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MaxLite Bulbs: GARBAGE! DON'T BUY THEM!

H

Honest Abe

Jan 1, 1970
0
MAXLITE - LIARS SELLING GARBAGE AND CHEATING CONSUMERS!

MaxLite claims on their packaging that their "spiralmax" compact flourescent
bulbs last an average of 10,000 hours. That's a LIE!

They also state their bulbs "Will produce 9 years of trouble-free use."
ANOTHER LIE!

I've had about 8 of these bulbs over the past 2 to 3 years, and NONE have
lasted for more than a few hundred hours of use, some much less. Upon my
calling the company to return the first for a warrantee replacement, the
MaxLite scammers had the collosal nerve to request $4.00 for the
replacement. I originally paid around $10 retail for it, but even $4 would
be much more than it's worth.

They sent a free replacement upon my threatening them with complaints to
consumer protection agencies for false advertising, but I first had to pay
the cost of shipping the defective bulb to them.

And so it has been - the bulb lasts only a short time, I have to mail it
back, and they send a replacement no better than the last one that
prematurely failed. These liars obviously count on the fact that most people
will just throw out the bad one and buy another with no thought about the
warrantee.

I'm fed up - and I'm using the old, reliable incandescent bulbs again.

BOYCOTT MAXLITE!
 
C

Clive Mitchell

Jan 1, 1970
0
In message said:
MAXLITE - LIARS SELLING GARBAGE AND CHEATING CONSUMERS!

Phillips CONMEN selling SHIT compact fluorescent lamps that DON'T LAST
as long as they SAY ON THE PACKAGING...... BASTARDS!

LIGHTS OF AMERICA _SHIT_ they're selling lamps that get all HOT and CRAP
OUT at just a few MONTHS use.... BOLLOCKS!!!!

Cheap CHINESE crappy DOLLAR STORE compact fluorescents!!! How are we
supposed to know the COLOUR TEMPERATURE data means they're all going to
be BLUEY WHITE. SLANTY EYED willow patterned RICE MUNCHERS!

Generic Electric Corp and their TWISTY long life LOW ENERGY compact
fluorescent lamps. UNTIL you put them in an ENCLOSED FIXTURE, when they
go BOOM and make a BAD SMELL. RAVING SPUNK MONKEYS!

They all BUZZ and take ages to LIGHT UP FULLY, then when you DIM them
they go FOOMP! And drip MOLTEN plastic onto your DINNER. What do these
MORONS think they're DOING!

Then the ones that do LAST a while go a bit DIM! Not like they EVER
were as BRIGHT as a 100W lamp IN THE FIRST PLACE! And they DON'T even
make my chandelier SPARKLE like the old lamps did.

And did I mention RADIO INTERFERENCE! How do they expect a TINY little
CHOKE the size of a resistor to STOP it! They might as well LEAVE IT
OUT and quite frankly the CHEAP ones DO!!!!

And as for that ACTIVE air PUMP for cooling the TRANSISTORS. It's JUST
a bunch of FRICKIN' holes in the CASE!

AMALGAM my ARSE! It's defective bits that make the RATTLING noise.

I could just SCREAM!!!!! AAAAAARGH!
 
J

JohnR66

Jan 1, 1970
0
Honest Abe said:
MAXLITE - LIARS SELLING GARBAGE AND CHEATING CONSUMERS!

MaxLite claims on their packaging that their "spiralmax" compact
flourescent bulbs last an average of 10,000 hours. That's a LIE!

They also state their bulbs "Will produce 9 years of trouble-free use."
ANOTHER LIE!

I've had about 8 of these bulbs over the past 2 to 3 years, and NONE have
lasted for more than a few hundred hours of use, some much less. Upon my
calling the company to return the first for a warrantee replacement, the
MaxLite scammers had the collosal nerve to request $4.00 for the
replacement. I originally paid around $10 retail for it, but even $4 would
be much more than it's worth.

They sent a free replacement upon my threatening them with complaints to
consumer protection agencies for false advertising, but I first had to pay
the cost of shipping the defective bulb to them.

And so it has been - the bulb lasts only a short time, I have to mail it
back, and they send a replacement no better than the last one that
prematurely failed. These liars obviously count on the fact that most
people will just throw out the bad one and buy another with no thought
about the warrantee.

I'm fed up - and I'm using the old, reliable incandescent bulbs again.

BOYCOTT MAXLITE!
I've used generic brands "Power Wise" and "Bright Effects" mini spiral CFL.
I'm impressed with the life, light output and lumen depreciation. I had one
quit after over a year (about 10,000 hours) and it is rated to live only
6,000. The second one (from the same pack has been burning for 1-1/2 years
continuous. The others have replaced "quad" and six tube CFLs I've had since
1995 and 1996 and just burned out last year! My only complaint is they that
they start dim, but I understand why and accept this as the nature of the
beast.

These generic names seem to come and go so it is hard to tell if I'm getting
a good deal. I think I'm going to get Sylvania mini spirals the next time.
They cost more, but should be a quality product going from my experience
with their older CFLs.

John
 
D

Daniel J. Stern

Jan 1, 1970
0
I bought some flourscent floods for inside and outside use. They work
fine. They even light up in very cold weather. As my old fashion bulbs
burn out I am replacing all my floods with the flourscents. I think
they are made by Sylvania.

