Customer Reviews

Sylvania 29973 Compact Fluorescent Micro Mini Light Bulb, 20-Watt

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

 

 

Trying to "go green" has been an expensive proposition since so many CFL bulbs out there are simply terrible. They either take too long to light up or the light color isn't what is advertised on the box.

I've tried at least a dozen different brands and the ones that stand out the most are these "instant-on" CFL bulbs from Sylvania. While they claim to be "instant-on" the reality is they are probably at 70% light when you first flip on the switch but get to full light within 15 seconds. I don't find this to be a shortfall of these bulbs as all CFL bulbs suffer from this, and you do get used to it after awhile. Other bulbs take even longer to get to full light.

What I like most about these bulbs is that the color is truly Soft White. Way too many bulbs out there claim to be Soft White with a Kelvin rating of 2700K but for the vast majority of bulbs I have tried the color was way too white - like a regular fluorescent bulb. Not these. These have great color that looks just like your regular incandescent bulb when fully lit.

I've put 65-watt equivalent Sylvania bulbs in some of my light fixtures (i.e. in ceiling fans) but if you want to replace canned lights in the ceiling I would probably recommend getting these 75-watt equivalent bulbs. They put out about the same light as a 65-watt incandescent. Unfortunately, these bulbs are 'spiral' so not as pretty as an indoor flood but for some reason these bulb manufacturers can't seem to take good spiral bulbs and put them in an indoor flood format.

While CFL bulbs have their shortcomings over incandescent, I can attest that in the first two months that I've had these installed throughout my house our kilowatt hour usage has been 50% LOWER than in comparable months in years' past. There are obviously a lot of factors that go into this but I would say we are saving at least 1/3 - 1/2 on our energy costs, so the investment in these bulbs is well worth it.

One final note: these bulbs are NOT dimmable. I reviewed another CFL bulb that is dimmable and good if you check my prior reviews.

Sylvania invented the Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) and they seem to continue to be the leader in the field.

PROS:
1: Instant-On. As soon as you hit the switch, they light up. Some CFLs take up to a second to turn on after you hit the switch. This causes people to flick the switch on and off numerous times because nothing happens instantly. Can be confusing.

2: Good initial brightness from cold-start. One downside to all CFLs is that when you turn them on after being off for over 20 minutes (cold-start), they take time to warm up and obtain full brightness. On cold-start, these Sylvania CFLs are about 70% of their eventual full brightness. Sylvania 29781 CF13EL/MINI CFL 3,500K are full brightness from cold-start, but the color of the light is closer to halogen than incandescent (they're a lower wattage but I mention them for comparison). Other CFLs I've tried were so dim on cold-start (imagine a cigarette lighter) that I had to wait a couple minutes for them to reach full brightness: Frustrating, potentially dangerous and just plain unacceptable.

3: After cold-start, quicker to full brightness than most CFLs. Similar to my last point, it doesn't take the CFL very long to reach full brightness after cold-start. As mentioned, the only CFL I've ever seen that has full brightness at startup is Sylvania 29781 CF13EL/MINI CFL 3,500K.

4: Warm light color. The light color from these CFLs looks very close to the yellowish-colored light from incandescent bulbs. These are NOT the blueish CFLs that look like hospital lighting!

5: Tiny little bulb!

CONS:
1: I wish they were full brightness at cold-start. Better than most, but since Sylvania has demonstrated their ability to produce Instant-On with Instant-Brightness, I would have hoped their newest CFLs would have this function.

Even after minimal use, it blew out after 6 months. So I dont recommend this brand.