NOS CFL's

[Beta 5]

@Alex, Interesting, I guess that goes with the territory of the cheap Chinese lamps, probably poor quality components to begin with.
I've got a 12V DC cold cathode CFL, I'll have to keep an eye on it in case it suffers the same thing.

@Oliver, I wonder, would that one that smoked and carried on working actually be a case of the dreaded Rifa PME271 class Y capacitor? I think some of the old CFL's had these wired across L-N for interference suppression, but like the ones in the old HF ballasts when they get old they crack and then eventually smoke out like that.

@Kev, Yeah the Panasonic ones look decent, I've got an NOS 1998 20W one in service at the moment actually.