Most of them are pieces of junk. They burn VERY VERY hot and the contacts just corrode after a while. They have a very tenuous grip on the bulb even when they are new.

I have deep sixed those and gotten the CE work lights that holds a couple of 150W equiv (29W?) CF's inside a center tube that you can collapse to put it away.

That and my DeWalt 18V dual battery charger/battery operated worklight.

You aren't by any chance touching the bulb with your bare fingers? The oil from your hand will cause it to fail prematurely. Use a clean towel or piece of paper towel to handle the bulb.

My read was not that he was blowing the bulbs (which touching them as well ass too much jarring can affect) but the fact that the fixtures themselves were failing. My wife, an avid gardner, used to use these extensively for indoor plant light and these cheapo lamp holders (as well as the switches, which hardly got used as these were all on timers) failed with great regularity.

Now she just gets giant (85W, and that's the actual wattage, 300+W equivalent) CFL bulbs and uses those.

I guess I just assumed it was the bulbs failing. The entire fixture? Cheap Chinese junk, buy better quality. ;-)

My son gave me a set of Halogen work lights for Christmas from HD a few years ago... I turned them on once and took them back. All they were good for was to generate heat. I bought two fluorescent works lights on tripods that have 65W bulbs and they work great and generate almost no heat. Cost was bout $200 for the pair, but well worth the cost of all the work I'm doing.