(off topic) Burning plastic smell from LED light bulb?
Hi all, Do you smell "burnt plastic" from your LED light bulb? If not, then what brand/store are you using? Background: ----------- For longest time, I've been smelling "burnt plastics" in the house. At first, I thought some neighbour's wood stove... exhaust goes up, drifts over to my house, cools, and comes down. But, it's more "plastic" burning, not "wood" burning. It's bad enough to irritate my throat and interfere with my sleep. I've been opening all my windows at night, daily. I checked everything... water heater, furnace fan, refrigerator, my computer. I finally found the culprit. LED bulbs. The plastic base gets hot and emits that smell. Over time, it accumulates inside the house. All my LED bulbs were bought from Canadian Tire. So, I bought 2 bulbs from Home Depot (Ecosmart) and Rona (Valu+). And, they don't smell, at least after 1 day of use. Maybe it's too early to tell. I don't care about "longevity" or "efficiency", at this point. I'm on the verge of going back to incandescent bulbs.
I don't have very many LED bulbs, and none of them have a burnt plastic smell. I still use many compact fluorescent bulbs. It's probably not wise to keep using them. Maybe take them back to CanTire? Your Cantire LED bulbs are lacking in quality. On Sun, 13 Jul 2025 at 20:11, William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Hi all,
Do you smell "burnt plastic" from your LED light bulb? If not, then what brand/store are you using?
Background: ----------- For longest time, I've been smelling "burnt plastics" in the house. At first, I thought some neighbour's wood stove... exhaust goes up, drifts over to my house, cools, and comes down. But, it's more "plastic" burning, not "wood" burning. It's bad enough to irritate my throat and interfere with my sleep. I've been opening all my windows at night, daily.
I checked everything... water heater, furnace fan, refrigerator, my computer. I finally found the culprit. LED bulbs. The plastic base gets hot and emits that smell. Over time, it accumulates inside the house.
All my LED bulbs were bought from Canadian Tire. So, I bought 2 bulbs from Home Depot (Ecosmart) and Rona (Valu+). And, they don't smell, at least after 1 day of use. Maybe it's too early to tell.
I don't care about "longevity" or "efficiency", at this point. I'm on the verge of going back to incandescent bulbs. ------------------------------------ Description: GTALUG Talk Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe@lists.gtalug.org Start a new thread: talk@lists.gtalug.org This message archived at https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/PSDSI4B...
On Sun, 13 Jul 2025 at 20:11, William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Hi all,
Do you smell "burnt plastic" from your LED light bulb? If not, then what brand/store are you using?
Background: ----------- For longest time, I've been smelling "burnt plastics" in the house. At first, I thought some neighbour's wood stove... exhaust goes up, drifts over to my house, cools, and comes down. But, it's more "plastic" burning, not "wood" burning. It's bad enough to irritate my throat and interfere with my sleep. I've been opening all my windows at night, daily.
I checked everything... water heater, furnace fan, refrigerator, my computer. I finally found the culprit. LED bulbs. The plastic base gets hot and emits that smell. Over time, it accumulates inside the house.
All my LED bulbs were bought from Canadian Tire. So, I bought 2 bulbs from Home Depot (Ecosmart) and Rona (Valu+). And, they don't smell, at least after 1 day of use. Maybe it's too early to tell.
I don't care about "longevity" or "efficiency", at this point. I'm on the verge of going back to incandescent bulbs.
On Sun, 13 Jul 2025 at 20:55, Don Tai via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
I don't have very many LED bulbs, and none of them have a burnt plastic smell. I still use many compact fluorescent bulbs. It's probably not wise to keep using them. Maybe take them back to CanTire? Your Cantire LED bulbs are lacking in quality.
I've had a mix of LED bulbs from multiple sources: Phillips, no-name, and Amazon Basics, possibly others. It's a new technology, and initially their reliability was shit - but it's improving. However, I've never encountered the smell of burning plastic from them, and I'm inclined to agree with Don's assessment: I would suggest changing brands. Don: be incredibly careful with the compact fluorescents. They contain mercury, and if you break one in your house it becomes a contaminated zone that should be decontaminated by people in HazMat suits. I wish I was kidding. For the same reason, dispose of them (preferably in their original box to prevent breakage in transit) at a place that accepts hazardous waste. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp#Mercury_content ) I blame David Suzuki: he's all for the environment, but somehow he pushed them really hard. He thought the lower power consumption of CF bulbs was more important than the fact that they're a disposal nightmare and environmental disaster in every other respect. -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com
thanks for the reminder. All fluorescent bulbs, going back to the long ones, are hazardous. I did not know this and outside broke one in a garbage can. There was a plume of white smoke that looked hazardous. We use many hazardous products, some we know about and some to be discovered in the future. On Mon, 14 Jul 2025 at 08:41, Giles Orr <gilesorr@gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, 13 Jul 2025 at 20:11, William Park via Talk < talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Hi all,
Do you smell "burnt plastic" from your LED light bulb? If not, then what brand/store are you using?
