apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

well... for the electricity part, common sense would dictate that one either 1. switches off the particular mains fuse responsible for that part of the house or 2. unplug the lamp if possible...

whether or not using the plastic bottle, i believe that would be recommended...

use a potato. Seriously. Take an appropriately size Idaho potato and screw it into the broken socket until it catches and then unscrew the "potato" bulb. It works and as a bonus you get a Dada-ist potato lightbulb.

Or a carrot. It's already the right shape.

Yeah, I was going to say a potato too. It would take in glass shards without them going on the floor. Much safer.

Potato. I thought everyone knew that.

You run this when most people are using compact fluorescents! When they break, you should be more worried about what to do about the toxins they spread than about how to remove the base.

Um, forestdweller, first off, if you accidently break a CFL, you can still easily unscrew it for you have the whole ballast to grasp and as for the mercury, I believe most CFL's use trace amounts so small now that exposure isn't the risk it probably once was when one breaks.

Still though, can't just toss them in the trash per a regular bulb.

I usually just throw the whole lamp or fixture away.

What?

This happens in three of my light fixtures. It drives me crazy. Does anyone know why it happens? Cheap fixtures? Everytime my husband removes one of the broken bulbs I ask him if he paid our life insurance policy. We still have one exposed in a ceiling fan that can't be easily reached. The potato idea sounds like it would work.

monderlust i worry that maybe someone is twisting the bulbs in too tightly?

rubber gloves and a needle nose pliers. If you are paranoid, turn the electric off first.

Potato. It's starchier and wetter than a carrot and thus holds the broken end of the bulb tighter. Turn off the mains first, though!

modernlust, we have a ceiling fan in our two-story family room that had an exposed bulb.

We bought one of those extendable arms that are meant for changing bulbs (they have the attachment at the end), secured half a potato in there, and managed to get the broken bulb out using the method everyone's posting here.
It was a huge pain in the rear, but it worked.

Just use needlenose pliers, people! What's with all the vegetables?

This has never happened to me.

Ah, when you actually read the instructables instead of glance at them, this was an entry for a "Save the bottles" contest.

Goes on to say he knows there are other ways of accomplishing the same thing.

You can get shocked if you use pliers, or cut if you try to take it out with your hand. So let's melt the mouth of the bottle over an open flame source like a stove burner and then mold it with your hand - in short spurts - do not burn your hand that would negate the whole roundabout reason for trying to win a contest instead of using a potato. Then get out of the way because loose glass fragments could cut you in the eye.

That's just a basic summary of this tip. I am trying to find this contest and see what won. Instead, I found bottle rockets. Safety first and last.

Another vote for needlenose pliers - 20 seconds and boom, you're done. Ok, hopefully not boom.