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Road Runner

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I have a halogen three-light fixture mounted above my kitchen sink.  Late last night, I went into the kitchen and turned the light switch on, and immediately, the center of the three lights exploded.  Glass everywhere.  I have lived a long time and turned on a lot of lights, but I've never had one explode before. 

A bright light, suddenly and without warning, extinguished.  Today, I began to wonder if it could have been an omen of things to come.    :(

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Possibly the bulb experienced thermal shock?   Halogen bulbs are hot when they are on.  Maybe being over a sink the last time the bulb was on it got a bit of water on it?  That was thermal stress for the bulb and when it was turned off, the stress got worse and the bulb cracked, the inert gas leaked out.  When you turned it on, the filament was exposed to the air.  BOOM.

That's my story...

And @Old No. 7 is correct LED lights won't do that.

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41 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

Possibly the bulb experienced thermal shock?   Halogen bulbs are hot when they are on.  Maybe being over a sink the last time the bulb was on it got a bit of water on it?  That was thermal stress for the bulb and when it was turned off, the stress got worse and the bulb cracked, the inert gas leaked out.  When you turned it on, the filament was exposed to the air.  BOOM.

That's my story...

And @Old No. 7 is correct LED lights won't do that.

Another issue with halogen bulbs is oil. Even touching them with your finger can leave oils from your skin which can cause the bulb to fail. This is especially an issue with car headlights as a lot of them are difficult to change at all much less without touching the bulb. I use a very clean cloth or paper towel when messing with halogen bulbs.

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2 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

Another issue with halogen bulbs is oil. Even touching them with your finger can leave oils from your skin which can cause the bulb to fail. This is especially an issue with car headlights as a lot of them are difficult to change at all much less without touching the bulb. I use a very clean cloth or paper towel when messing with halogen bulbs.

I remember using gloves to change those.  And then I'd wipe them with a clean cloth.  

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25 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

Another issue with halogen bulbs is oil. Even touching them with your finger can leave oils from your skin which can cause the bulb to fail. This is especially an issue with car headlights as a lot of them are difficult to change at all much less without touching the bulb. I use a very clean cloth or paper towel when messing with halogen bulbs.

There was a time when some floor lamps had halogen bulbs.  They were the sorts of lamps designed to project their  light onto the ceiling.  The bulb was a straight tube clipped into metal fingers at each end.  Many house fires later the electric company had a deal where they would replace your halogen bulb for free with a special made non halogen one.

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