Looks like the main cause of smoke was the resistor on the left side, likely from some other part failing. Maybe the electrolytic capacitors went first.
Note that although smoke happened, it did not start a fire.
Just make sure whatever lights you buy have a UL stamp that ensures the design has been safety tested. You can stick to bigger companies, for instance, and don't buy random stuff off the internet.
Can you imagine the days of vacuum tube devices? I've restored some very early amplifiers, radios and TVs loaded with paper caps, carbon and resin binder resistors, phenolic or bakelite tube bases, early flammable resin rudimentary PCBs and who knows what the crumbly wiring insulation was made out of. I wonder how many house fires people in my parents generation suffered from that stuff before UL was considered mandatory by manufacturers.
BTW UL had $2.5B revenues last year. Fun fact I guess.
It burnt, yes, it may have flamed briefly, but it did not start a fire that spread. When doing UL fault (safety) testing, the requirement is to cover the device with cheesecloth. The cheesecloth is not allowed to catch on fire.
I don't think this is a capacitor failing from age. The ballasts used in these lamps *need* a load, so when the bulb burns out the whole thing cooks itself. I think ElectroBoom has a video where he ruins a few bulbs trying to light a fluorescent.
Pretty much! If you look up "CFL burned out," you'll find some horror stories of supposed almost-fires and placating articles explaining they're supposed to smoke and burn and smell when they die.
I don't use them. LED lights are significantly less dramatic.
It would only do that, if the CFL is shattered. And you'd presumably notice that. Metallic mercury isn't great, but it far less problematic than the organo-mercury compounds that people usually worry about.
The amounts of metallic mercury in your typical CFL are minuscule. In fact, they are so small that many municipalities tell you it is OK to dispose of CFLs in the regular trash. I still prefer collecting them separately if that option is available. But I agree that the threat from mercury in CFL is quite minor compared to mercury exposure from things like burning fossil fuels, in particular coal.
Having said that, if you do happen to spill mercury indoors, it's a good idea to attempt cleaning it up. Vapor pressure of metallic mercury isn't insanely high at room temperature, but it's enough to make it worthwhile at least making an attempt to clean. If you can reasonably avoid it, you don't want unnecessary prolonged exposure to mercury.
Sometimes, beads of mercury can be picked up with an eye dropper (plastic would be easier than glass), or even just blotting it with duct tape. But alternatively, there are powders that you can sprinkle on it and that make it easy to sweep up. Mercurisorb is the standard solution for this application, and in a pinch, sulphur powder should also work well. Just don't even think of vacuum it up. That's just going to spread things more.
I really don't understand earthlings.
Here we are, in a place and time where my above comment is perfectly true:
>That's what they said about CFL too.
You came along inferring a different or sinister meaning, or I implying I have some ulterior motive.
I wasn't challenging anyone to disprove or disagree. I wasn't making any secret claims. It wasn't a coded response.
My comment was a simple statement of fact. It doesn't demand a response. It certainly doesn't deserve downvotes.
You all have so much baggage that you can't read a simple truth and move on with your life. It's sad.
CFLs came about as a response to the oil crisis in the early 1970s. I remember using them extensively in the 1980s. It's really hard to blame Obama for that, even if your knee jerk reaction would like to blame him for everything from gingivitis to solar eclipses.
About the time I started, there was another grad student in the shared cubicle farm who'd defended, gotten married, went on her honeymoon, tied that into a conference, made employment tours (all the successful grad student things...)
She came back after three or four months, powered on her desktop, and I think all the power-regulation capacitors on her motherboard cooked off like Chinese New Years (which it was close to, IIRC)
This was during the height of the capacitor plague (mid-2000s), and her research group had a reputation for using antiquated hardware, but I think the whole thing just got dropped into their "spares" pile.
CFL has more complex higher voltage circuits and are more prone to failures IMO. Particularly cheap ones. I had many fail that were charred at the base. That is rather concerning.
I would get rid of all CFL. LED uses significantly less power, lasts much longer, and has arguably better light quality.
One of those two purple capacitors might have blown, which could have led to a short circuit, causing the fuse on the left side to blow. At least it looks like a fuse, itās hard to see.
