Help! Light bulbs keep blowing out in cooker hood

baby_frogmella

Hi

In my kitchen the bulbs (40w) in my cooker hood keep blowing out. On average each bulb (i have 2) lasts for a few weeks before conking out. And i do buy good quality ones from Homebase....any tips what could be going wrong?

thanks

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kathyd_2

And mine. Wonder why? Thought we must have bought a bad batch of bulbs. Mine's a Whirlpool.

Money_Saver

baby_frogmella wrote:

Hi

In my kitchen the bulbs (40w) in my cooker hood keep blowing out. On average each bulb (i have 2) lasts for a few weeks before conking out. And i do buy good quality ones from Homebase....any tips what could be going wrong?

thanks

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https://www.sobroadband.com - 3MB via fixed link wireless

Same thing happens here too but I buy the cheap ones from Tesco.:cool:

shockingmoment

mine too. I think its the vibration from the fan inside the hood. not sure how to sort this tough. perhaps a low energy lamp (ie no filament)?

Gaz_2-2

Could also be power surges from the main network or sometimes if the bulb takes a knock or a bang whilst on this seems to weaken the filament inside and blows after a day or two.

Gorgeous_George

Here too.

I blame Mrs GG because she likes to leave them switched on all day. Does my head in! If I complain, she points to my computer.



GG

Bibbles

I used to have the exact same problem, so I called in the electrician because I thought there might be something wrong with the wiring. He told me it was just the cheap lightbulbs! Lo and behold, I bought more expensive brands and the problem disappeared. This might not be the case for everyone, but it certainly was with me.

Mikeyorks

I've concluded, after going through up to 4 bulbs in a few minutes, that it's a design fault. Most of the bulbs have poorly supported filaments. And most are then mounted horizontally in the hood which means the filament is supported even less. The experts point to vibration - but ours is rarely used with the motor on. It's just that the OH has the lights on all the time!

And buying expensive / long life ones is no better. I originally got some fairly poor ones from B&Q. But then some 'long life' ones from Lightbulbs Direct - didn't fare any better.

Eventually bought some low energy Helix bulbs (need to watch you get the right fitting - normally ES or SES with hoods). As nearly every time one of the 2 bulbs in my hood went it took out the fuse in the plug and the MCB in the consumer unit. And twice (the units only 15 months old) it's tracked out the switch and needed a new switch and motor (all on same prefabricated wiring loom). All under warranty - but definitely irritating.

But the low energy bulbs definitely appear to have resolved it - and overall cheaper than the half dozen standard cooker bulbs I was using every few months. They've been in about 5 months now - and with no fails. But the last fitter agreed with me that when they do go - they won't blow back to the fuse / switch in the same manner as filament bulbs.

Definitely worth considering the higher initial cost - and they're cheaper to run if you use them as a regular supplementary light over the worktops. A link in this thread to Helix bulbs - but notice they're now being sold in B&Q etc.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=251528&highlight=cooker+hood

baby_frogmella

Hi Mike

Thanks for that. I shall be popping over to my local B&Q and see if i can get the low energy SES bulbs for my cooker hood.

Cheers mate

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Mikeyorks

Pleased that's potentially a help. But do check that your hood (there's so many variants) has a little bit of space to get the slightly bigger bulb in. I pointed at the helix one as they're more compact - but they still are a bit fatter than a standard hood bulb?

mikeywills

Also something to consider, majority of these bulbs tend to give of a lot of heat, so if you use your hands when you screw them in you are imparting oils from your hand onto the glass. This actually causes bulbs to overheat and blow more regularily.
Try putting them in with a piece of cloth or plastic between you and the bulb to stop oil transfers.