Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone ever had problems with bulbs exploding out of fixtures? A couple weeks ago this happened with one of my heat fixtures, it was a hanging brooder lamp with a 100 Watt Reptile basking bulb in it. After plugging it in and setting it up to the tank the bulb broke off at the very bottom and shot down into the tank. One of my baby's tails was injured in that incident and I got rid of that fixture. Well today I changed the bulb in one of my adults cages which was in a small clamp lamp from Petco and the same thing happened. Both of these fixtures have ceramic base and are made to hold a 250Watt bulb. Luckily I had my girl outside the tank when it happened. It was actually 10-15 minutes after I had changed the bulb and it seemed to be working fine, then just exploded. She would have had serious burns if she would have been in there. The bulb actually breaks in half and the piece you screw into the lamp stays in the fixture. Any ideas why this would happen?

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1.3 Louie,Sunny,Red,Lilly and babies!

I have had problems w/ lights flashing and short curcuiting everything but never blowing up. I think it is normally the fixture. But do you ever have a problem w/ the heat UVB lights just shutting off and coming back on? I do w/ almost all of mine. I tried a different brand this last time and those do the same thing. Ones from T-Rex and the other is from Zoo-Med. Cara

No problem with the UVB, I use repti-sun 5.0. I have one fixture that does not hold the bulb properly and will flicker off then back on if bumped.

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1.3 Louie,Sunny,Red,Lilly and babies!

i had the bulb explode on me one time. right where the glass meets the metal part. This happened while i was spraying my beardy (if that has anything to do with it i dont know?) i have no idea what would have caused it but if you find out let us know!
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0.2.0 Bearded Dragons
0.1.0 Red Eared Slider Turtle

Go me
Stephan S.

I've had a few explode myself and it was always when or after I sprayed with water. If you spray the screen part and the light bulb sits on or near it, I guarantee it will explode. There may be other reasons too but thats the main reasons( mine did every time). I hope that helps you because it would be much better to know the cause so you can stop it instead of thinking its a problem with the light fixture or electric ect and buy new stuff. Good Luck. Deb

The only bulb i have ever had explode was because i had just sprayed the tank and the screen lid was wet. Had you recently misted their tanks? If so, thats probably the cause. If not, i have no clue!
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake
1.1 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Anerythristic Corn
0.0.1 Red Tegu
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

I heard they can explode if you put a bulb with a higher wattage then what the fixture was made for. like putting a 100w in a 60w fixture.
It saw it happen once, in a house not dealing with animals, and it was horrible, the glass was everywhere.
-Sara

Was it the Zoo med blue bulbs? I had three of them explode in one week from my pet store! The pet sop said that the bulbs are very thin and fragile because otherwise the UVA can't get through, and they must have been from a bad batch.

If you are using a separate light for UVB, just use a normal household bulbfor heat....they are much cheaper and wont explode, unless they get wet.
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A mans got to do what a mans got to do. A woman has to do what he can't.

Mom to:

1 little boy born 7/19/04
2 male RES, born 1999
1 ribbon snake, age unknown
3 FBT, ages unknown
1 female bearded dragon, born 5/2002
1 male lab mix, born 5/24/03
1 female calico cat, born 6/7/04
1 common musk turtle hatchling

No, it wasn't zoo-med, but come to think about it both bulbs came out of the same 2-pack I ordered from reptiledirect. Maybe this was also a "bad" batch. There was no way the bulb or fixture could have gotten moist and the fixture is working fine with a new bulb, so I guess I'll just assume it was the bulbs. What wattage house bulb do you use to get the basking spot to the appropriate temps? I didn't think they would get that hot, but they would be much cheaper eh?

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1.3 Louie,Sunny,Red,Lilly and babies!

hi
is it not a 110 volt in 220 volt ?
do you have a brand name ? so you can contact the producer of the light?
byeeee

I have had the same thing happen to me, luckily over screen and none of my lizards were hurt. My boyfriend sent an email to the company to complain, and they sent us 2 new bulbs. Good luck, and hope your little guy is ok.

Well, I was mistaken, they were zoo-med bulbs. Repti basking spot lamp bulbs 100Watts. I did contact zoo-med and explained what happened. Basically they just replaced the bulbs and were willing to give me one of the new repti-sun 10.0, but really said it was partially my fault for not using a screen cover on my tanks. They say that sometimes bulbs are damaged during transport which causes problems once they are plugged in and start to heat up.

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1.3 Louie,Sunny,Red,Lilly and babies!