Customer Reviews

Globe 4860201 13-Watt Ultra-Mini Compact Fluorescent Spiral Bulb (60-Watt Incandescent Equivalent), Soft White, 4 Pack

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I really dragged my feet about switching to these compact fluorescent bulbs, even though I knew they were an excellent choice for my budget and my striving to have a "greener" home. Having spent most of my young working life in fluorescent light, I couldn't stomach the idea of having that ghastly flickering & unnatural lighting in my own home!

But we keep several very-low-wattage lamps on in our house 24/7, and I was bothered by how often I had to replace the incandescent bulbs. Since the shades on those lamps are already slightly tinted, I figured I'd replace just those bulbs that we keep on all the time with the compact fluorescent bulbs, keeping incandescent in the lamps and ceiling fixtures that get turned off when we leave a room.

I was really surprised at the quality of the light put off by these bulbs from Amazon. It is not noticably different from the old bulbs. While I'll keep my "daylight" incandescents at the bathroom mirror and in my reading/crafting lamp (where color really counts!), I am now replacing all our other bulbs with compact fluorescent.

The only thing I'd like better would be for them to fit in all my fixtures. The regular compact bulbs fit only about half my fixtures, so I had to get the ULTRA-MINI for the rest. Unfortunately, the higher wattage are hard to find in ULTRA-MINI, so I have to keep incandescents in a few rooms where 60W-equivalent is simply too dim, but my fixture globe cannot accommodate the larger bulbs.

ULTRA-MINI is the perfect size for most table & floor lamps including those with a small harp such as bedside swing-arm wall lamps. Much smaller than most Compact Fluorescent Spiral Bulbs. Works well w/ shallow Stained Glass (table) lamp shades & scounces. Has standard twisty base like Joe Average incandescent bulbs.

The 'soft white' is somewhat yellow but not obnoxiously so. Though specified as a "60 watt equivalent", I think it's on the bright side (closer to to a 75 watt than 40 watt).

The bulbs do take a minute or so to fire up to full brightness but like the reviewer for another bulb, I've learned to rather like that! I have *not* noticed a "hum" as remarked in reveiws of *other* fluorescents.

Of the 3 "four packs" (e.g. 12 bulbs) I have ordered (me & relatives), I have had one bad bulb. I am ordering more: great gift as they fit nearly all lamps & throw a lot of light!

Highly, strongly & 100% recommend

I had always thought CFL (Compact Flourescent Lighbulbs) were inferior. I knew they saved money, but didn't want the ghastly light, the flickering and the long delay to turn on...what a surprise when these were non existant! The colors are warm and bright--amazingly bright, I'm looking for some lower wattage now, and there is no perceptible flickering. While they do take a second to illuminate, I'm already used to this delay--its very short. I do notice they take about 30 seconds to reach max brilliance, but theres still plenty of light when they come on. I'm getting more bulbs and different types (they come in chandalier size too!)because I love these that much! At a fraction of the wattage, reduced heat output...you can't go wrong!

I gave these a try as I continue my search for a CFL bulb with as pleasing a color temperature as typical 60W soft-white incandescents. Maybe I'm just more sensitive to it than most, but to my eyes the light generated by these has a harsh, slightly greenish tint to it. They also suffer from about a one second delay between when you flip the switch to when they actually turn on. Tried multiple bulbs in the pack and they were all the same. For now I'll stick with the NVision bulbs from HD which at least turn on instantly.

[ASIN:B000GBBUDE Globe 4860201 13-Watt Ultra-Mini Compact Fluorescent Spiral Bulb (60-Watt Incandescent Equivalent), Soft White, 4-Pack]]
I installed the four bulbs soon after purchasing them in May. The first burned out in November. Checking the "five year guarantee", I found that the replacement requires sending the burned-out bulb to Montreal, Quebec, making the replacement as costly as buying a replacement. Anyone buying this product should disregard the guarantee completely.

The light is almost the same of incandescent bulbs, but with even distribution over the lighting area. I just replace 8 of them at home and the energy savings were about 20% less in the electricity invoice. I will replace all bulbs of my house with them. The size is perfect and they fit everywhere.

I prefer these soft white bulbs over the similar cool white versions. They look very natural, and don't look flourescent at all.

The only downside I see so far is they don't work with light dimmers.

I was so excited to find these mini lights that fit our kitchen recessed fixtures. I ordered them in May, and less than 3 months later, every single one has burned out. WAY too short a life, and WAY too expensive. A good idea if only they'd be longer lasting.

Aside from being a good CFL with comparable warm light as those of an incandescent, the packaging deserves kudos as these are packaged in a vacuum plastic type as opposed to arriving in a carton box. I ordered several of these and none of them arrived broken. I can't say the same for the 100 Watt equivalent that I had also purchased that came in a box, most of which were destroyed on arrival.

We have had mixed results using CFLs. We primarily use them in a recessed kitchen lighting fixture. Most of the CFLs we've tried did not come anywhere close to meeting the long life expectancy quoted by the manufacture. A few months ago we purchased the equivelent a 200 watt CFL that used 40 watts at lowes for around [...] The bulbs life expectency was quoted as 5 years. After about 1 month, the light output had dimmed to the equivelent of about a 60 Watt bulb. At 2 months the bulb died completely. We returned the burned out bulb to lowes and received a refund with no hassle. Consumers Reports did a study on this and found that how long a bulb lasts is related to the manufacturer of the bulb. Some bulbs fail VERY early. Others actually meet the stated life expectency numbers. The study noted GE and a few others as having good life expectency results. More recently, we purchased a 200 watt equivelent CFL bulb that uses 42 Watts from a ONLINE company called PowerCFL.com. That one has been working for over 3 months now (quoted life expectency is 5 years) and continues to put out 200 watts of light as when it was new. So the jury is out on that bulb. One thing to note is that the long time quoted by a bulbs manufacturer is for a limited numbers of hours use per day. In the case of these bulbs from PowerCFL.com they are rated for a 5 year life at 3 hours use per day. However, our kitchen is dark and my guess is that our kitchen light is ON closer to 8 hours per day. Thus, if we get 2 years use out of the bulb I'll consider it to have lived up to it's stated life expectency. However, getting 200 watts of light from a bulb that you only pay for 42 watts, running it 8 hours a day for 2 years amounts to a sizeable saving.