What would cause light bulbs in recessed lighting to constantly burn out and or shatter?

vibration, excessive voltage, cheap lamps, tapping lamp with a hammer, over tightening; To name a few.

What would be excessive voltage for a residential home for 120v. bulb?
(besides 240v.)

I'd try 130v bulbs first, and check the manufacturer's can/trim/lamp combination ratings.

Oh, and I'd suggest keeping the hammer away from the fixtures.

+ or - 5 % is generaly considerd to be within tolerance.

Excessive wattage.

We have found that vibration kills a lot more than people think; especially on a lower floor where people walk above. One house was so bad we put rough service bulbs in. Never blew another one there.

Too much heat in the recess can. Change bulbs to lower wattage rating, maybe change recess can's trim ring to a thinner design to allow more air flow.

Loose neutral.

These are a couple of ideas that might help.

SMF

What style lamps are you burning up?
Are they standard, pear shaped incandescents or are they spots or floods that are designed to reflect the light (and some of the heat) out of the can?
If they are standard incandescents such as you would find in a lamp, switch to the proper bulbs. If they are spots or floods, change to a lower wattage and make sure there is no insulation covering the back of the can.

Lost neutral, call fire dept.
Resistive connections, often the case...
Over-loaded circuit, rare...
Thermal sensor in over lamped can, often.
The cheapest lamp found on the internet, often.
Wrong dimmer, is also possible.

No kidding... At work I replaced a whole batch of CFLs because they were growing dim after about 1 year. Now I change incandescents bi-weekly.

To high wattage or wrong type lamps in recessed fittings, poor ventilation and hence quick burn out of lamps.

Vibration of floor above the lamps

Poor connections causes voltage fluctuations, intermittand arcing and brief voltage spikes across arc gap.

too high continuous mains voltage 5% over 50% reduction in lamp life 10% over 90% reduction in lamplife

Sandro2,

What is the location of these fixtures? Kitchen, bath, porch, rec room? And what are the max wattage ratings for the trims? And are the trims listed for use in the housings? Give me something! Thanks, HLCbuild

Thanks
I will try these suggestions

also, you could put the lamps on a dimmer as a lamp dimmed to 90% should almost double the length of its life

D'oh! I didn't think about this before: if dimming isn't a necessity, try a compact fluorescent light (CFL). The use about 1/4 the power for a given amount of light, and less heat.

They come in both clear and frosted glass reflector bulbs, as well as standard and globe shapes, and even candelabra types.