Ceiling fan light issue

[Royce Meritt]

Question for all of you electrician types...

We have a ceiling fan that has a light fixture that uses 4 of the small "teardrop" shaped light bulbs. Recently, 2 of the 4 individual light sockets purn out the bulbs in VERY short times. Like less than a week. The other 2 individual sockets show no issues.

What could be causing the bulbs to burn out in those 2 individual sockets so quickly? Thanks.

[John Terefenko]

Take the other bulbs and put them in those sockets and see what happens. May need to check the wiring. With the vibration of the fan some wires may have come loose and you are drawing more resistance thus pulling more current into those sockets. If you do the first step and they blow out then the wiring is suspect. There may also be some major vibration that is happening that is causing the filiments to be roughed up and causes failure. Now if you are not using the fan part and the lights still blow out then the wiring is more suspect.

[Lee Schierer]

Switch to LED bulbs they don't mind the vibration.

[Royce Meritt]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I suspect a wiring issue. We haven't been using the fan recently so I don't think the vibration is roughing up the filaments. However, previous vibration may have loosened some wiring. Thanks again.

[Brian Tymchak]

I purchased some bulbs of various types about 2 years ago to match my fixtures when the gov was going to shut down incandescent manufacturing. I've noticed that those bulbs have poor lifetimes in general. I suspect that the incandescent bulbs on the market now are coming in from low quality manufacturers.

[Mike Gresham]

Here's what I did to fix that problem on one socket in my fan: take out the dead bulb and with a pair of small needle nose pliers or a crooked piece of wire gently bend the tab in the bottom of the socket towards the bulb. The only guess I have is that the tab was making and breaking connection now and then which caused the bulb to burn out quicker. In any case, whether it works for you or not, it's free.

I'm sure you know to kill the power first.