B&Q Jena halogen strip light

Ellie2758

Last month we had one of these fitted in our kitchen by an electrician. After 10 days one of the bulbs blew. We've just tried to replace it and it wouldnt come out of it's housing. Popped along to B&Q to see whether it was possible to remove one from a new one instore - no problem. Back home DH tries again and the base of the plastic bit at the bottom of the bulb broke off and part of it is still inside the housing. Not only that, but he cant remove any of the other bulbs either. He thinks the heat of the bulbs has welded them in - anybody else had experience of this?

zappomatic

My guess is that these lights are supplied with cheap, no-name Chinese bulbs. Not a problem with ordinary light bulbs, but with GU10s some of the Chinese ones don't last very long and sometimes explode when they go! It's not unknown for bulbs to effectively weld themselves into light fittings that are old and have been heavily used, but this shouldn't happen to a new fitting.

If your electrician won't come back for a look, demand B&Q send someone out to inspect, or pay for an electrician to replace the fitting.

joe.smith_2

Hi Ellie, don't use halogens. I know it is a harsh advise, but halogens cost more eventually by the pain their rubbish quality causes. My advise is switch for LEDs and you won't have to change them for ten years at least. Strip lights are fairly OK in price as well, and in my experience, the brighter LEDs are good enough for main lighting. Here is a good sight for this: www as usual.... ledcentre.uk.com - sorry but I am not yet allowed to post urls.
I hope you'll have better luck with your kitchen project later on.

vuvuzela

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