Background: ----------- For longest time, I've been smelling "burnt plastics" in the house. At first, I thought some neighbour's wood stove... exhaust goes up, drifts over to my house, cools, and comes down. But, it's more "plastic" burning, not "wood" burning. It's bad enough to irritate my throat and interfere with my sleep. I've been opening all my windows at night,
daily.
I checked everything... water heater, furnace fan, refrigerator, my computer. I finally found the culprit. LED bulbs. The plastic base gets hot and emits that smell. Over time, it accumulates inside the
house.
All my LED bulbs were bought from Canadian Tire. So, I bought 2 bulbs from Home Depot (Ecosmart) and Rona (Valu+). And, they don't smell, at least after 1 day of use. Maybe it's too early to tell.
I don't care about "longevity" or "efficiency", at this point. I'm on the verge of going back to incandescent bulbs.
On Sun, 13 Jul 2025 at 20:55, Don Tai via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
I don't have very many LED bulbs, and none of them have a burnt plastic
smell. I still use many compact fluorescent bulbs. It's probably not wise to keep using them. Maybe take them back to CanTire? Your Cantire LED bulbs are lacking in quality.
I've had a mix of LED bulbs from multiple sources: Phillips, no-name, and Amazon Basics, possibly others. It's a new technology, and initially their reliability was shit - but it's improving. However, I've never encountered the smell of burning plastic from them, and I'm inclined to agree with Don's assessment: I would suggest changing brands.
Don: be incredibly careful with the compact fluorescents. They contain mercury, and if you break one in your house it becomes a contaminated zone that should be decontaminated by people in HazMat suits. I wish I was kidding. For the same reason, dispose of them (preferably in their original box to prevent breakage in transit) at a place that accepts hazardous waste. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp#Mercury_content )
I blame David Suzuki: he's all for the environment, but somehow he pushed them really hard. He thought the lower power consumption of CF bulbs was more important than the fact that they're a disposal nightmare and environmental disaster in every other respect.
-- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com
Just curious. --were the bulbs in enclosed fixtures? or bare sockets (typical in a closet). --Were they socket down, up, or sideways? Socket up in an enclosed fixture might seem most likely to build up enough heat to affect the plastic. Haven't seen any, but if anybody makes fixtures that say "led bulbs only", it might mean the fixture itself can't take much heat. Carey
On 07/13/2025 7:11 PM CDT William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Hi all,
Do you smell "burnt plastic" from your LED light bulb? If not, then what brand/store are you using?
Background: ----------- For longest time, I've been smelling "burnt plastics" in the house. At first, I thought some neighbour's wood stove... exhaust goes up, drifts over to my house, cools, and comes down. But, it's more "plastic" burning, not "wood" burning. It's bad enough to irritate my throat and interfere with my sleep. I've been opening all my windows at night, daily.
I checked everything... water heater, furnace fan, refrigerator, my computer. I finally found the culprit. LED bulbs. The plastic base gets hot and emits that smell. Over time, it accumulates inside the house.
All my LED bulbs were bought from Canadian Tire. So, I bought 2 bulbs from Home Depot (Ecosmart) and Rona (Valu+). And, they don't smell, at least after 1 day of use. Maybe it's too early to tell.
I don't care about "longevity" or "efficiency", at this point. I'm on the verge of going back to incandescent bulbs. ------------------------------------ Description: GTALUG Talk Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe@lists.gtalug.org Start a new thread: talk@lists.gtalug.org This message archived at https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/PSDSI4B...
On Mon, 14 Jul 2025 at 08:36, CAREY SCHUG via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Haven't seen any, but if anybody makes fixtures that say "led bulbs only", it might mean the fixture itself can't take much heat.
I've seen some LED bulbs with instructions that say "Do not install in enclosed fixtures" because of the heat the bulbs generate. -- Scott
On 2025-07-14 08:45, Scott Allen via Talk wrote:
On Mon, 14 Jul 2025 at 08:36, CAREY SCHUG via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Haven't seen any, but if anybody makes fixtures that say "led bulbs only", it might mean the fixture itself can't take much heat.
I've seen some LED bulbs with instructions that say "Do not install in enclosed fixtures" because of the heat the bulbs generate.
Hmm... it seems the new Home Depot and Rona bulbs (no-smell) are indeed rated for "enclosed luminaires", whereas all Canadian Tire bulbs (smelly) are not. But, my fixtures are "open". Thanks. I now know what to look for.
participants (5)
-
CAREY SCHUG -
Don Tai -
Giles Orr -
Scott Allen -
William Park