Is it safe to touch an LED bulb without gloves?

[MM]

The rule is, don't touch *halogen* bulbs with the bare fingers. Does this also apply to LED MR16s or GU10s?

MM

[FMurtz]

No, the halogen have quartz envelopes that the oil in fingers soak into reducing their life.

[Martin Brown]

No. Bare halogen bulbs have a special high temperature stable glass and if you touch them the oils and dried sweat on your fingers adds enough sodium to the surface to destabilise the glass lowering its melting temperature and potentially exploding when hot.

Better halogen fixtures have a separate hardened glass shield to prevent red hot fragments escaping. Some halogen bulbs have a double glass envelope with the sensitive one fully encased in a normal glass one. That is how most of the mains halogen lamps are done now.

[Brian Gaff]

Erm yes touch away... unless you find it too hot after its been on awhile.

I guess you can touch it with your tongue your foot or indeed any other part of your anatomy. Halogens give off a lot of heat, but leds do not as they are more efficient. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

It can also bake on and cause local stressing. Projector bulbs have a similar issue. I remember a UV lamp that somebody just brused against its bulb while moving it from a cupboard and it went off after about ten mins. Brian

[tabbypurr]

No, but there are LED lamps you should never touch when on, specifically th e Chinese ones that have bare surface mounted LEDs with unisolated supplies . You shouldn't find them in the shops, but buying from China can easily ge t you those. Most commonly a problem are corn cob LED lamps. Small spotligh ts can also be of this construction.

NT

[whisky-dave]

the Chinese ones that have bare surface mounted LEDs with unisolated suppli es. You shouldn't find them in the shops, but buying from China can easily get you those. Most commonly a problem are corn cob LED lamps.

Yep avoid leaving them on sofas and the like when walking around naked, jus t in case you fall on them like some fall on all sorts of things, and they end 'up' in A&E.

Small spotlights can also be of this construction.

[ARW]

+1

I suspect that MM is referring to his MR16 50W halogen to 5W LEDs swap.

[ARW]

No.

[Brian Gaff]

Personally I've never seen an LED bulb wearing gloves.

Brian

[MM]

Yep. Now completed. 29 bulbs.

MM

[ARW]

:-)