As long as this was not on a dimmer, it looks like it may have been mounted base-side-up and overheated over time.

While it looks bad, CFLs are suppose to have fusible resistors built-in to the incoming power supply that will open before anything gets too serious.

Cheap-ass CFL. I've seen ballasts burn up like that before. It may be that the fixture was too tight down at the bottom or it just may be crappy design/manufacture.

Thanks guys! nothing exciting I was just curious to see what people thought

Factory-installed smoke leaked out. After that happens, it won't work anymore. Common issue with many electrical and electronic devices.

In electronics the technical term is 'Magic Smoke'.

" I've had them installed for over 2 years."

If they are heavily used they are at the end of their life.

A base up position in an enclosed fixture may not have helped.

It is bad. Replace it. They don't last forever.

I've had them meet their death in a similar way. Sometimes you can smell them a day or 2 before they finally fail. Never had anything bad happen as a result.

When I had one of these miserable excuses for a lightbulb installed over my kitchen sink, I never left the house with it on. One day, it started smoking, and promptly failed. I will never buy another CFL.

Its a dark sucker and its full.

Electric bulbs don't emit light; they suck dark. Thus, we call these bulbs Dark Suckers.

The Dark Sucker Theory and the existence of dark suckers prove that dark has mass, is heavier than light, and is faster than light.

First, the basis of the Dark Sucker Theory is that electric bulbs suck dark. For example, take the Dark Sucker in the room you are in. There is much less dark right next to it than there is elsewhere. The larger the Dark Sucker, the greater its capacity to suck dark. Dark Suckers in the parking lot have a much greater capacity to suck dark than the ones in your room.

As it is with all things, Dark Suckers don't last forever. Once they are full of dark, they can no longer suck. This is proven by the dark spot on a full Dark Sucker. A candle is a primitive Dark Sucker. A new candle has a white wick. You can see that after the first use, the wick turns black, representing all the dark that has been sucked into it. If you put a pencil next to the wick of an operating candle, it will turn black. This is because it got in the way of the dark flowing into the candle. One of the disadvantages of these primitive Dark Suckers is their limited range.

There are also portable Dark Suckers. In these, the bulbs can't handle all the dark by themselves and must be aided by a Dark Storage Unit. When the Dark Storage Unit is full, it must be either emptied or replaced before the portable Dark Sucker can operate again.

Dark has mass. When dark goes into a Dark Sucker, friction from the mass generates heat. Thus, it is not wise to touch an operating Dark Sucker. Candles present a special problem as the mass must travel into a solid wick instead of through clear glass. This generates a great amount of heat and therefore it's not wise to touch an operating candle.

Also, dark is heavier than light. If you were to swim just below the surface of the lake, you would see a lot of light. If you were to slowly swim deeper and deeper, you would notice it getting darker and darker. When you get really deep, you would be in total darkness. This is because the heavier dark sinks to the bottom of the lake and the lighter light floats at the top. That is why it is called light.

Finally, we must prove that dark is faster than light. If you were to stand in a lit room in front of a closed, dark closet, and slowly opened the closet door, you would see the light slowly enter the closet. But since dark is so fast, you would not be able to see the dark leave the closet.

They're crap. LEDs are a better option. If they only last two years, environmentally we'd be better off using incandescents, they're a lot cleaner to make.

I have purchased quality cfl's and no name units and neither is anything to be tickled with. I will admit that the two that are in recessed cans on the front porch stay on almost all the time and are low wattage but have lived close to 4 years. If we left the lights on constantly they would probably be great but that isn't very green. I am going to try some LED bulbs soon.

There are places and situations where CFLs aren't suitable but lots of places where they are. I've been very satisfied using soft white CFL bulbs in fixtures where the bulb isn't visible when on. I don't think it's possible to tell the difference. An added bonus is that the long bulb lives mean the dreaded bulb-changing chores occur much less frequently. Installing CFLs allowed me to stop bugging family members about leaving lights on (I pay >30 cents per incremental electricity kwh).

Until LED makers can significantly raise lumen production and drop prices, I'm not interested.

For me, linear fluorescents are the sweet spot where they can be used, but they are not for everywhere. I suspect that modular CFs perform much better than the mass-marketed screw-base unitary CFs that plague the market.

Yes, the original fluorescents have their place, but it's not an attractive light. As for the longevity of CFLs I've had many in recent years that failed long before an incandescent would - I'd expect at least a couple of years out of an incandescent that's not subject to rough use. The CFLs in some cases have not come close to that.

As for LEDs, the decent ones are very bright now, and have a much nicer colour temperature than most CFLs. The price is getting better and better as well, and they will work in low temperatures.

I predict in a couple of years, they'll have eclipsed CFLs pretty much entirely.

The Switch LED bulb is finally available online:

Here is a link that might be useful: Switch LED bulbs at EarthLED Store

After a quick perusal, I don't see anything that great about Switch LED bulbs. Why are you so excited about them?

The link seems to be all to 2700k devices. I can use a gas lamp for that.

",,, but it's not an attractive light."

Color temp or CRI?

The Switch100 is a 4700k bulb, and will be available at that link in March. The other bulbs are 2700k. Thanks for asking. It is odd that the color temperature of the 75 and 100 are so different.