I've got some spots above the computer. A single and a double. You know the type, black tube with the bulb in it, attached to a chrome swivel so you can direct them.
Two of the bulbs have failed....small size with the ' mushroom ' bayonet type contacts.
The trouble is, the bulb is tucked up in the tube and they give you a rubber sucker to plop on and turn. No chance ! After 10 minutes up the steps with me arm going dead I gave up. None of the 3 bulbs would shift.
It was either smash the glass and use pliers to get the cap out or go and have a coffee...I opted for the coffee !
So, that's dead clever...2 years service then chuck 'em in the bin and buy more .
Good marketing ploy there ? Not on my island...chuck 'em in the bin ok but replace with pendant bulbholders with good old fashioned 60 watters....better light as well !
We've had a run of badly designed stuff recently, from the £400 black resin sink which has a hopeless draining board, through the pillar tap in the sink which want's to return to one spot because of the memory in the flexible pipes to the lovely looking chrome/stainless tin-opener which wouldn't grip a tin and if it did, you could hardly turn the tiny, slippery handle ! Gobbled up by the wheely-bin and replaced with the old ' wire ' type from the pound shop....it works fine. Fortunately, the top of the tap broke off when SWM tried to get water out of it, still under a year old and over £200 ! Got me dosh back in full from B&Q and bought a better, cheaper one from them.
I don't know why stuff is designed so badly......do designers really think that anyone's going to open our kitchen drawer and rave over a posh tinopener ?
Getting it with the car now, bought two sump gaskets made in some sort of compound material...19 bolt holes, all too small. had to enlarge them all and still the thing wouldn't go on because it had no stretch in it. Complained to the club spares and asked if they had any old stock in cork. Got 2 through the post, no apology and a bill for £9 !!
I na ranty mood...feel better now.
Ted
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Ted, are you meaning the GU10 spotlight bulbs?
I have loads of these about the house and need to use the wee sucker thing to twist them out. In one instance, it twisted the glass front clear off the bulb!
I hav enow replaced most of them with LED ones bought from ebay which should last longer and need less changes!
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Couldn't agree more, but it goes with current priorities, modern people with rare exceptions don't want functional or real quality or Heaven forbid durable, image is all.
Modern cars are similarly designed now in many cases, bulb changing features often in complaints too.
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Actually modern cars are in the main far better designed, more durable and reliable than their predecessors.
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I know what you mean about the bulbs Ted - one of our boys was given a desk light for Christmas in the shape of an aeroplane with the bulb recessed in the nose. The bulb lasted less than a month (admittedly his total inability to switch any light off may not have helped). Replacing the bulb took me the best part of an evening and I ended up taking most of it apart. The replacement lasted a similar time - right now he's using an old lamp for reading.
The sump gasket on the Espace incidentally is one I cut to shape from two cork tiles held together with silicon after Renault wanted £30 for a replacement. It's been in place for over a year now, not a drop of oil has leaked.
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Cereal packets or air filter boxes make serviceable thermostat housing gaskets.
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Those are the bulbs, Bobby....no more for me, I have a good stock of incandescents.
I've got rolls of gasket paper, Hallite and cork and I do make all my smaller gaskets.
I fitted one of the cork ones today and it was nice to be able to stretch and adjust it as needed.
The new material the club is giving us is like Hallite but very weak and inflexible...it's an orange colour.
I'll have a look where it comes from. I think it has the name Novus on it, but I,m not sure without going and looking.
Ted
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Designers ? ...Arghhhh ! - BobbyG
