Basking Bulbs Please Read Read in Esp If New To Hobby

[Furless-Friends]

OK folks,

I just wanted to point out to everyone that 'Reptile Basking Bulbs' that sell at about £5.95 or so in reptile shops (YES including my own due to the amount I have to pay for them but everyone that comes in and asks for them is told where to buy!) are EXACTLY the same as an ordinary household spot bulb that costs £1.95 for 3 in Homebase/B+Q or wherever you shop.

Please note these are NOT the UVB bulbs I mean. These are the heating bulbs!

[carl24bpool]

I'm afraid I have to slightly disagree with this one as a general rule.

My reptile shop sell the normal house spot lights (at around same price as B&Q) and also sells the proper reptile ones (at around £4.99).

I originally bought a household red spot bulb. The bulb pas painted and easily scratchable. It was also not painted all the way up the sides so it leaked white light around the sides and anywhere you scratched it. The proper bulbs are red glass.

If you only use the bulb in the day then you are okay with the household ones, but they are not very good if you are wanting a proper photo period since 24hour use will confuse the vivs resident.

There still shouldn't be such a big price difference but there is a difference between the bulbs. You probably can get red glass bulbs for household, but I think its a bad idea to just post a message saying "don't buy from teh rep shop, go to B&Q" without explaining the differences and possible problems with household ones.

I have also heard of some household bulbs giving off nasty fumes and the paint flaking away over time.

To be honest for the sake of a £4 bulb which will last you probably over a year is it really worth it to save a couple of quid???

[Furless-Friends]

My apologies.... the original post should have been made clearer.

I wasn't intending to include the red 'noctural' lights in the post. Yes you are 100% correct in that red painted bulbs are not the same and should definately be the red glass itself.

Original post was intended for white light spotlights only.

[tombraider]

Why not just shop around and get yourself a proper red glass home spot bulb for 99p Carl

[carl24bpool]

Mainly becasue I just can't be arsed for the sake of 2 quid. I only have one viv so have no need to bother shopping around.

Besides this can anybody actually confirm or prove that there is no difference between household and specialist ones???. I am willing to bet that there are actually differences. Possibly not ones that effect your reptiles health but I bet there are differences, otherwise why not just repackege household bulbs and sell as specialist reptile bulbs????
If this was possible (which it would be if there were no differences) then loads of people would of done it by now. There has to be differences.

One I noticed is that the reptiule bulbs seem to give a darker, purer red than the household ones. This could of just been the make I used and will differ between bulbs I suppose, but was noticeable when I changed mine over.



By the time I have driven around in a 2.5 litre car I will have used my saving in petrol anyway.

I'm all for making a saving but unless you have a lot of vivs its just not worth it.

From what I've seen in shops a red glass screw in spot bulb is not the easiest bulb to track down.

[Furless-Friends]

Ok once again I was not talking about red bulbs. meant the white spot bulbs

And FYI there is a company actually repackages 'fireglow' bulbs and sells as specialist reptile bolbs.

[durbans]

I was under the impression that the reptile bulbs (white incandescent) usually have reflectors built in, like this one on livefoods:

"Unique patented double reflector focuses 35% more heat and light into a tight beam." - Zoo Med Basking Spot lamp - £6.49

I'm quite interested to hear peoples opinions on this as I'm just about to buy a couple of these....

[Juzza12]

Originally Posted by durbans

I was under the impression that the reptile bulbs (white incandescent) usually have reflectors built in, like this one on livefoods:

"Unique patented double reflector focuses 35% more heat and light into a tight beam." - Zoo Med Basking Spot lamp - £6.49

I'm quite interested to hear peoples opinions on this as I'm just about to buy a couple of these....

You can get the reflector bulbs from b&q, wilkinsons etc. That's what i use and i think that's what the OP is talking about.

[reeve1987]

to the o.p

i get what you mean, baskin bulbs that are there purely for basking hours and not for producing ultra violet nor red light bulbs.

you do have a good point in the sence that the basking lamps are the same as spot lamps. and i use household spot lights.

that £2 saving everytime it blows goes into a pot which goes towards paying for more important things such as replacing u/v bulbs, filter replacements or other things.

as i manage to buy things cheaper by shopping around i take the saving from what i paid and the RRP and put into the pot. so any savings i make goes towards better things for my reps or replacement parts

[Welsh dragon]

A lot of shops only have the screw -in type 100w reflector and as my bulb holder is bayonet I had hell of a job to find them ,so ordered them off ebay but then found an electrical wholesalers that sold them for £1.78 but I have noticed that in the reptile shop i go to they sell the converters that you can fit to the bayonet and can then use the screw type , also vice versa you can get a screw-in converter to bayonet.