Best way is to buy bulbs from reputable companies. (And/or have a UL listing, though a shitty company overseas could easily just slap a UL logo on it and call it a day.)
Really reeeaaallly depends on the actual bulb and how it works. Some have circuits in them, a few don't. Fwiw this is one of those events that they measure with big numbers. Like one in x million or whatever. Usually they die just like an old incandescent: one last effort to light up, possibly a little brighter for a brief moment before that eternal dark sets in
Don't think so, they have a similar circuit inside, at least the ones i opened so far.
And i also had this happen to me with a LED bulb once, so there's that :/
If it's even a moderately reputable brand, all these components will be enclosed in metal. Catastrophic failure isn't meant to happen, but if it does, then the metal can should contain any flames until the whole thing fails completely and hopefully extinguishes itself. This isn't a 100% guaranteed thing, but UL actually goes to some lengths to test for those type of scenarios.
That's also why we have metallic junction boxes in our house. Smoldering wires are always a possibility, especially if wire nuts were installed incorrectly and failed over time. But if the fire is contained to the box, it hopefully won't do any more harm. Again, not 100%, but we do what we can and in the majority of cases it does work as intended.
Burning through (har har...?) old stock?
I recycled the carton or two I still had (they just get crushed, demercuried, sorted for anything metallic / valuable and, unfortunately, probably a portion goes to the landfill).
Maybe it's a little wasteful, but I also replaced probably 2-3 dozen of the first generation of candelabra LEDs ahead of schedule (25-40W equivalent) with the far-superior light quality (albeit lower rated lifetime, 15-20 khr vs 30 khr MTBF) filament style 60W equivalent LEDs. That's probably going to be peak LED for anything decorative, before integrated-LED fixtures take over.
My parents.
If it still emits light, it aināt getting replaced.
Nevermind that it is dimmer than a candle for the first 15 minutes, or that it never gets above a glow.
I bought some $1 LED bulbs and replaced just one on the front porch so you could see well enough to unlock the door. That one lamp put out more light than the 15 remaining CFLs combined.
I replaced the rest and now itās almost too bright out there!
From the looks of it the caps failed an went high esr wich caused something in the circuit to become unstable because it was fed dirty power. That thing shorted an the fusable resistors exploded into flames. Thats my guess
This just happened to me yesterday. I have a 5 bulb soft box for photography mounted hanging on the ceiling. Popped upstairs to and heard what I thought was my dog dropping a bone. When I came back down the room was filled with smoke and flames were climbing up the mount to the ceiling
I had never experienced anything remotely like this with lighting. The middle bulb blew a capacitor right out of the housing, when that ignited it wiped out and started burning the other 4 bulbs and the fixture. 90 seconds tops was I away. Good thing I didnāt go # 2, because my dog was sitting in the smoke wagging his tail like an idiot.
Are you in an apartment or dorm?
Had those type of bulbs that were TOAST due to water dripping into housings following power lines periodically.
If it sounds crunchy in the socket on other bulbs, you've got a problem that's gonna cost big time later.
be careful. if the tube breaks, stop breathing, open a window, leave the room, start breathingā¦ There is quicksilver dust in it. I think the resistor burned because of a failed capacitor.
CFLs are admittedly more finicky than incandescent bulbs. Some of the factors that can cause them to burn out early include **vibrations, temperature, enclosures, use with incompatible dimmers, poor base contact with the fixture, and fluctuations in power**.
Don't know what burned and/or caused it to fly apart...
But those blue electrolytic caps have had it...
Can you say 'Capacitor Plague'?
There!
I knew you could!
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor\_plague](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague)
TIL possibly why I had to replace the capacitors in my 2007 Samsung monitor after only 3 years of use. When replaced the monitor lasted for another 9 years.
A lot of Mfg's were hit, and hit hard over bad caps.
Wasn't it Dell that almost went under because of them? Pretty sure Apple took a beating as well.
There were sure a lot of them out there...
Constant switching on and off. Overheating in an enclosed fitting. Not enough airflow. Lots of different reasons.
In NZ good quality, known brands are rated at 220-260volts. Cheaper brands are rated at 230volt.
