globes keep blowing each week - HELP!

[Dallas]

Okay so my husband is about to pull the pin on my little collection if I can't fix this so I am desperate for any ideas!

I have three enclosures, all with varying wattage globes, everything through thermostats and surge protectors.

One enclosure isnt too bad and I get around 4-6 months out of each globe.

The other two are blowing globes every week. I have replaced all the fitting with brand new ones, it didn't make any difference. I figured out that when my dryer is on and you use the kettle it trips the power and often that will blow a globe but I have been avoiding both the dryer and the kettle like the plague since I worked that out and it is still happening.

The two enclosure in questions are setup as as follows...

Enclosure 1 - 8ft long, 4ft high, 2ft deep
1 x 150w & 1 x 75w globes
Microclimate ministat 300 thermostat
Two brand new fittings (the ones already fitted into the black cages with the hinged door)

Enclosure 2 - 2.5ft long, 4ft high, 2ft deep.
1 x 100w & 1 x 75w globes (globes are setup in a box on top of the enclosure with a mesh panel in the roof letting the heat through so there is more room in the enclosure, so it takes a bit more oomph to heat the tank - will post pics later today of both enclosures)
Microclimate ministat 300 thermostat
The two fittings are the DIY ones that let you poke the cord through then wire them up yourself.

This time of year both the enclosures thermostats never turn the globes off, they run all the time. Both are adults so I let the temps drop at night, I have a timer set up on one globe in each tank so both are on in the day and only one of a night.

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong or what to try I would greatly appreciate!!

I should also add that I live right near heaps of coal mines and a power station so we get alot of brown outs but surely the surge protectors should prevent the power surges blowing globes???

 

[Sigman21]

ceramic

try using ceramic heat lamps if it caters to the reptiles you are keeping...from what ive heard they last way longer then standard globes and from experience ive had mine for over a year and it still works great. i picked it up for real cheap off ebay theres a store i can give you the link to if u decide to go ceramic.

hope this helps

 

[Daryl_H]

i would suggets changeing to a new type of heating like ceramic globes or if you want to save some money try heat cord but do some researc on both b4 useing.

 

[Daryl_H]

try using ceramic heat lamps if it caters to the reptiles you are keeping...from what ive heard they last way longer then standard globes and from experience ive had mine for over a year and it still works great. i picked it up for real cheap off ebay theres a store i can give you the link to if u decide to go ceramic.

hope this helps

ive had some for over 4 years now

 

[the jungle guy]

what surge protecter are you using? use a descent one like the belkin if you already are not there expensive but work

i live near a substation and forever blowing SB UVB bulbs i ran a surge protector (belkin) and has bein running sweet ever since in my case

IMO it sounds like a surge related problem but without being there an seeing it first hand its hard to say
also maybe time to get a sparky out and check the circuit and load you are running especailly running dryer and kettle at the same time and trips the circuit without fail, ive never managed to trip a circuit and we run a alot continuously have you thought of moving away from incandescent bulbs for heating to ceramic heaters? they have much higher tolerance and use a fluro for day light

there is so many variances as i said before best bet call a sparky out and he/she can go through everything for you and source the problem cant diagnose and give accurate advice without first hand seeing

but that is something to consider though hope it was of help

and yes im a sparky!! not the typical cowboy forum sparky:X

 

[Snorkette]

This has been happening to me as well.
I have also been told not to handel your globes with your bare hands.
The oils from your hands can make them blow.
use a tissue or newspaper.

 

[the jungle guy]

This has been happening to me as well.
I have also been told not to handel your globes with your bare hands.
The oils from your hands can make them blow.
use a tissue or newspaper.

this only applies to halogen bulbs, normal bulbs are fine

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Ministats are an on-off type thermostat aren't they? If so, that's the source of your problem. You'll usually get years out of globes using a dimming thermostat.

J.

 

[Bravedave]

You don't mention what 'globes' you are using. If you are talking heat lamp globes, I gave up on them after a while. I was only getting a month or two out of them. I went to a ceramic and it is still going after 3 yrs of continuous (thermostated) use.
Dave

 

[raaaa]

Id be interested to know what brand of bulbs you are using... we used to get the URS ones returned all the time they are over priced and ****...

 

[niggz]

Ministats are an on-off type thermostat aren't they? If so, that's the source of your problem. You'll usually get years out of globes using a dimming thermostat.

yep ministats are on/off. you need a dimming thermostat to get the most out of you globes. I usually get months out of globes with a dimmer. i still think this is pretty average though and will soon be changing to ceramics.

 

[Just_Plain_Nuts]

firstly i'd upgrade your surge protector for a yew beaut one, if you still have a problem then you may consider going to other bulbs like ceramics. I have had a lot of problems with heat lamps and now i pretty much hardly use them, i set up mu enclosures to run on cheap bulbs like the 12v halogen downlights or for more power you can use a par38 which is 150W and will screw straight into your existing fittings. These are about $ 3 each and reliable. All else fails see a sparky, is it an old house because it shouldnt keep tripping out all the time.

