My Colossus broke!!

[Phishy Lava]

I've been dealing with the overheating / stuck / non-existent flow issue ever since I got my Colossus in March, but Sunday night, it completely died!  :(

I was unscrewing a burned out bulb (my Colossus's first) and I felt a SNAP.....

Pulled out the bulb, and the metal part from the ceramic socket came with it!

I found out this part is called the Screw Shell.

Emailed Susan yesterday.....still waiting to hear back from her. 

This is VERY depressing. My Colossus (Blue/Yellow) has been nothing but trouble since the day I got it.......and now THIS. 

I love the way it looks in my house.......I am completely uninterested in a refund or anything like that.......I just want the damn thing to WORK the way everybody else's seem to work!!! I know there were some problems with the purple/yellow......but for the most part, it seems like everyone has been really happy with their Colossus. I want to be happy, too!   :'(

[Autumn]

Sockets are cheap and easy to replace. Go to the store and get one for $5.

[Jim]

This.  Yes, sucks that it broke to begin with, but if anything were to break, this is what you would want it to happen to.

Autumn said:

Sockets are cheap and easy to replace. Go to the store and get one for $5.

[Metallica Man Trevor]

Ive had the same problems with my pink purple flow wise......

[Phishy Lava]

Do you think I should try replacing the whole socket?

Or should I just try to replace the piece that broke.....the screw shell? It seems it should just screw right into the socket.

[Gwen Williams]

the screw shell is usually riveted into the ceramic part to keep it from unscrewing every time you need to change a light bulb.  So you would need to replace the whole socket, like 10 min work total.

[Phishy Lava]

That's what I thought, Gwen, but it looks (to my untrained eyes, anyway) like these shells were screwed instead of riveted. 

The metal piece that snapped off is still stuck underneath a phillips head screw in the socket.

Anyway, I guess I will just replace the socket if it's easier. 

Is this just a standard ceramic bulb socket that I can get at Home Depot? Any tips?

Your help is greatly appreciated, everyone!

[Autumn]

Its just a normal medium base socket.

Phishy Lava said:

That's what I thought, Gwen, but it looks (to my untrained eyes, anyway) like these shells were screwed instead of riveted. 

The metal piece that snapped off is still stuck underneath a phillips head screw in the socket.

Anyway, I guess I will just replace the socket if it's easier. 

Is this just a standard ceramic bulb socket that I can get at Home Depot? Any tips?

Your help is greatly appreciated, everyone!

[Phishy Lava]

Thank you Autum!

[Bridget T]

Look on the up side, at least there is room to work in the base.

[Phishy Lava]

I appreciate everyone's input, but I don't think any of you really realized what a nearly impossible task this is.

First of all, there is absolutely ZERO slack on the wire, so forget about pulling it out of the base to do the replacement.

So.......go ahead and try fitting both your hands inside the Colossus base's hole. I dare you. Comfy? Got lots of room in there? Feel confident about working with tools now that your wrists are forced together? No.

Even if I COULD do the work with my wrists smooshed together, it's pretty dark in there since my arms are blocking 95% of any available light.

I don't see any possible way to fix the base myself. I would need the same tiny, 4 year old Chinese hands that built this thing in the first place.

[Phishy Lava]

NOT FUNNY...........see above ^^^   

Bridget T said:

Look on the up side, at least there is room to work in the base.

[Bridget T]

Eeek, obviously I didn't look closely enough at mine the last time I had it off.  I'm having a mental blank as to how the cord is fed into the base, any way to jimmy some length that way?