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How to remove broken light bulbs

By
Real Estate Agent with Keller Williams Eastside

Have you ever had this happened to you? Change a bulb - while you are unscrewing it, the bulb breaks and the base is stuck in the socket base because of rust. GREAT!! It happened to me and now I have to write about it or at least gives me something to write about.

There is no best way to remove it except to use a pair of nose needle pliers. To remove the broken base, first make sure the power is off. Wear eye protection if you don't want stuff flying into your eyes. Protect the immediate area from broken glass, because it can get very messy with broken glasses that remain from the base. Use the needle nose pliers to grab the metal rim of the bulb and twist it. You can aslo jam the nose of the pliers into the base of the bulb to get a grip. You can even try jaming the pliers inside the metal threads and opening it.

Now that you have it removed, STOP!

Go to the store and buy a higher quality bulb with a brass - plated or copper-plated that will not rust. If you can't do this and only have a regular bulb, you could coat the threads with a special dielectric grease available at automotive store or just good old vaseline will also work. If you don't do this before you place the new bulb, you may have the same problem next time again.

 

 

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