Early compact fluoro failure - Philips

Whether they would refund on a hacked open CFL is another matter They probably would send a new one though, probably so few people bother to claim that it might be cheaper and easier to simply send a new one rather than argue and get a bad name for themselves.

Legally they should, since it was faulty when I bought it, which means they breached an implied warranty of merchantable quality under the Trade Practices Act. The fact that I had to open it up to discover this doesn't alter the fact.

Of course, many people, including customer support personnel, have never heard of the TPA, and think that a one year warranty says all there is to say on the matter.

I'm wondering whether I should pursue it with a relevant authority. I'm still wondering about the missing fourth insulator. When the lamp's assembled, that fourth wire is just floating wherever it feels like against the circuit board, with the potential to short out arbitrary pairs of contacts. Leaving unreliability aside, it doesn't sound safe to me.

Sylvia.

I got a Philips replacement just by complaining - over the phone my complaint was dismissed but I e-mailed up the chain and got a positive result on my next try

The wire is a higher temperature allow that withstands going through the glass to the cathodes -- and the lazy wirewrap doesn't help. Ones I've pulled apart have four insulation sleeves, maybe they decided to save on one? Too few turns on the wrapping?

Be interested what the response is. Can you imagine being a final assembler, doing these all day, every day? So you let the odd bad one slip through...

Grant.

Looking at the photo again, the third wire down is hardly making contact due to lack of turns, this would stop heater current to one end of the tube, thus reducing life. Is that blackening on the tube end near where loose wire is? The high voltage will get through, but the lower heater voltage is not going to break through the wire's oxides so easily.

Grant.

"Nobody is Stupider than Sylvia Else"

The pics show nothing that would cause early failure.

.... Phil

I agree. In my experience you don't get much trouble around binding posts. Although I would have thought a different method of termination could have been used. Built for price no doubt

You don't think that shorting two wires together, when they're meant to be separate, would do it?

Sylvia.

"Nobody is Stupider than Sylvia Else"

The pics show nothing that would cause early failure.

.... Phil

No, the blackening on the tube is on the other end.

The more I look at this, the more I don't like it. It seems to me that the insulation on all the wires should be longer. As things stand there's a possibility of contact between the wires and the circuit board near the pins. Even if one trusts the insulation on the wires, be it oxide or enamel, to prevent conduction to the circuit board tracks, the same isn't true of contact with protruding component leads which are quite sharp. Indeed, I'd have to wonder whether the white insulation is up to that task.

One of the heater filiaments (the one attached to the uninsulated wire, not the one at the blackened end) appears open circuit, which is consistent with the brief flash I saw when I tried to turn the lamp on. This of course implies that a short between the wires is not the cause, but could certainly be caused by a short between the uninsulated wire and a some part of the circuit board.

I think I want to go back to incandescents. At least one knew where one stood with them.

Sylvia.

The white insulation is glass (high temp) and just gives physical separation.

I'm with you all the way. Remember that we have Malcolm Turnbull to that thank for the imposition on to the Australian public for these crappy innovations

Well, physical separation provides insulation. But the material is clearly some kind of weave; given your comment, presumably of glass fibre. I'd have thought it could be penetrated by the sharp point of a component lead.

Sylvia.

Ah yes, Phil's standard approach of ignoring a problematic posting, and reposting his response to an earlier one.

Has the subject line been changed?

No. Surprising.

Sylvia.

Now that I knew how they were held together, I had reasonable confidence I could get one apart and reassemble it without breaking it. It is a newer model, with a quite different circuit board. The wires are fully insulated over their entire length. So it looks like Philips themselves realised that the earlier product wasn't good enough.

And it does still work after I've reassembled it.

Sylvia.

"Nobody is Stupider than Sylvia Else"

The pics show nothing that would cause early failure.

Just another boring, f****it troll form the maddest bitch in Sydney.

.... Phil

Lucky you, I have a brand New one bought as a spare, and it never worked at all when I actually wanted to use it, and the receipt had long gone. The cost of chasing Phillips is probably as much as the cost of buying a new lamp, so I simply NEVER buy another Phillips, (or Mirrabella :-( Still have the old (new) globe I use to warn my friends as well though :-)

MrT.

These pictures show absolutely nothing, why are you even bothering. Just another hobbyist who thinks that they are an expert but in reality not having a clue.

Depends how you go about it. Clearly you aren't going to sue Philips in a small claims tribunal, but if a couple of emails result in a new one being posted to you (whether that would happen I don't know), then it's probably worth while.

so I simply NEVER buy another Phillips, (or Mirrabella :-(

I suspect you'll run out of brands quite quickly using that approach.

Sylvia.