Description
A Damar CFL in the studio experienced a catastrophic failure as it burnt out. The tube has been developing some blackening on it's ends over the last few months. During the last few weeks, the light would occasionally be an odd color on startup. It was showing signs of failure. During this video, the ballast experienced a catastrophic failure and sustained several seconds of internal flame before the fuse blew and smoke poured out.
This is a good example of bulb 'average life'. This is used exactly the same amount of time as the other 5 bulbs in the studio. The rest of them are showing no signs of EOL, meanwhile this one failed catastrophically.
The failure mode was certainly alarming, but in the bulb's defense, the fuse stopped the flow of electricity and kept the failure contained. That much heat inside a plastic housing definitely has the potential to do some damage though.
I'm curious as to how long the remainder of the bulbs will last, and if they will also end up failing like this towards the end.