 

[sacred_DUC]

yeah try changing to ceramic's i got 3 cages at 8ftx3ftx3ft and i swear by the ceramic's perfect heating and 3years still going strong, also use standard bayonets but they have like between 2 week and 8month lifetime.

I do suggest you have a certified electrician check wiriing in the house, no electrical appliance should be tripping power

 

[bredli-sli]

hey, try wipping the globes with paper towel, the oils from your hands can course them to blow, ive got a globe thats been going 24/7 for about 8 months

 

[wokka]

Depending what is in those enclosures, heating from above seems a very inefficient method to heat the animal. In a four foot high enclosure heated by globes on the roof there is a lot of air to heat on the way down to the animal. If you must use globes then a pulse proportional thermostat will increase their life but if you are housing snakes then bottom heat is the way to go as you are not wasting energy heating the air on the way to the snake.

 

[slim6y]

Firstly - if it was surging then they wouldn't be the only bulbs to blow or the only thing you would notice. Although I am not fully discounting surges, I am saying don't buy a new surge protector just yet.

Secondly if they blow when you use your dryer and kettle - then you'd have a wiring issue - the drier however would use closer to the 5 amps it is rated for than your kettle though. So it seems unlikely that they're linked.

I've found that some globes just last longer than others dependant mostly on how efficiently they can move their heat from their surrounds.

A simple experiment would suggest that if you had these globes outside of the enclosure (similar wiring) and ran a fan across them while they were on - I would say the hypothesis would suggest they'd last longer.

Alternatively, lose the filament based globe and go for the ceramics and you'll find that problem disappears - unless it's a wiring issue.

Good luck!

 

[Dallas]

This is why I love APS! Thanks you all so much for all the replies! Okay so answers to a few questions...

I've tried a ceremic once and it blew too, being expensive I havent tried more so I don't know if I was just unlucky and got a dud or its the same problem.

I've used pretty much every brand of heat globe out there and every type, red, daylight, moonlight or whatever the blue one is for simulated moonlight and heat, all of them blow. It doesn't seem to effect my fluero's at all though.

Not sure what my surge protectors are (I'm at work at the moment). I shall check them out, defenitely not Belkin though, I would have remembered that name being an iphone addict with lots of Belkin cables everywhere lol

My house is around 30 years old, the snake room was renovated around 10 years ago but I moved in after this so I dont really know whats going on with the wiring.

This time of year the thermostats never turn the lights off, I chose the wattages to pump out the temps I want so I dont think its the globes turning on and off because they arent at the moment (except for one globe in each tank that has a timer to turn off each night).

I use a rag to handle them so its not oil from my skin.

Okay so on to my plan of attack!

Wokka, would you recommend putting in some basking platforms instead using heat cords and not bother trying to heat the air at all? In the large tank I never considered it as I didn't think I wouldnt be able to get any tempurature gradient from heat cords/mats in such a large area. In the large enclosure is a coastal, he is rarely on the ground, loves climbing, I did try a heatmat under the floor when I first set up the tank just to see if he would use it and he never went near it. In the smaller enclosure is a bredli. Both enclosures are made from timber with a glass front.

I'm definitely going to get an electrician out to have a look at the wiring and swap to dimming thermostats and new surge protectors. The downlights are a great idea too, I had never thought of using those.

 

[wokka]

Bredli dont bask in trees in the wild.They lie on warm rocks where they can absorb the heat directly by convection. If you have conditioned your bredli to climb trees looking for heat it may take a while for it to learn that heat is on the ground. I used to use globes to heat enclosures but got sick of changing them. As nmy collection grew opporational costs become important.I now run 100 odd 1800 x 600 cages with heatmats which house jungles, carpets,bredli, olives, bhps.... Using heatmats it costs me about $4 to heat those 100 cages and since changing to heat mats two years ago I have not had to replace any.
If you like your Bredli in up high then a heated shelf might be the way to go with either a mat or cord sanwiched between two tiles.

 

[Snowman]

Hahahahah @ surges blowing globes
Jamie hit the nail on the head with the type of thermostat you are using. An on off will cause the element in the light to expand when on and quickly contract when off. The on off will do this so much the element gets thin and eventually breaks. With a dimming thermostat the expansion and contraction is gradual. And this makes the element/filament last a lot longer.
Ceramics use a more robust element so last a lot longer even on an on/off thermostat.

 

[Chris1]

is it the red globes?
i had so many probs with them, sometimes 3 in a row would blow as i was replacing them, and the 4th would last 3 weeks, dont know if it was a dodgy batch of globes, but they did it in all the light fittings,...(i used to buy 20 at a time,....there was only 1 'batch' of 20 that lasted a decent amount of time in the 2 years i was using them)

i use heat panels now, i cant believe how much $ im saving!!
oh, and i wasnt using a thermostat or turning them off, they were running 24/7