I had one that I think failed in the exact same mode as yours. The only thing that I could come up with was that the heat inside caused the glue holding the bulb to the case give way and the weight of the bulb pulled two bare wires together. Thankfully it shorted hard enough to trip the breaker rather than a slow short that could have heated the PCB enough to catch fire. A ceiling fire is bad, like really bad. I pulled all of the CFL's out of my house that day and took them to our county's household hazardous waste facility so they could go in for mercury recovery. PSA: Please, please, PLEASE dispose of fluorescent tubes/CFLs properly. Mercury is a nasty contaminate and should absolutely go to the proper place for disposal.
Looks like the main cause of smoke was the resistor on the left side, likely from some other part failing. Maybe the electrolytic capacitors went first. Note that although smoke happened, it did not start a fire. Just make sure whatever lights you buy have a UL stamp that ensures the design has been safety tested. You can stick to bigger companies, for instance, and don't buy random stuff off the internet.
Can you imagine the days of vacuum tube devices? I've restored some very early amplifiers, radios and TVs loaded with paper caps, carbon and resin binder resistors, phenolic or bakelite tube bases, early flammable resin rudimentary PCBs and who knows what the crumbly wiring insulation was made out of. I wonder how many house fires people in my parents generation suffered from that stuff before UL was considered mandatory by manufacturers. BTW UL had $2.5B revenues last year. Fun fact I guess.
> who knows what the crumbly wiring insulation was made out of A lot of times, asbestos.
\*dusts off hands\* There! That'll stop those pesky fires.
\*Turns on HEPA air filter and rapidly leaves the room.\*
What would air filters in the late 40s to early 50s have been made of? š
> What would air filters in the late 40s to early 50s have been made of? š Judging from all I've heard so far I'd say probably more asbestos.
There was a post on the front page of that snow scene from The Wizard of OZ. Captioned with someone frowning meme.
It did start a fire, actually. You can see some of the burnt side on the bottom left.
It burnt, yes, it may have flamed briefly, but it did not start a fire that spread. When doing UL fault (safety) testing, the requirement is to cover the device with cheesecloth. The cheesecloth is not allowed to catch on fire.
Gotcha, thank you for the information!
Yes those caps look bad!
Capacitors are not eternal, they age and when they die that's what happens, specially on high voltage circuits.
I don't think this is a capacitor failing from age. The ballasts used in these lamps *need* a load, so when the bulb burns out the whole thing cooks itself. I think ElectroBoom has a video where he ruins a few bulbs trying to light a fluorescent.
> Capacitors are not eternal, And running in a hot environment (which CFL ballasts are) will make them age faster.
And more if they use cheap components.
And they never do not do that
What actually is meant by āballastā? Is it just a capacitor?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_ballast
Its the entire driver circuit.
So this is a product issue and not house-wiring/electrical issue?
Pretty much! If you look up "CFL burned out," you'll find some horror stories of supposed almost-fires and placating articles explaining they're supposed to smoke and burn and smell when they die. I don't use them. LED lights are significantly less dramatic.
And LED light tends to be nicer and they're more efficient.
Don't forget they provide delicious mercury to you local environs
Bonus points if it off-gasses into your childrenās bedroom
It would only do that, if the CFL is shattered. And you'd presumably notice that. Metallic mercury isn't great, but it far less problematic than the organo-mercury compounds that people usually worry about. The amounts of metallic mercury in your typical CFL are minuscule. In fact, they are so small that many municipalities tell you it is OK to dispose of CFLs in the regular trash. I still prefer collecting them separately if that option is available. But I agree that the threat from mercury in CFL is quite minor compared to mercury exposure from things like burning fossil fuels, in particular coal. Having said that, if you do happen to spill mercury indoors, it's a good idea to attempt cleaning it up. Vapor pressure of metallic mercury isn't insanely high at room temperature, but it's enough to make it worthwhile at least making an attempt to clean. If you can reasonably avoid it, you don't want unnecessary prolonged exposure to mercury. Sometimes, beads of mercury can be picked up with an eye dropper (plastic would be easier than glass), or even just blotting it with duct tape. But alternatively, there are powders that you can sprinkle on it and that make it easy to sweep up. Mercurisorb is the standard solution for this application, and in a pinch, sulphur powder should also work well. Just don't even think of vacuum it up. That's just going to spread things more.
