Has anyone ever tried bulbs like these in a Lava Grande?

Wondering if either of these would fit.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Philips-Lot-of-4-Elliptical-Reflector-Lamp-...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Halo-Power-Trac-Z10-Light-Bulb-Lot-Of-3-New...

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Alfred on September 27, 2013 at 11:58pm

They both look too large, especially the first set. Is there a reason you don't want to use standard R20 100W bulbs? They aren't hard to find online. (I ask because the second set is 100W anyway. 120W bulbs could be interesting with a dimmer, if they fit.)

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on September 28, 2013 at 10:09pm

That was what I feared...that they were a bit too big. I'm currently having to use a socket extender on the stock 100 watt r20 to get decent flow...and I'm afraid my globe is going to crack. I've been warming the lamps up slowly using a dimmer (25% for an hour, 50% for the 2nd hour, 75% for a half hr or so, then full power) to hopefully avoid this, and I've cycled them now 5 times and its not cracked yet...but I still am worried about it.

Was thinking if I had a slightly more powerful bulb like a 120 or 150 watt I could remove the extender and then just dim the lamp down after it was flowing if it ended up being too much heat.

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Permalink Reply by Alfred on September 29, 2013 at 12:15am

Unfortunately I don't know of any such bulb, but I'd certainly be interested if you find one. I find that 100W is sometimes just barely enough to get my Grandes flowing (depending on ambient temperature), and I certainly never need to dim the stock 100W bulbs.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on September 29, 2013 at 6:33pm

Believe it or not both of my Grande's used to work at about 85%...if I ran them at full brightness they'd get too hot. But then after several years of sitting idle, they now seem to want more heat. The one responded beautifully to this...the other one is just a lost cause at this point. I'm having someone goo kit it at this point.