Hey, guys. Well, the bulb came together with a cooltube kit. Ballast, cooltube, reflector, and bulb. I know it looks horrible. I was worried about burning it too. BUT, being that our timeline is rather crammed and we were waiting a long time for the light, AND that it IS in a Cooltube (enclosed), we decided to take the risk of having it explode (crap it sounds horrible when I actually type it out). Fortunately, it's been several weeks and it has not exploded. :dance:

I will be recommending to the cohort to replace it at once. And, yea, I guess the bulb isnt that expensive to change.

You think that is weird. You should see the weird goo that leaked out of the light when I turned it on!!!! ... LOL

No but seriously, it's not funny. I recommend that anyone who reads this does NOT do what we did and use the bulb in that condition. For safety's sake, you should replace it and be on the safe side. Funny, this is the ONLY instance where we didn't take the UTMOST precaution. (I dunno if I used that term correctly.)

"Chu keep using that word. I dont think it means what chu think it means." - Inigo Montoya

Anyway, so after we kicked the light on...a little while later, there is this smell. Burning plastic? Hmmm. It was the same time we built our rubbermaid cab with the CFLs so we suspected that at first. Then, upon further inspection, we found MORE GOO! This time it was different tho.

Come to find out... there was a protective film on the inside of the cooltube on the metal reflective part, that we didnt see, EVEN when we were spending 20 minutes wiring the bulb! Weird. So that film was melting and running down the fixture. There was NOTHING in the instructions on how to wire the bulb, and defiintely nothing about a protective film that you need to remove or cause a horrible smell and a plastic stuck to the inside of your cooltube that is a BITCH to get off. Hmm. Live and learn. Alcohol helped get most of the plastic off. The light is up and running now with the gooey bulb in it, and it seems fine....so far.

TGF