Customer Reviews

Globe 4080501 T2 A-Type 15-Watt Fully Dimmable Cold Cathode 2700K Compact Fluorescent Light, 4 Pack, Soft White

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Less than a week after I purchased these lights, one of them went out. A month after that, another one went out. 3 months after that, a third one went out. So far, 3/5 have gone out. I am working on trying to get two new lights from the manufacturer, but no luck so far. I would stay away from these lights.

Ok, the short version is this lamp works great. The main concern is if it will *fit* in your lamp, so check the dimensions carefully.

The "color" of this lamp is great and most would never guess it's a fluorescent lamp under the shade. But it's using about 1/5 the energy. It's also brighter than most when first turned on (CFL bulbs take a minute or so to reach full brightness).

There are many reviews claiming this lamp flickers, or only worked as a 1-way lamp, or died an early death, etc. While CFL do have quality problems, in the past i have had a lot of suceess getting warranty covered light bulbs replaced by this manfacturer

CFL lamps, being electronic devices, don't like to be turned on and off hundreds of times a day which is what's happening if you have a bad socket in your lamp that's causing flickering. So yeah, if you have an old lamp, with "fried" contacts, and you screw *any* CFL lamp in, and it flickers, it will probably have a short life span.

So, while I don't know for sure, I suspect many, if not nearly all, of the people complaining about problems with this (and any other 3-way CFL) bulb, have a bad socket in their lamp. CFL lamps, in their early days, had some major reliability problems. But they've been out for a long time now, have long warranties, and the manufactures have generally figured out how to make them reliable to avoid lots of warranty returns.

So before you screw an expensive bulb into your lamp, you might want to unplug it and use a pencil eraser to clean the 2 contacts at the bottom of the lamp socket just to be safe (unless it's a brand new lamp). The contacts should be bright and shiny. If they're discolored, dark, etc. you may have a problem.