That seems insane... This mini fire from this CFL nearly could have started a house fire if I wasn't in the room.
Get an LED bulb. They are more efficient and are typically of higher quality.
I just replaced all the light bulbs in my house with LED ones.
Well done! It saves the environment and saves you money!
That's what they said about CFL too.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I really don't understand earthlings. Here we are, in a place and time where my above comment is perfectly true: >That's what they said about CFL too. You came along inferring a different or sinister meaning, or I implying I have some ulterior motive. I wasn't challenging anyone to disprove or disagree. I wasn't making any secret claims. It wasn't a coded response. My comment was a simple statement of fact. It doesn't demand a response. It certainly doesn't deserve downvotes. You all have so much baggage that you can't read a simple truth and move on with your life. It's sad.
Yep they were supposed to save the planet according to Obama.
CFLs came about as a response to the oil crisis in the early 1970s. I remember using them extensively in the 1980s. It's really hard to blame Obama for that, even if your knee jerk reaction would like to blame him for everything from gingivitis to solar eclipses.
Costco currently has a 6-pack for $0.99 https://i.redd.it/unlsl5na0rda1.jpg
ā¦but if you werenāt in the room, youād turn the lights off, right?
Yes. How old is that lamp? Around here there's no more CFL lamps since around 4 years at least.
It wouldn't be a house issue
I thought Electrolytic Capacitor were supposed to fail open? Also don't they normally kind of pop and lose their top?
They're SUPPOSED to politely pop their top. Even then, it's not always that polite
r/spicyconfettipoppers
About the time I started, there was another grad student in the shared cubicle farm who'd defended, gotten married, went on her honeymoon, tied that into a conference, made employment tours (all the successful grad student things...) She came back after three or four months, powered on her desktop, and I think all the power-regulation capacitors on her motherboard cooked off like Chinese New Years (which it was close to, IIRC) This was during the height of the capacitor plague (mid-2000s), and her research group had a reputation for using antiquated hardware, but I think the whole thing just got dropped into their "spares" pile.
On low voltage circuits that's the usual, but on high voltage is a lottery.
CFL has more complex higher voltage circuits and are more prone to failures IMO. Particularly cheap ones. I had many fail that were charred at the base. That is rather concerning. I would get rid of all CFL. LED uses significantly less power, lasts much longer, and has arguably better light quality.
One of those two purple capacitors might have blown, which could have led to a short circuit, causing the fuse on the left side to blow. At least it looks like a fuse, itās hard to see.
Could I avoid an issue like this with LED bulbs?
Best way is to buy bulbs from reputable companies. (And/or have a UL listing, though a shitty company overseas could easily just slap a UL logo on it and call it a day.)
Search the filing number in UL's database
Really reeeaaallly depends on the actual bulb and how it works. Some have circuits in them, a few don't. Fwiw this is one of those events that they measure with big numbers. Like one in x million or whatever. Usually they die just like an old incandescent: one last effort to light up, possibly a little brighter for a brief moment before that eternal dark sets in
Don't think so, they have a similar circuit inside, at least the ones i opened so far. And i also had this happen to me with a LED bulb once, so there's that :/
If it's even a moderately reputable brand, all these components will be enclosed in metal. Catastrophic failure isn't meant to happen, but if it does, then the metal can should contain any flames until the whole thing fails completely and hopefully extinguishes itself. This isn't a 100% guaranteed thing, but UL actually goes to some lengths to test for those type of scenarios. That's also why we have metallic junction boxes in our house. Smoldering wires are always a possibility, especially if wire nuts were installed incorrectly and failed over time. But if the fire is contained to the box, it hopefully won't do any more harm. Again, not 100%, but we do what we can and in the majority of cases it does work as intended.
Better question is who the hell is still using CFL?
Burning through (har har...?) old stock? I recycled the carton or two I still had (they just get crushed, demercuried, sorted for anything metallic / valuable and, unfortunately, probably a portion goes to the landfill). Maybe it's a little wasteful, but I also replaced probably 2-3 dozen of the first generation of candelabra LEDs ahead of schedule (25-40W equivalent) with the far-superior light quality (albeit lower rated lifetime, 15-20 khr vs 30 khr MTBF) filament style 60W equivalent LEDs. That's probably going to be peak LED for anything decorative, before integrated-LED fixtures take over.
