# Colored Incandescent Flood Paint Chipping



## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Ugh, 2 days before Halloween, tested my lighting with some new additions in the graveyard. They haven't been on since the photos I took about two weeks ago. After turning them on I noticed that the blue paint has chipped off in strange spots on all four of the blue incandescent floods. It also looks like one of the greens is starting to flake off as well. Now I have annoying white spots on my tombstones and graveyard in general.

They are labeled outdoors. Is it common for the colored paint to chip off of these? Is it possible a cat or animal might have scratched them? Or is it most likely the work of vandals?

Is there anyway to repair them short of buying new bulbs?

-TM


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

I've noticed the same thing on mine. I bought the cheapestbulbs from Menards and they are flaking. I honestly think it may be the quality of the bulbs and the type of paint used for the color. Short of painting the bulbs with glass paint, you will prob have to buy new ones.
I just spent the last of my allotted moola on chillers, so I'll have to buy mine next year- this time higher quality.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

I am not sure how painting them will react with the existing paint thats chipping - much less color matching. The green has about an 1/8" spot chipped off as of tonight (not sure what it will look like on Wednesday). The blues have have about 1-2" chipped from the center.

These were the GE Par38's from Lowes - I only used them for about 2 hours though  which is kinda sad - just long enough to place them and take some pictures. Was pretty depressing turning them on to see that - at first I thought some punks may have done it on purpose (last xmas had two animated reindeer smashed. some good came of it, using both motors in props).

Probably just gonna bite the bullet this year and get more bulbs. Next year will pick up some Philips which I heard last longer. Although might call my old job, which was a lighting and electrical wholesaler, and get some recommendations and maybe some product if they have any Philips in stock. 

-TM


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## Fester (Sep 17, 2006)

I wanted to go with gels this year instead of the colored bulbs, but I did not make it up to the theater supply store in time so it's cheapo colored bulbs again this year. I really would like to have a more saturated greens and blues, the red seem to be fairly good even in the 25w bulbs


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## Front Yard Fright (Dec 23, 2005)

We go through this every year...
The spots simply just don't last outside.
We ended up buying 4 or 5 new spots this year because the paint chipping was so bad.
I don't really understand why they chip... But it's quite frusterating!
I might try painting them after this year, as Sickie Mentioned...
.


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## JustMatt (Jul 13, 2006)

Hmm, do you store them in the original packaging? I don't have a problem with my floods, but I really only use them for a single night due to the wind & potential for vandals.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

I wouldn't worry about glass paint color matching. The light is spread out and they'll be no perception in "oh look honey, that one foot spot is a shade different than the other light from the same bulb."


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Sickie's right. As long as the target area is all blue or all green the minor variances shouldn't show much. And if it does a little, it might actually look kinda cool. dab dots of color around the rest of the bulb to make the whole color field look uneven and dappled. Turn it into a feature and say "I meant that!" It'd be a lot better than a white spot, at least... I'd touch 'em up and buy the good stuff next year. But that's just me.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

How long is sufficient drying time? I won't have the funds until Halloween day so if it's an overnight deal I'm better off with replacing the lights. Opening the doors to TOTs at 6pm and probably won't be able to paint till around 3 or 4-ish because of the other remaining prep work.

-TM


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Depends on the glass paint. In essence, you can help cure it faster by "cooking" it with the heat from the light. Just paint and turn on the light.


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## Hellspawn (Oct 13, 2006)

I know its late, but I wanted to chime in on this.

I bought two blue floods from homedepot (they were phillips) and one from walmart, the floodlight from walmart looked painted and it started chipping the same day I brought it home and put it outside, the other two, look like the actual lense is colored all the way through, not just painted.

Next time you go to buy floods, open the box and see if they look painted, if they do, put them back and check around to get the good ones.

they were the same price btw.


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## Fester (Sep 17, 2006)

I should have paid more attention to Terrormaster's post. I got a couple of the GEs from Lowes and they chipped after only about 10 hours of use.


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## Richie (Jan 4, 2007)

I originally purchased 12 of the 85 to 100 watt Phillips and GE blue floodlights that I needed to go with my I-Zombie Lightning controller. Both brands were of inferior quality. Even before they started to chip, the blue coloring was very thin and had many white spots when lit up. I ended up returning all of them when Melty posted about that 750 watt strobe and ended up using that for my lightning. Still, I ended up having to repurchase about 4 of the 85 watt GE blue floodlight bulbs. They immediately started chipping once used. Obviously Phillips and GE's way of cutting costs. All this China made stuff is total crap.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Well, this year I bought some Philips brand floods which are definitely a much better bulb quality wise. The strange thing is though is that the blues aren't true blue. 

I did some light tests this evening. At first I thought it was because I was testing yellow and blue floods at the same time so the back blue lit tombstone looked green. So I turned off the yellow and the blue still looked green. thought my eyes may have been playing tricks on me so I did an over exposed shot on my digital cam and all the light in the pic was green. Compared the shot to ones I took last year. The nasty paint chipping blues showed up blue and the new Philips are definitely green.

Has anyone else experienced this with their blue Philips?

-TM


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## ZombieLoveme (Jul 6, 2007)

Why is anyone buying anything other than GE floodlights?


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

ZombieLoveme said:


> Why is anyone buying anything other than GE floodlights?


While the GE's look nicer, the paint on the off the shelf floods are cheap crap - it cracks and chips off after a few hours of continuous use. I had to replace nearly all of my floods from last year due to this reason and that was only after one night's use.

The Philips green, red, and yellow are much better quality over the GE. It was only the color purity of the blue Philips thats been the problem. Replacing them with commercial grade 150w blue GE floods which are expensive but much better quality. I look at it as a long term investment as opposed to replacing the cheap bulbs yearly.

-TM


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