No, they're made FOR, and *imported* by Sylvania.
 
D

Daniel J. Stern

Jan 1, 1970
0
| I'm fed up - and I'm using the old, reliable incandescent bulbs again.

Me, too. But not because I experienced the problem you had, but because
I just don't like the type of light they produce.

Same here. Yellowish-pink light just doesn't do it for me. You should hear
the zealots condescend, though! (you probably do...). They're almost as
bad as those sushi freaks who cannot understand the simple English
sentence "I do not like sushi".
 
R

Rich Greenberg

Jan 1, 1970
0
No, they're made FOR, and *imported* by Sylvania.

And, they are made to Sylvania's specs, which are much improved over
Maxlite specs.
 
D

Daniel J. Stern

Jan 1, 1970
0
And, they are made to Sylvania's specs, which are much improved over
Maxlite specs.

One would like to assume so.
 
D

Don Klipstein

Jan 1, 1970
0
No, they're made FOR, and *imported* by Sylvania.

If they're spiral ones, then I would guess to outright assume they are
made in China by a large non-Sylvania-owned plant serving as a contract
manufacturer. I have yet to see a spiral not made in China.
I wonder how many companies in China make spiral compact fluorescents.
Somehow I suspect this is much fewer than the number of brands of spiral
compact fluorescents.
As for quality of spirals: I believe this varies. I had one Lights of
America one and two GE ones, all 25 watt, that I purchased in 2001 and all
of these failed within a few hundred hours. (Nowadays I don't see 25
watt spirals!) I have a Sylvania 13 watt one with probably 3,000 hours on
it averaging about 1 start per 2 hours in an enclosed fixture on my
kitchen ceiling still going, and Philips has a limited warranty on some of
their spirals. I have noticed that some spirals start instantly (probably
suffering more wear per start) and some of better brands appear to have
some preheating of the filaments.

As for non-spirals...

Sylvania: Actually it's been a while since I checked, but I still have
in service an electronic-ballasted screw-in quadtube that is quite a few
years old and says "made in USA". I have a newer one (still a few years
old) that says it was made in Korea.

Philips: I have an SLS series one that I got in 2003 that says it was
made in Mexico. I have seen enough Philips lamps (however, mostly
incandescents) saying "Mexico" for me to believe they have a plant there.

- Don Klipstein ([email protected])
 
D

Daniel J. Stern

Jan 1, 1970
0
If they're spiral ones, then I would guess to outright assume they are
made in China by a large non-Sylvania-owned plant serving as a contract
manufacturer. I have yet to see a spiral not made in China. I wonder
how many companies in China make spiral compact fluorescents.

Depends on your definition of "make". Every year at AAPX (the automotive
OEM trade show, held in Las Vegas at the same time and just a half a mile
away from the arrested-developmentfest that is SEMA), one can pick up
*literally* dozens of different lighting catalogues. They are all
"different" from one another in that each catalogue has a unique cover,
with a picture of a unique arrangement of lamps on the front and a picture
of a unique smog-enshrouded factory with unique contact information.

But that's where the differences end. Inside, the catalogues are all
identical. Same lamps in the same order on the selfsame pages, with the
same part numbers. Sometimes, just to fool us stupid Westerners, the pages
are printed in different colours.

Extra fun can be had -- I'm still not making this up -- by schlepping a
lamp or related product (any product) around to the different booths and
asking who made it. Every single response in every single booth runs to
the effect of "That our produck, we mek in own factory!".

(If you pursue the conversation, you eventually get to "We unnasan seftee
tess. Can pass ok no problem. Mek own UL sticka!")

DS, not interested in hearing about what a meanie I am...
 
T

TKM

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jack said:
While the majority of CFL's do come from China, I've seen them from
Mexico, Hungary, India, Japan, and South Korea. Mind you, those added
together would still be in the single digit % compared to China. And
yes, there is TONS of private labeling going on.

There are also factories which just make glassware -- such as the spiral
tubing. Then others take the tubing and turn it into finished lamps. The
last I heard spiral tubing was still made by hand after numerous attempts by
at least one US manufacturer to develop a high-speed automated process.

Terry McGowan
 
Z

Zak

Jan 1, 1970
0
TKM said:
There are also factories which just make glassware -- such as the spiral
tubing. Then others take the tubing and turn it into finished lamps. The
last I heard spiral tubing was still made by hand after numerous attempts by
at least one US manufacturer to develop a high-speed automated process.

Spirals seem to be a US thing. You rarely see them in europe.


Thomas
 
T

TKM

Jan 1, 1970
0
Zak said:
Spirals seem to be a US thing. You rarely see them in europe.


Thomas

That may be because spiral glass forms made possible CFL lamps that roughly
matched the lumen output while fitting within the envelope sizes of the
widely-used North American "A-line" incandescent lamps.

I don't know if the Europeans had a goal like that or if the common bulb
shapes there made that goal realistic, but it was discussed long and hard
in the NA residential lighting industry as a barrier that had to be overcome
before CFLs had a chance of replacing standard bulbs.

Terry McGowan
 
C

Clive Mitchell

Jan 1, 1970
0
Zak said:
Spirals seem to be a US thing. You rarely see them in europe.

Nah, they're available in the UK too, but not as popular as the straight
tube versions due to their extra expense.
 
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