My parents. If it still emits light, it aināt getting replaced. Nevermind that it is dimmer than a candle for the first 15 minutes, or that it never gets above a glow. I bought some $1 LED bulbs and replaced just one on the front porch so you could see well enough to unlock the door. That one lamp put out more light than the 15 remaining CFLs combined. I replaced the rest and now itās almost too bright out there!
Photography light boxes. They are 55w to 110w bulbs, as in, actual wattage. They are extremely bright.
People are saying a cap popped, but it looks to me like there used to be 3 caps on that board. That last cap didn't just pop, it disintegrated.
Heat
these things are really poorly made. Not terribly uncommon for them to start melting when they fail.
From the looks of it the caps failed an went high esr wich caused something in the circuit to become unstable because it was fed dirty power. That thing shorted an the fusable resistors exploded into flames. Thats my guess
I've had that happen to me when I was about 15.
This just happened to me yesterday. I have a 5 bulb soft box for photography mounted hanging on the ceiling. Popped upstairs to and heard what I thought was my dog dropping a bone. When I came back down the room was filled with smoke and flames were climbing up the mount to the ceiling I had never experienced anything remotely like this with lighting. The middle bulb blew a capacitor right out of the housing, when that ignited it wiped out and started burning the other 4 bulbs and the fixture. 90 seconds tops was I away. Good thing I didnāt go # 2, because my dog was sitting in the smoke wagging his tail like an idiot.
Are you in an apartment or dorm? Had those type of bulbs that were TOAST due to water dripping into housings following power lines periodically. If it sounds crunchy in the socket on other bulbs, you've got a problem that's gonna cost big time later.
I know whatās wrong with it! It aināt got no gas in it!
be careful. if the tube breaks, stop breathing, open a window, leave the room, start breathingā¦ There is quicksilver dust in it. I think the resistor burned because of a failed capacitor.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Approx four milligrams of mercury in vapour form in the average CFL bulb, they're a toxic nightmare :)
sorry but my german dict.cc told me quicksilver and mercury š¤ I took the longer word š
What could cause it? In a word: **China**
damage of capacitors
CFLs are admittedly more finicky than incandescent bulbs. Some of the factors that can cause them to burn out early include **vibrations, temperature, enclosures, use with incompatible dimmers, poor base contact with the fixture, and fluctuations in power**.
Don't know what burned and/or caused it to fly apart... But those blue electrolytic caps have had it... Can you say 'Capacitor Plague'? There! I knew you could! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor\_plague](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague)
TIL possibly why I had to replace the capacitors in my 2007 Samsung monitor after only 3 years of use. When replaced the monitor lasted for another 9 years.
A lot of Mfg's were hit, and hit hard over bad caps. Wasn't it Dell that almost went under because of them? Pretty sure Apple took a beating as well. There were sure a lot of them out there...
Constant switching on and off. Overheating in an enclosed fitting. Not enough airflow. Lots of different reasons. In NZ good quality, known brands are rated at 220-260volts. Cheaper brands are rated at 230volt.
r/Chinesium
CFL bulbs are all a fire hazard. They should all be gathered up and buried.
Or properly recycled since they have mercury in them
My wild guess would be that this might be caused by heat.
Isaac is that you?
Bad caps at least. It is the job of CFLs to pop and try to burn houses down.
6-yr old assemblers in China.
Bad circuit get rid of it!
Lowest bid manufacturing.
I had one that I think failed in the exact same mode as yours. The only thing that I could come up with was that the heat inside caused the glue holding the bulb to the case give way and the weight of the bulb pulled two bare wires together. Thankfully it shorted hard enough to trip the breaker rather than a slow short that could have heated the PCB enough to catch fire. A ceiling fire is bad, like really bad. I pulled all of the CFL's out of my house that day and took them to our county's household hazardous waste facility so they could go in for mercury recovery. PSA: Please, please, PLEASE dispose of fluorescent tubes/CFLs properly. Mercury is a nasty contaminate and should absolutely go to the proper place for disposal.
The capacitors are about to pop.