Please read this as it may save your home or life...I have about ten ceramic bulbs housed in ceramic domes rated to 250 watts in my various cages. I turn everything off when I go on vacation, and upon plugging in my cages on return one dome started crackling and smoking with a very foul black smoke and the cord burned straight through (where it meets the ceramic socket) and fell off the dome (live, of course). I turned off all my stuff and examined each bulb and dome throughout my home. What I found was that several of my Exo-Terra bulbs were disintegrating at the contact point and causing disintegration within the ceramic housing.(see photo below...the Exo-Terra bulbs are on each side, a ZooMed bulb in the middle for comparison). I just bought a BUNCH of these Exo-Terra bulbs from LLL reptile supply within the past several months as they were on sale. I have never had this problem with my Pearlco or ZooMed ceramics (in fact, I have one Pearlco bulb that is still going strong more than a decade). I am planning on talking with LLL about it, not that it is their fault or anything, but I have found them to be reasonable in the past. I am also planning on informing Exo-Terra about it.

[ Show Entire Thread ]