY bulbs that I've used outside (in enclosed fixtures) that have never, ever blown. I used them for months without a single failure and they saved me a ton of money on my electric bill compared to the incandescents. I'm seriously considering getting rid of my timer light switch so I can go back to CFs and stop replacing the incandescents every month.
The damned timer switch is so difficult to program properly that it barely works correctly anyway. The supposedly "automatic" sunup/sundown settings are WAY off most of the time. Why do they always add so many useless programming options to these gadgets that they don't even do the one simple thing you bought them for correctly?!

[Yanita]

Hi,

I believe pendant lighting is where the bulb would be installed upside down, say like a ceiling fan.

Yanita

[Furball]

After doing a search, pendant lights appear to be ones that hang from a cord (like a pendant) and the bulb seems to screw in tubes down.

[HouseMedic]

The CFB's are not suppose to be put in a socket that hangs downward. Also if the fixture socket is old it could be causing your problem. Plus if you can, Check the wires where they connect to the fixture and make sure the black wire from your power go's to the fixture wire leading to the center of the socket. Sometimes this will make bulbs not last as long.

Ron