So within the last 2 years I have switched over many of the lights in my home to CFL bulbs. But much to my disappointment they don't seem to be lasting much longer than the incandescents they replaced. I have had 3 fail out of 4 in under 2 years.

They are all located in a living area where they stay on from dusk until we go beddy-bye. My wife refuses then in the kitchen where we go in and out often and thus turn the light on and off, as they of course take time to fully luminate.

Being anal, I've started a spreadsheet of all my light fixtures and will be tracking at least the length of time the lights are lasting.

Anybody else finding the life of their CFL bulbs are not living up to the claim?

Actually, the bulbs i bought about 6-7 years ago are still working. It's the ones I've bought recently that have not held up. I wonder if the manufacturing is at a lower quality now so that people keep buying these expensive bulbs more often.

I am finding they do not live up to advertised lifetimes as well. Out of a batch of 4 I replaced the first 1 in 6 months the second after a year. We will see how the last 2 do. But so far I am not impressed with the lifetimes.

Good thing is I got them from Costco so I can return them no questions asked if I lose the last 2 in the next 6 months.

I believe I got mine at Costco, what is needed to return them, I'm sure I didn't keep the receipt.

And no I didn't drop them off at the hard to recycle either, that much more mercury in the landfill.

I've used CFLs exclusively in my homes since 2000.

I have had about 6 bulbs burn out, and most of those were Sylvania. Sylvania has a very good replacement program. They will send you a replacement bulb if one burns out before the advertised time period.

Most have lasted 5+ years. Maybe I'm just a lucky sap........

I have never had a hard time returning something at Costco, even with out a receipt. That is the major reason I do most of my shopping with them if possible.

If you have the orginal package that is a help, it is easier to tell it is a Costco sold product. They do ask that you return EVERYTHING that came with it. So if you bought a 4 bulb pack you need to return all 4 bulbs. If you have 2 that are burnt and still 2 that are good you will need to return the bad ones and the good ones to get a refund.

I've had a terrible time with CFL's.

4 years ago I put one of those large, 3-bulb yard fixtures outside and put outdoor type CFL's in them. About 2 years ago we bought 15 CFL's from Sam's club to replace almost all of our incandescents in our house.

They were GE's and after 9 months only 4 were still working.

I thought we had a bad bunch so spent another fortune and replaced the burned out ones with various MFG's we got from Home Depot. Among them were 4 low output, outdoor rated floods, and 1 high output outdoor rated flood for our flagpole.

All the floods burned out within 3 months, and I replaced the flagpole with another high power, which burned out in 2 months.

So I purchased/replaced all the outdoor CFL's with incandescent types, and tossed the burned-out CFL carcases in the trash.

Most of the 2nd batch of CFL's we got from Home Depot had burned out after a couple months so we bought a case of 60W bulbs and have replaced as the CFL's continue to fry. I think I paid about $0.30 per 60w bulb. (Frying is an accurate term: They emit an actual frying sound)

Out of approx 35 CFL's we bought, only 7 are still working- including the 3 in the yard light. I have no idea why those oldest 3 are still working-they go on every night with a photocell.

Power spikes are a possibility but no other electronic devices are effected in our home. We've tossed out so much money on those things and obviously created a sore spot. Sure they come with warranty but with the burn out rate don't want the hassle.

If I were living in California and they mandated those things I'd have to box up all the fried-out ones and mail them to my congress person.


-Steve

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

Man, Steve, that sounds awfully irksome. My own experience, though, is totally different. I don't use floodlights or high output lights, just regular medium-to-low-wattage lamps, indoor and outdoor. I began the switchover from incandescent about 4 years ago, and I have yet to replace a single CFL. Several months ago a bulb burned out while my mother was in the room with me (she's a skeptic when it comes to CFLs) and she started to do one of those very annoying 'ha, ha, told ya so's until a quick inspection revealed the culprit to be an old leftover incandescent. I'm sure I'll weed any others out eventually in the same way.

I've had 1-2 go bad on me in less than a year, and both were Sylvania. I keep meaning to write them for a replacement....maybe I'll do that today.

-Tim

2006 Mercury Mariner Hybrid AWD
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I've been using about 20 CFLs in my home for the past 4 years, and have had no failures. ( of them are in my kitchen ceiling, and are on most of the time. They are mixed brands. Some of the brands have a cooler color than others, but they have all been reliable.