Certain light bulbs not working in fixture

Question

I have recessed lighting in my eaves outside, 8 in front 4 in the back. Most of them were blown and I bought 12 Great Value Led 8W (60W Equivalent) Daylight Color Frosted Light Bulbs to replace them all so they all match in brightness and color.

After replacing 7 of the front ones, the last one didn't work. I tried 4 different bulbs, none of them worked in the socket. The incandescent 25W that was there worked fine, and I had an older LED I snagged and that worked fine so I left it there. I had all the lights on and from the road, the one bulb was noticeably a different color. I could try to find a similar color and style bulb that is a different brand and try it.

What would cause this particular bulb to not work in this socket? All of the fixtures appear to be identical, all on the same switch, and now all using less wattage than before using LEDs. These bulbs are dimmable and the switch is a dimmer switch, which works fine with the alternate bulb put in.

Answer 1

Last time I had this problem it turned out the spring in the fixture that makes contact with the bulb tip had weakened, so it only made contact with some bulbs. That's how I discovered that on some bulbs the tip sticks out a little bit more than on others.

Then right as I was thinking "bad contacts can heat and start fires" the thing started to make "kzzzzt" noises. Apparently contact was really bad.

Fix was to Turn off the breaker to the fixture and test to be sure there is no power at the fixture and then pull the spring in the socket a little bit with needle nose pliers to make sure it made contact again. Or change the socket.

Could also be a bad contact with the wires, or a loose screw, that happened to make contact after you fiddled with it. That's another fire hazard.