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I need to replace a faulty lightbulb but it's not one I've come across before. It's being used in a light fixture in my washroom above the vanity. Can anyone here identify it? I'm hoping I can order one from Amazon or my local Home Depot.

(Loonie for scale)

enter image description here

cornflakes24
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    While LEDs do go faulty, its much less likely than an old hot lamp. Are you positive this lamp is faulty and not the fitting? Separately, I find a ruler in the photo is better for sizing... I have no idea how big foreign coins are. – Criggie Jan 25 '21 at 22:53
  • I agree LED bulbs are much more reliable than other. We have had one LED lightbulb fail at home though so it is possible. Faulure in regular bayonet philips 7.5W with 6 yellow led strips bulb in maybe 1 year. Other LED bulbs lasting much longer. – gaoithe Jan 26 '21 at 16:12

2 Answers2

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This is a G9 halogen bulb:

enter image description here

Note G9 is the name of the socket and form factor, but it says nothing about wattage. Voltage should be mains.

Yours is a G9 COB LED:

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Since the original bulb uses LEDs, the fixture may not be designed to handle the heat of halogen, so it's better to replace it with a G9 LED bulb. As for wattage, check the fixture, but really you should be able to use a bit more watts like 5W instead of 2W if you want more light, it shouldn't melt... If you put a 20W halogen lamp in a 2W all-plastic LED-only fixture it will probably melt.

Get a flicker-free bulb if you can, they're easier on the eyes. If you use a dimmer, make sure it says "dimmable". Note the LED bulbs don't all have the standard length, so you might want to measure the space inside the fixture to make sure it fits. For example this one is bigger, so you'd have to check.

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bobflux
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    Thanks for this! I had no idea LEDs were available for this kind of fixture. We currently have halogen bulbs and they get remarkably hot. – Organic Marble Jan 25 '21 at 15:11
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    If you do replace it with halogen, do *not* touch the glass with your fingers when installing it - use a piece of clean cloth or a paper towel. Finger oil deposited on the glass is one of the main reasons for these burning out. (Don't think that's an issue with the LED versions.) – Darrel Hoffman Jan 25 '21 at 18:38
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    That one is also a "corn cob" light, which throws light in every direction, *utterly defeating the most useful aspect of LED design*, which is that their light is directional and not wasted throwing light in a useless direction. (99% of light applications actually want a wedge or cone, not a sphere. We only *learned to live with* spheres because every bulb until now throws spherical light. Never was a feature, always a bug.) – Harper - Reinstate Monica Jan 25 '21 at 23:40
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    @OrganicMarble, Re, "halogen bulbs...get remarkably hot." Always have, always will. We used to call them _quartz_ halogen bulbs back when the technology was new because the envelope is made of pure, fused silica. It has to be made that way because if it was made of glass, it would melt. They have to run that hot, because the high temperature, along with the halogen filling, is part of the chemistry that allows them to last longer than ordinary incandescent bulbs of equal wattage. – Solomon Slow Jan 26 '21 at 03:46
  • @Harper-ReinstateMonica I’m not convinced by that 99% - all my pendants hanging down from the middle of my rooms do still want a hemi-spherical bulb... – Tim Jan 26 '21 at 15:26
  • yes, the LED ones are WONDERFUL due to the lack of heat - the halogen ones strike me as plain dangerous they are so hot :O – Fattie Jan 26 '21 at 15:26
  • We replaced smaller G9 halogens with fatter corn-cob G9s with success. I used https://www.lights.ie/g9-led-bulbs/ which is a German company. – gaoithe Jan 26 '21 at 16:15
  • I wonder whether I could add that I've had enormous problems with plastic-encapsulated LED bulbs in a bathroom, so it's important to get one that- as in the OP's photo- is properly sealed. – Mark Morgan Lloyd Jan 26 '21 at 17:08
  • @MarkMorganLloyd Yeah these are powered from mains without transformer so it is wise to avoid the garbage quality ones where the plastic sheath is not sealed and will come off, exposing the high voltage bits or just letting moisture in... – bobflux Jan 26 '21 at 18:10
  • @Tim Actually that proves the point. A naked LED emitter without any lensing emits just shy of a hemisphere (actually a hemisphere but brightness ramps off as you approach 180, so manufacturers call it a 140 or 160 degree cone). Even if you *wanted* a full 180 (which you don't), a trivial amount of lensing would take care of that. If you want less, you can get it done with lensing alone, which is essentially 100% efficient unlike reflectors. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Jan 26 '21 at 18:43
  • @Harper-ReinstateMonica Funny enough, that's my big complaint with my city's implementation of LED street lights. They throw a very bright directional code onto the pavement directly below them, but do nothing for the sidewalks "behind" the lamp post, or the fronts or buildings. – Yolo Perdiem Jan 26 '21 at 19:29
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It's a "quartz halogen" lamp. You will need the voltage and wattage off of it or the fixture, and that is what's called a "G9 base", which is important to pay attention to because there are several different bases in this style of lamp and that has to match.

JRaef
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