I have just fitted a four bulb bar that came with four bulbs. Sadly the light generated would be more than adequate - for a dog kennel.
I had a stock of "50w" equivalents. I removed one of original bulbs and replaced it but the remaining 3 wouldn't budge. the solution appears to be some kind of sucker.
There are several advertised but my bulbs do not have flat surfaces. They have a bulge in centre. If anyone has any experience of these gadgets I would dearly like to hear of one that works.
TIA
Yes, you need the sucker or you will struggle. I've been there.
Pinnerite formulated on Tuesday :
A large blob of bluetack sometimes works.
On 02/01/2018 15:38, Pinnerite wrote: grip the bulb
Wearing disposable rubber gloves can help to grip the bulb with some bulbs/fittings.
They're a right pain - particularly if the bulb is recessed, preventing you from getting a hold on it!
Try a softish rubber (eraser). Press it against the bulb with both thumbs, turning it anti-clockwise at the same time.
I thought about suggesting that.
I once f***ed up the lights in the kitchen as I could not find the sucker. Just buy the sucker.
Personally I find removing the old bulbs easy. It's getting the new ones in that is difficult!
A few GU10 bulbs have raised lines at 12 and 6 o'clock on the front surface of the glass of the bulb. These allow you to get just enough of a purchase on bulb when pressing with your thumbs that you can turn the bulb when removing / re-fitting it.
The main problem I have with the GU10 fitting in the bathroom ceiling is refitting the outer cosmetic metal ring (part of the fitting) which locks the bulb in place so it doesn't dangle on the end of the wires - the GU10 socket on those lights is free, and not fixed to the back of the fitting, so there's a loose push-fit and then a locking ring. One of the fittings doesn't even have that, just a circlip which has tabs which should fit into recesses in the fitting, but modern LED GU10s stick out slightly too far for the wiggly tabs on the circlip to be able engage with the notches on the ring. Grrr.
It's not a matter of getting purchase for me but getting the pins properly aligned when I can't see them in the (recessed) fitting.
Your fittings sound quite different to mine.
They can be a problem if the socket within the fitting isn't aligned with the neck of the fitting so when you centralise the neck of the bulb in the fitting, the pins of the socket are off-centre. And of course you also have to rotate until the pins in the bulb line up with those in the socket.
There are lots. The best are like the ones we have in the kitchen which have a fitting that only covers the neck of the bulb, leaving the flared sides exposed so there's a lot to grab of when twisting and wiggling to insert and line up the pins.
The ones we have in the bathroom ceiling have loose sockets which are attached only by the two wires. The socket drops out of the fitting when there's no bulb so you can hold it in one hand and the bulb in the other. But then you need to lock the bulb in place once it's connected, and that's where the dreaded circlip comes in - and it won't engage with the retaining notches in the fitting if the rim of the bulb is too thick front-to-back: tungsten bulbs are fine but the LED ones are thicker. I tend to rely only on the friction of the circlip against the smooth side of the ring if I can't engage the notches, which is fine for a few months and then I'll go into the bathroom and see one of the bulbs hanging loose on the wires and have to search the floor for the circlip.
One of our bathroom fittings (a newer one to replace one of the original ones which had broken) has a bayonet-fitting locking ring which is much better.
The worst GU10 fittings are those which have a captive socket but the bulb fits flush with the front of the fitting so you can't turn it easily because only its front and not its sides are exposed. Fortunately we don't have any like that.
I still have them - bloody things. I have the sucker and I dread changing them.
That sounds like all of mine :-(
hot glue with nut or similar stuck in. if hot glue is put on thinly it usually peels of fairly easily or put some boiling water on it.
--snip--
Actually it's replacing them I find difficulty with. Locating the pins and then turning the bulb to locate often takes a while.
I changed one just recently and that was the biggest problem I had.
Whilst I like the positive connection, the lack of 'lead-in' (BC has this) is a damned nuisance - takes ages if the fitting is recessed, especially.
Having verified that GU10 is identical to the bi-pin connector used by plug in fluorescent starter switches (the only GU10 lamps -12v 35W- we have (in our downstairs shower room), have never had to be replaced in the past 6 or 7 years since they were fitted), I disagree with your "tarring with the same brush" comparison of the BC lamp socket.
If my experience of swapping out starter switches in the one and only fluorescent light fitting that is cursed by such a crude starting method is any guide, the humble BC lamp (even when blind-sided by a lamp shade!) is a joy to swap out by comparison.
Complicated sentence you are replying to, but I think that is what PeterC was saying; BC at least has a slot to orient the connector before you push it in and turn it.
After re-reading it, I think you're very probably right but the way he expressed it was open to interpretation. It seemed to me he was saying that what the BC has is "the lack of 'lead-in'". This is usually the result of trying to condense two statements into as few words as possible without proof reading to check whether any possibly confusing ambiguities needed to be addressed by better phrasing.
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