35w Mini Gu10 Halogen Bulbs, Pack of 3

Decent bulbs for small fittings—GU10 base locks in firm, and the 35W output gives a clean, warm light without glare. Beam’s tight and focused, ideal for kitchen spots, display cabinets, or hallway lighting. No flicker, no delay—instant-on with proper brightness.Glass casing feels solid, and they don’t overheat or buzz like some cheaper options. Lifespan’s fair for halogen—used them daily for a few months before swapping. Good backup pack if you’ve got older fittings that aren’t LED-ready.Perfect for renters, DIYers, or anyone who wants reliable light without faff or rewiring.Minor gripe: not dimmable—fixed brightness only, so check your fitting before buying.👍 Pros✅ Warm white light—clean and focused beam✅ GU10 base fits snug—no wobble✅ Instant-on—no flicker or warm-up✅ Compact size—ideal for tight fittings✅ Good value 3-pack for replacements👎 Cons❌ Not dimmable—fixed brightness❌ Shorter lifespan than LED alternatives❌ Generates heat—standard for haloge

There is nothing wrong with these as miniature halogen lamps, although there are now decent LED lamps available (with good CRI) for illumination purposes, which are obviously better from an energy use point of view.However, for lava lamps, you need the heat from an old fashioned tungsten halogen bulb, and I thought these would be a good budget altenative to the expensive Mathmos supplied 'Fuxing' 35w miniature halogen, which looks identical: However, it turns out that the original Mathmos bulbs have an aluminium coated reflector, which reflects not just the the light, but the heat too, to where it is needed, forward and up into the base of the lava lamp; the budget replacements have a dichroic coating on the reflector, which allows heat through..(not a bad thing for normal lighting needs..), so a significant proportion of the heat on these budget dichroic coated bulbs is dispersed sideways and backwards, meaning there isn't enough to actually warm the lamp and get the 'lava' moving properly.This also explains the reduced quoted life of the Mathmos bulbs; they probably run significantly hotter, as the heat is not dispersed as readily as the 'dichroic' variants.So unfortunately a waste of money for me; I'm going to have to spend a tenner on a Mathmos bulb after all!If you want just pure illumination, they are fine, but I would be looking at LED's for that purpose these days anyway.Edit 12-1-21: I have just experimented with wrapping aluminium foil around the outside of the reflector bowl of the bulb, leaving the front of the bulb free of course, and not getting anywhere close to the terminals. This is to overcome the 'dichroic effect' and reflect the heat back into the bulb, and out the front to the base of the Lava lamp; and hey presto, it works! It will probably reduce the life of the bulb, but at least I haven't wasted my money.Edit:25/11/22: Time for another replacement. When replacing and adding the foil, I noticed the front glass on the bulb also has a thin dichroic coating, so i levered it off with a sharp knife (it pops off quite easily) and indeed it helps more heat get to where you need it.

Great bulbs for Larva lamp, will be buying again

Bought these for my mathmos lava lamp, as they were cheaper than the branded ones.They are LED and therefore completely useless

All bulbs were damaged chipped and the boxes were all squashed so I returned them . I had no problem at all and got a full refund thank you

Look ok and my boys larva lamp works again so happy . Will update when have to replace . Hopefully in over a year .. the bulb not my boys lol

B&Q sell the light fittings that use these "mini GU10" bulbs.They haven't been able to source any replacement bulbs for the last 3 months, and still have no expected stocking date.I hesitatingly bought these bulbs online, but shouldn't have worried; they arrived within 48 hours of ordering and wrapped in copious amounts of bubble wrap!They work very nicely, as you'd expect.

The mini GU10 halogen bulbs are almost impossible to buy anywhere, they're bulbs so what more can I say other than they work OK in my light fitting.