shelf Life of Incan, HID Bulbs?

What do you ppl think the shelf life for these Incan & HID bulbs would be? Unopened/not used.

Automotive H4, H3 Halogen (100-130w)
MAGLITE Krypton, Xenon
4557 Aircraft Landing Lamps 1000w
Automotive H7 HID (55w)
Fatboys from the Barn Burner etc...

Im stocking up on bulbs, but don't want to if they have a used by date.


Thanks.

Unless there is something in the HID lamps that gets absorbed into another material the use-by date is long after we are gone. Glass has a plastic property to is, but it flows way too slow to worry about in our lifetimes. Your great great great (insert many more greats here) grandchildren may have a problem, but not you. For practical purposes the shelf-life is infinite unless the pins corrode away or some insulator fails over time.

jrmcferren is correct – incan bulbs can be stored indefinitely.

The situation is however different with LEDs, where manufacturers have been attempting (so far without success) to eradicate the tiny Chip Weevils present in all LED dies. These microscopic creatures gradually eat away at the phosphor compound, leaving a brown discoloration. Eventually the whole LED turns brown and then fails completely.

The Chip Weevil problem is a major headache for the industry, and manufacturers are spending fortunes in searching for possible solutions to it.

What others above said were my thoughts. Probably more than our useful lifetimes!

DOH!

DM51 said:

The Chip Weevil problem is a major headache for the industry, and manufacturers are spending fortunes in searching for possible solutions to it.

Click to expand...

Don't get me started on Chip Weevils. A thorn in my side.


Regards,
Tempest

hmmm thats good to hear for incan & HID.


Man thats a Bummer about LED. Im not a LED guy, but I never knew that DM51. Thanks.

DM51 said:

The situation is however different with LEDs, where manufacturers have been attempting (so far without success) to eradicate the tiny Chip Weevils present in all LED dies. These microscopic creatures gradually eat away at the phosphor compound, leaving a brown discoloration. Eventually the whole LED turns brown and then fails completely.

The Chip Weevil problem is a major headache for the industry, and manufacturers are spending fortunes in searching for possible solutions to it.

Click to expand...

DM51 said:

jrmcferren is correct – incan bulbs can be stored indefinitely.

The situation is however different with LEDs, where manufacturers have been attempting (so far without success) to eradicate the tiny Chip Weevils present in all LED dies. These microscopic creatures gradually eat away at the phosphor compound, leaving a brown discoloration. Eventually the whole LED turns brown and then fails completely.

The Chip Weevil problem is a major headache for the industry, and manufacturers are spending fortunes in searching for possible solutions to it.

Click to expand...

Interesting. Is there another term for "Chip Weevil"? I googled this term for additional info but got no relevant results.

I think Mr. DM51 is pulling our leg.

Tempest UK's original post also had one of these guys crackup in it and then Monkeyboys post. I fell for it

LOL

Black Rose said:

I think Mr. DM51 is pulling our leg.

Tempest UK's original post also had one of these guys crackup in it and then Monkeyboys post. I fell for it

Click to expand...

LOL

It seems somewhat possible because there is a real situation with silicon chips where crystals (?) grow in microscopic amounts and over-time cause electronic bridges between circuits and shorting them out. This is a real problem with satellites - where over time electronics start shorting out or malfunctioning.

I can't for the life of me remember the official name for this problem... :thinking:

EDIT: Just found it - Tin Whiskers

:whoopin: @ DM51... You're too convincing..

LED-holic said:

LOL

It seems somewhat possible because there is a real situation with silicon chips where crystals (?) grow in microscopic amounts and over-time cause electronic bridges between circuits and shorting them out. This is a real problem with satellites - where over time electronics start shorting out or malfunctioning.

I can't for the life of me remember the official name for this problem... :thinking:

Click to expand...

There's a problem with non-lead solder called "tin whiskers."

asdalton said:

There's a problem with non-lead solder called "tin whiskers."

Click to expand...

Thanks. Found it via Google too. This is mysterious stuff.

aren't LED chips covered with beads? :thinking:

It's a common misconception that glass is a very slow moving liquid. It is technically called an amorphous solid. No definite crystal structure like a normal solid, but not a liquid either.

All the people that want to point to panes of glass in an old barn thicker on the bottom simply ignore the fact that the glass was made using older glass spinning techniques. This made panes thicker on one side. There were in fact panes that were installed upside down and were thinner on the bottom but facts like that are ignored.

And as for more proof, ancient obsidian chip blade knives and spear heads are still razor sharp, if they were liquid and glass flowed in the span of only a century or two as in the barn example then these blades would have dulled in the span of 50,000 years. Yet they remain sharp because they are solid.

When we moved my parents out of their house last year, we found couple boxes of light bulbs (medium screw base) as well as some screw in fuses that had been tucked back in a closet since before they moved in; the price tags were from a hardware store that closed in the late '50s.

A number of the bulbs were 'bad' in the box; the screw base was loose on the bulb, presumably because the glue/sealant in their failed with age. They might light up if the connections didn't cross and short, or break, but I would not consider them usable.

Don't most screw or PR-based incandescent bulbs also use a glue/potting compound to hold the metal base to the glass? I wonder how long that stuff was designed to last, and hold together in storage?

The glue used to hold the metal bases on lights don't last forever and what probably happened is not that the glue completely falied but also the metal, either brass or aluminum corroded. there is no definite lifespan to the bulbs because of the various storage conditions they can face. There is an example of the worlds longest continuous running light bulb which has been running for over 100 years but it hasn't failed so light bulb shelf life can obviously vary.

DM51 said:

LOL

Click to expand...

Yeah, I fell for it too.