Fluorescent shop light woes

Have you complained to Lowes? Or GE?

I have some opinions, but as I'm not an expert on fluorescent-light ballasts, starters, etc, I'll keep my mouth shut. However, I've never owned fluorescent fixtures or tubes of any brand that seemed to fail prematurely. I currently am using Sylvania tubes (from Costco) in my kitchen. They seem to last around 5 years.

I bought about 10 fixtures at a local building store, for about $10 ea. One went bad. I need to change that one out. I'm sure they are Chinese. Not bad odds.

There are also some very bright lamps these days. Look for the total lumens output. Some 40 watters have 3300 and more. Don't buy any less than 3000. GE Ecolux are amazing.

greg

Go with that last thought... Those cheap fixtures are not worth the (scrap) metal they are made from.

I got 25 fixtures from a surplus supplier (used, good condition) that was local. Price was excellent, $5 each, and only three bad ones in the lot.

The last batch of GE fluorescent lights I bought were all stamped, "Made in China".

I have also found these cheapo light fixtures are eating lamps. It's that f***ing "electronic" (a.k.a. energy saving or green) ballast.

Look for a fixture that has a real traditional ballast in it.

Pitch it.

I have two old flourescent shop lights in my shed in my back yard and one old one in a room which used to be an open carport.The two in my shed work ok, but the one in the other room, I think it needs a new ballast.If there is an industrial supply store in your area, I think that would be a good place to buy flourescent shop lights. cuhulin

Are you sure it's the bulbs that are failing?

Do you have another fixture you could try them in?

The reason I ask is that I picked up a few "el cheapo" fixtures at HD, and they all had electronic ballasts. They all worked OK, except the one which I stuck in our attic, with a long extension cord. Apparently the voltage drop of the cord was enough to prevent the thing from starting reliably. When it didn't start, it would hum and apparently draw quite a bit of current. The little transformers in the end caps overheated (notwithstanding the little thermal fuses taped against them), I believe some windings shorted, and now the thing almost never starts, and tubes get blackened if you leave them in it.

It's a defective ballast, these are the ultra-cheap electronic type right? Buy a decent fixture with a real ballast and you'll be much happier. If it's less than about $25, it's not worth getting.

It's all in the phosphors. The modern trichromatic phosphors put out a lot of light, and the color rendering is substantially better which improves visual acuity. Some ballasts drive the lamps a lot hotter than others too, the cheapest magnetic ballasts run a 40W lamp at about 25W, few give you a true 40W, but some commercial ballasts are at least close.

They're not there because they're energy saving, they're there because they're cheap, not only to produce, but to ship because they're light weight.

The best ballasts you can buy in both performance and efficiency are electronic, but you won't find them in low end fixtures. Magnetic ballasts are middle of the road, there's only so many corners they can cut and still have them work without catching fire.

I use T8 tubes with good quality programmed start microprocessor controlled ballasts in most of the linear fluorescents in my house. They provide good cold weather performance in the garage, no flicker, long lamp life, and good efficiency. Retail is about 50 bucks a piece, but I found a deal on ebay.

The 10 I bought for $10 each had real ballasts.

I recently bought a ballast for $40, but that was a 4 tube ballast. The two tube model was $30. When you buy from Grainger, its not Wally World.

greg

I don't know how Grainger manages to sell anything lighting related. They wanted nearly $100 for a GE 400W metal halide lamp, the *same* lamp can be had elsewhere for less than $30.

I once saw an incandescent light bulb trick in a Popular Mechanics magazine about fifty five years ago.Next time one of your incandescent light bulbs burns out, remove the threaded piece from the bulb.Glue the piece on to the top of a good light bulb opposite of the metal threaded piece on the good bulb.Get a little box or cheap plastic bowl.Put an electric cord (with a light bulb socket on one end of the electric cord) through a hole near the bottom of the box or bowl, fill the box or bowl up with some sand and screw the good bulb into the socket and plug the other end of the cord into a wall outlet.Have it arranged so that the glued on metal threaded piece on the good bulb is sticking straight up or out at an angle.Fix it so that the electric cord is out of sight. cuhulin

Is this to make it appear that the light bulb is working without any power? Thats the only thing I can gather from your explanation, because it certainly won't do anything electrically from my somewhat vague understanding of your explanation. Sounds like a good brain teaser for house guests.

power?

If it's a "trick", I don't know whom it would fool, as the base of an incandescent bulb normally comes out the tapered end.

Could this have been a "Wordless Workshop" project Popular Science rejected? (Roy Doty is still alive and working, by the way. He does cartoons for MAKE:.).

I sure am glad that Roy Doty is still alive and kicking.I used to read his real good articles every month.Maybe it was in Popular Science where I read that article so many years ago about the light bulb trick.I used to read Science And Mechanics and Mechanix Illustrated magazines too, untill they went belly up.

Check out the January 2008 Popular Mechanics magazine on page

105.Popular Mechanics Shop Notes.Complete Series from 1905 to 1930.$129.00.I am thinking I will buy a set of those reprint books.The ad in the magazine also mentions

One time when I was on vacation in Florida, I stopped off at a junk shop in Pensacola near the U.S.Navy Base.The elderly guy there had two cardboard boxes of old, old Popular Mechanics and Popular Science magazines for sale, $10.00 each box.Needless to say, I bought both boxes of the magazines.Some of those magazines date all the way back to

1911.The magazines are still in good condition too. cuhulin

Lee Valley has been selling those reprints for a couple of years, at least, and some longer (they were reprinting a few a year until they got to 1930). They also have some other reprinted books along the same lines--the four original "boy mechanic" books, the three volume Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary (which is really an encyclopedia of nearly all technological advancement through the mid 1800's), and some others.

They're one of those crafty retailers that manages to extract money from unsuspecting persons like me by having interesting products, fair prices, and good customer service. It's well worth checking out, and doubly so if you need some new knobs for your spare parts cabinet.

(No affiliation beyond a happy customer, of course.)

--
Andrew Erickson

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot
lose."  -- Jim Elliot

From my experience, I found that some of the cheaply made ballasts and lamps used in the low end fixtures don't last very long.

Personaly, I would get a good quality fixture, preferably something made in America. I only use made in America products whenever possible.

--

JANA _____

I'm ready to pitch the fixture and replace it with one made in America if such a thing is still available. What do you think?

Good luck. I prefer to buy American or European products but the classic name brands build all this sort of stuff in China, Mexico, Malaysia, or various third world countries. Very few mass produced products are built here anymore and it's less all the time.