Just want folks to be aware that these measure approximately 6.5" in length, or about an inch longer than a typical-sized incandescent bulb (like 60 or 100 W variety). I was interested in getting one of these to replace the 50/100/150 W incandescent bulb in my living room lamp (the tall, free-standing kind), but found it to be too long as it comes out of the top by about an inch. For now I am waiting for a company to come out with a CFL 50/100/150 equivalent that matches up in size better. GE 47448 12/23/29-Watt CFL (50/100/150-Watt equivalent) Energy Smart Spiral 3-Way Light Bulb
If you're looking to move to more environmentally-friendly lighting, these are for you. These 3-way spiral fluorescent bulbs are wonderful. I haven't had mine long enough to address the extended lifespan. But they serve beautifully as a replacement for standard 3-way 50-100-150W incandescent bulbs.
The "color" of the light is very warm -- not at all like the greenish-bluish tone one usually associates with fluorescent light. It does take a few seconds for the full intensity of the light to develop at the 29W (150W-equivalent) level, so keep that in mind. It comes on fairly dim, then develops the bright light you expect in about 15 seconds or so.
I'm currently in grad school (an older "non-traditional" student), and I do a LOT of reading. I'd been going through standard 3-way bulbs about one every 3 months or so, so I was looking for a more economical solution. The claim for "7 year life" is based on 4 hours per day of use. I know I use mine a lot more than that (more like 18 hrs or so), so I don't expect 7 years. But if they last more than about 24 months, they'll pay for themselves.
Also, my local discount hardware store charges $22.99 apiece for the exact same bulb, so Amazon's price is a good deal.
UPDATE: It's now March 19, 2010, and I'm still using the SAME 3-way CFLs I wrote about above. One of them is in my living room, where it's in use on the highest setting from around 9:00am until around midnight nearly every day; another one is in the bedroom where it's on from around 5:00pm until around midnight. That's right -- these are the same bulbs I purchased in January 2008, and they're still going strong. They've MORE than paid for themselves. Maybe I lucked out or something (I've read some of the other reviews from folks who've had problems) -- but I'm definitely planning to continue using these, and will be replacing ALL light bulbs in my home with CFLs as the incandescent ones burn out.
Ok, the short version is this lamp works great. The main concern is if it will *fit* in your lamp, so check the dimensions carefully.
The "color" of this lamp is great and most would never guess it's a fluorescent lamp under the shade. But it's using about 1/5 the energy. It's also brighter than most when first turned on (CFL bulbs take a minute or so to reach full brightness).
There are many reviews claiming this lamp flickers, or only worked as a 1-way lamp, or died an early death, etc. While GE might have some quality issues, a more likely cause is 3-way lamp sockets tend to get "fried" from the extreme heat of 3-way incandescent bulbs (which can go up to 150 watts). 3-way bulb sockets also have less area for the added contact needed for 3-way bulbs which makes them more prone to problems. And the high heat, over time, corrodes the contacts in the socket. All this means 3-way lamps are way more likely to have contact problems. This is the fault of the LAMP not the BULB.
CFL lamps, being electronic devices, don't like to be turned on and off hundreds of times a day which is what's happening if you have a bad socket in your lamp that's causing flickering. So yeah, if you have an old lamp, with "fried" contacts, and you screw *any* CFL lamp in, and it flickers, it will probably have a short life span.
So, while I don't know for sure, I suspect many, if not nearly all, of the people complaining about problems with this (and any other 3-way CFL) bulb, have a bad socket in their lamp. CFL lamps, in their early days, had some major reliability problems. But they've been out for a long time now, have long warranties, and the manufactures have generally figured out how to make them reliable to avoid lots of warranty returns.
So before you screw an expensive bulb into your 3-way lamp, you might want to unplug it and use a pencil eraser to clean the 2 contacts at the bottom of the lamp socket just to be safe (unless it's a brand new lamp). The contacts should be bright and shiny. If they're discolored, dark, etc. you may have a problem.
I am so thrilled that they came out with energy efficient 3-way light bulbs! These are terrific and I couldn't be happier. There is one word of caution. These bulbs are very large so be sure to measure the height between the socket and the finial. I have nine 3-way lamps for which I purchased the bulbs. The new bulbs fit perfectly into 5 of them. The simple solution for the other lamps was to visit a lamp supply store and purchase new harps for the other 4. (The new harps cost only $1.65 each.) The new bulbs are working very well, and I think you will enjoy them.
We bought one of these about a year ago for our free-standing living room lamp. When we got it home, it would not fit due to the cradle that holds the shate being too small. I found a larger cradle and installed it along with the bulb, and everything worked fine. We used the lamp for about two hours in the early morning only. In three months, it burned out. I no longer had the receipt, so I just ate the $10 loss on that one and went to incandescent. I noticed the incandescent had a bit of a flicker when turned on, so I replaced the socket assembly and it then worked fine. Then I got thinking that maybe this flicker is what caused the short life span of the 3 way CFL, so decided to try ANOTHER $10 GE 3-wya CFL. I bought it yesterday, screwed it in and tested it - it worked fine.
This morning, I turned it on LOW and started computer work.'
It failed in about 30 minutes.
I have owned TWO of these, and the average life span of the two is six weeks at two hours a day - 84 hours. - Cfl - 3-way Cfl - Bulb - Compact Fluorescent Bulbs'
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