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I recently fitted some halogen lamps and they cam with just normal terminal connectors, these little blighters get well hot and one of them melted the connectors and caused the transformer to short out

Is it normal for them to come with normal terminal connectors or should they be porcelain?

The wires did not have any heatproof sleeving over them either

A lot of them come with high temperature PVC connectors, but they normally are inside a little enclosure mounted on a metal tab that moves them away from the source of the heat. How far from the lamp is the nearest ceiling/joist/insulation?/ this may have affected them by creating a build up of heat in the joist run the light is in.

Some come with porcelain connectors, but not many

Nick

I think you are right, I seem to remember hitting a joist when I pushed the transformer back up through the hole :!:

Do you think a fire hood might help?

Thanks

Tone

No if anything a firehood will make things worse, as it will not allow heat to escape from the fitting as easily.

Is the fitting surrounded by thermal insulation?

trainer wrote:I recently fitted some halogen lamps and they cam with just normal terminal connectors, these little blighters get well hot and one of them melted the connectors and caused the transformer to short out

Is it normal for them to come with normal terminal connectors or should they be porcelain?

The wires did not have any heatproof sleeving over them either

what you have described usually points to a bad connection on them though.
the only way the terminal connector would have melted through the heat of the lamp is if the transformer cover melted as well. 99% of the time though, it's when people either snap cores off when cutting the insulation down to terminate the ends or when they tighten the screws up, i.e not properly.

always keep a good air flow space around the halogen fittings though and make sure your transformers and wires are no where near it.