Hi,

I'm new here and I just want your opinions please. I am from the UK and as you no doubt know there is a voluntary ban on incadescent lightbulbs starting with 150W and now 100W. So I decided to purchase 50x 150W GLS bulbs to stock up. The reason being we don't find the equivalent 20W CFL energy saving bulbs to be bright enough for our bedrooms and the study etc. I figured I would buy enough for a few years during which time there will be advances in energy saving bulbs.

Anyway I contact BLT Direct (www.bltdirect.com) and asked them what brand the 150W GLS bulbs that they were selling were. They replied and said Crompton or GE. I then replied and said that I prefered GE and they said it wasn't a problem and to just put it in the notes of the order. Anyway I did so and stated I only wanted to receive GE bulbs as previously discussed.

I received the order today and the bulbs I've received are made by Calex so I'm pretty unhappy. I'm only familiar with the major manufacturers so I was wondering what the quality of Calex is like? How do they compare to say GE, Osram, Philips, Crompton etc?

Would you recommend that I keep or return them?

I appreciate your thoughts!

Do you have a old GE 150w lamp? If so you can compare the internals and and the base shape and see if they're very similar. It's possible Calex is using the same factory as the GE ones so probably got the same quality. (Since most of these are made in China.)'

Can you please take a pic of both lamps and post them here? Thanks.

I'm an American but I know who Calex is, it's a small company that manufactures bulbs in the Netherlands. I don't know what quality they are but at least they aren't Chinese.

Thanks for the replies.

I know that Calex is a Dutch company (http://www.calex.nl/index.php?set_taal_id=2) but I wasn't sure whether they outsource the manufacturing to China. I contacted BLT Direct where I bought them from and they haven't replied yet. The point is they told me they would supply me GE and instead they sent these.

The Calex ones are sealed in packs of 5 so I don't want to open them to take a photo in case they refuse to allow me to return them if I wish to do so.

Whilst I'm waiting to hear back from them can any of you please give your views on the following brands: GE, Osram, Philips, Crompton in general and specifically for incandescent GLS light bulbs.

Hi there.  Sorry if this comment arrive very late but just recently came accross your post by accident.  I am using CALEX 12V 40W incandescent bulbs in all the 6 bathrooms of my B&B in Brussels since Summer 2007 without a flaw, and it's only now that I start replacing them as they reach the end of their life.  With most of my spares having been crashed in storage, I have to re-supply and it's without hesitation that I am ordering them again from :
  Electro Cirkel nv (a sub co from Electro Cirkel in Holland)
  Bredabaan 100
  2170 Merksem
  Tel : +32 3231 6685
  Fax : +32 3225 0328
  www.electrocirkel.be
  info@electrocirkel.be

I have no way to compare with other make for exactly the same product but for what my own experience is worth, I am a happy customer

Pierre Deveaux
pierre.deveaux@laposte.net
Brussels, Belgium

Calex used to manufacture these types, but several years ago they stopped their own production and now source these types.  They have some continued manufacture only of special types.  Most likely the 150W they have supplied you were made by Philips.