Why You Shouldn’t Touch Halogen Bulbs With Bare Hands

You might have heard that you are not meant to touch halogen bulbs at some point in your life. But why is that? What’s so dangerous about simply touching the bulb?

This article will cover the consequences of touching a halogen bulb with bare hands and how you should handle them instead.

What Happens When You Touch A Halogen Bulb?

When you touch a halogen bulb with your bare hands you will leave a layer of residual hand oils and salts on the surface of the bulb.

The main substances that contribute to this are sebum and sweat. While sebum isn’t naturally formed on the palms of your hands it is formed practically everywhere else on your body. Sweat can always be found on your hands to some degree, which contains salt.

Why Touching Halogen Bulbs is Bad

You should not touch halogen bulbs with your bare hands because the fingerprints you leave on the bulb will cause the emitted heat to concentrate since skin oils are better at conducting heat than the air surrounding the bulb. This creates an instability in the glass and will potentially cause it to shatter.

To explain this more thoroughly, it is important to understand exactly why this happens.

Halogen bulbs run at extremely high temperatures. The tungsten filament inside halogen bulbs will run at temperatures as high as 2700 °C (4892 °F), which in turn will emit enough heat to make the surface of the bulb reach temperatures of around 260 °C (500 °F).

A bulb this hot will obviously emit a lot of heat, which will end up dissipating through the bulb’s surface. The issue here occurs when the skin oils obstruct the surface of the bulb since it now can’t dissipate this heat evenly, which effectively means that the spot with the fingerprint is now a hotspot for heat buildup.

At these high temperatures, the oils collected on the surface of the bulb are very likely to boil and burn. This causes a significant amount of stress on the bulb as it weakens its structural integrity.

The bulb itself is usually made out of quartz in halogen bulbs, which on its own is a rather durable material, but there is only so much stress it can take before it’s too much.

There are a few different outcomes this can have. A common one is that the fingerprints simply burn and blacken on the surface of the bulb. While this outcome is relatively harmless, it will still weaken the bulb and cause the light output to be less due to the obstructed spot in the bulb.

Another outcome that commonly occurs would be that the bulb ends up popping in an explosion-type fashion due to the halogen gas inside the bulb bursting out. Go here for more details on what causes light bulbs to explode.

How Should You Handle Halogen Bulbs?

When handling halogen bulbs it’s important to not leave any fingerprints on them, therefore the most suitable way to handle them would be using some sort of cloth or gloves in order to avoid direct contact with the bulb.

Click here for a full article on when you should wear gloves to change light bulbs.

It is also worth noting that skin oils are not the only thing that can end up damaging/weakening the bulb. In fact, any dirt with the capability to burn will have a negative impact if it’s on the bulb’s surface while it’s turned on.

For these reasons, we simply advise you to handle these bulbs with a lot of care and make sure they are clean before you use them.

It is also important to note that halogen bulbs can be quite fragile, meaning that if they are dropped or shaken too hard they are likely to break due to the thin tungsten filament possibly breaking when put under too much stress.

What Should You Do If You Touch A Halogen Bulb?

If you do happen to touch a halogen bulb it is recommended that you clean it off with a clean cloth and some rubbing alcohol. This should get rid of any potential oil residue you might have left on the bulb.

This is to ensure the bulb is fully clean, but you can get away with other methods too. You could also use a small amount of dish soap or distilled vinegar to supplement the cloth for example. Click here for more helpful tips on how to clean off fingerprints.

If you are unable to clean it off you might be better off not using it all together considering you are knowingly running the risk of the bulb exploding.

Can You Touch Dead Halogen Bulbs With Bare Hands?

If the halogen bulb in question is already dead you can touch it with bare hands with no problem, since it can’t be turned on again anyway. Just make sure that the surface of the bulb is cool enough that you can touch it without burning yourself.

If you are replacing it with another halogen bulb though you are still better off using some form of glove though since you will be handling a new bulb regardless.

Summary

To summarize, you should not touch a halogen bulb with your bare hands if it can be avoided. If there is no way to avoid making direct contact with it you should try to clean it off the best you can before using it.