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Removing broken off lightbulbs?
Jeffrey
Veteran
A broken off lightbulb is when the bulb is sheared off in the socket and the part in the socket is stuck in the socket. I mopped under everything in the kitchen and hit my head on the overhead lamp busting the bulb off in the socket 
(Two steps forward and one back: the floor looks and smells great 
)
So is this a good way? Turn off all the circuit breakers and then use needle nosed plyers and try to get the end bit out?
Any advice?
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Comments
A long time ago, I heard that you can take a raw potato and cut it in half and use it to remove a broken light bulb. There's always google. Watch your fingers, don't cut 'em.
Good caution. I should probably wear safety goggles.
Th safest and best way to do this, is to ask someone else t do it....
As long as you have broken the circuit - and are certain of this - I am assuming the RCD panel has been flipped down for that circuit, and was installed by a certified electrician and they have accurately identified on the circuit breaker panel which elements of your electricity supply goes where then I can probably say yes use some tweezers or pliers (with rubber handles) to removes the bulb end.
Disclaimer: Anataman never gives advice which might possibly result in electrocution - no matter how sensible his advice seems.
Actually I believe I would do what you intend to do provided I have checked what I have proposed above - but I would wear rubber gloves, and be on a plastic step-ladder, with someone medically trained to use a defibrillator next to me
Hopefully you have a new lightbulb to hand once you've removed the base!
Yes like someone I don't like and then flip the circuit breaker!
@anataman with the circuits I was just thinking to switch ALL of the circuit breakers to off?
I don't think it's even necessary to worry about the electricity if you're not going to use a metal tool. I throw caution to the wind!
You only need to switch off the circuit that controls the area you're working in. If you know which circuit breaker that is.
@Dakini I cannot be sure which breaker is the right one.
Just turn off the light switch. Grab the guts of it with some pliers.
I don't remember which is on and which off @robot
Hey there Jeffrey, it's been 2 hours and you still don't have the light bulb thingy fixed?
Are you gonna use a potato? Are you setting us up for a joke?
wELL, I had to find at least one:
How many Buddhist scholars does it take to change a light bulb?
An internationally respected committee of academics, after deliberating all night, conclusively failed to agree on the meaning of the word ‘light bulb’. Meanwhile, the sun came up.
(It made me lol)
@jeffrey -- I vote for what you said: Turn off the electricity and use needle-nose pliers, which will provide leverage.
Wouldn't a potato transmit some electricity due to the water content? I don't know... but I DO know that I've been electrocuted by a light before... it wasn't that bad.
This has become quite the deli-cat operation....I would use the potato and not metal tool - depending on how tightly it's screwed in, the needle-nose pliers could bend the metal band of the light bulb and bring more of a chance of shocking, I should say. When it happened to me, I used my bare hands and the juice was still going, nothing happened, fwiw.
@Zombiegirl -- same thing I was thinking.
Although a very different situation, when I was a kid my uncle and the family were going on a vacation from central New York State up to New Hampshire. While on the state expressway he realized that he had lost his gas cap. My father -- who was in food services -- suggested putting a potato over the opening to the gas tank until we could get to a junk yard to buy a second hand gas cap. My uncle decided that was a good idea. He got the potato on the gas tank hole and then decided to give it just one more little shove to make sure it was in there good. Plunk, down it went into the actual gas tank. So, once we got to our destination my uncle went to a garage. After they finished laughing their heads off, they said there was no reasonable way to get the potato out. Over about 5 days the potato disintegrated, got into the carbureator, and several parts had to be completely replaced.
update: I am waiting to buy safety goggles and a new bulb to put in the light.
With my ex-electrician hat on, please always turn off the main breaker switch in situations like this, turn everything off. Sometimes houses are wired incorrectly, the fitting you're playing around with might not be on the circuit you think. And if in doubt always get in a qualified electrician.
I've never tried a potato but it would depend on the water content - water is a very good conductor. I remember years ago on a house renovation, we cement rendered a basement wall, and the electricity supply was fixed to the wall. Somehow some render got into the electricity supply and the whole wall became live for several hours because of the high water content in the cement. We had to block off the basement completely overnight because of the risk of electrocution. Strange but true!
Wot no jeffery! Have you survived this hurdle - or shall we always have to remember you as 'jeffery the man who conducted his way out of this world' ...\lol/...
@jeffrey I'm afraid it's hopeless. You'll have to move. You can't even leave the broken bulb in the socket because it will leak electricity onto whomever is standing under it. Broken overhead light bulbs are the leading cause of frizzy hair, and nobody wants that.
Turn everything off at the circuit box. Test an appliance or two in your kitchen to make sure it's all off.
Use a pair of pointy pliers to remove the light bulb.
Electricians have been known to use a swipe test, but don't try this at home, kids! Yes, you just swipe the bare terminal, if it's live you get a nasty jolt, but because it's a swipe you don't stay connected ( that's what usually kills people ). Not recommended if you have heart trouble though, it could drop you into VF or stop your heart completely!
And strictly verboten for non-electricians of course.
And if there is no current, lol.
There's an awful lot to be said for candles.
Four candles.
Recently this was a task I was faced with. So after I had shut power off to the house it was time for the needle nosed pliers. Getting out the base of the broken bulb out can be challenging. So prepare for a little frustration.
How many @Jeffrey s does it take to change a light bulb ?
We haven't gotten an update from Jeffrey today.
RIP, Jeffrey. We'll really miss you!
I need to make a trip to the hardware stores for a globe light, needle nose pliers, safety glasses, and replacement fluorescent lights (a different project). I get paid soon though!
(so don't assume that I am 'electrocuted' if I don't report back timely
13 Amp....
Oh, and be careful around broken fluorescent light tubes, they contain dodgy chemicals.
That's a point: how exactly do we dispose of those energy-saving lightbulbs? They're basically the same thing, aren't they...?
In the US, at least, you can usually return them to the retailer. Home Depot and Lowe's supposedly accept CFLs for recycling. Some states let you throw them out in the trash, others require recycling.
http://www2.epa.gov/cfl/recycling-and-disposal-after-cfl-burns-out
Well, I'll just hop on a 'plane....
I'll do a search here.. there must be somewhere closer....
Ok, checked.
It might as well be the USA.... It's miles away!!