Home Improvement : Get a Grip on Broken Bulb

As basic and mundane as the task seems, changing a light bulb can turn into the most frustrating experience of your day if the bulb base breaks off and gets stuck in the socket.

The universal impulse when this common situation occurs is to grab a pair of pliers and try to grip the edge of the old base to unscrew it.

Unfortunately, this usually does not work and causes damage to the socket. Here are two surefire tricks to try next time:

First, make sure that the power is off. Either unplug the lamp or flip off the circuit breaker or remove the fuse that controls the fixture you are working on. Then, insert the tip of a pair of long-nose pliers into the old broken off bulb base.

With the end of the pliers pushed tightly into the base, spread the handles apart so that the tips of the jaws firmly contact the sides of the bulb base. Then turn the pliers themselves to unscrew the old base from the socket.

If you do not have long-nose pliers available, sometimes you can manage the same maneuver by forcing the base of a new light bulb firmly into the broken off old base and then turning the new bulb to unscrew the old piece.

Help prevent this problem from recurring by putting a very thin coat of petroleum jelly on the base of the new bulb before threading it in.