To make your garden variety magnetic ballasted fluorescent fixture work ,
requires a pile of connections, good lamps, good ballast, and to often good
atmospheric conditions. The current crop of electronic ballasts are really
reliable, don't blink, and the lamps give more light. I don't know if Depot
and Lowes sells decent fluorescent fixtures, I have seen some with a really
cheap integral ballast. Any lighting store or electrical supply will have
them


"stevie" wrote in message ...
rbm,
a question for you.
my fluorescent fixture, about 10 yrs old, works intermittently and seems
to
be worse when humidity is high. would you suggest replacing the fixture?

what are the 'electronic' fixtures? are they available at lowes, HD?

thanks
"RBM" rbm2(remove wrote in message
...
With each pair of bulbs working in series you've got a lot of socket
connections that can be loose, as well as a possible bad ballast. I'd
suggest replacing the ballasts and lamps with electronic ones, if not the
entire fixture. The electronic ones will wire completely differently, work
reliably and be brighter



"Dave N" wrote in message
.136...
Hi,

I have two 48" fluorescent fixtures in my kitchen, each with four bulbs.
They're old fixtures (maybe 25 years old), and I replaced the ballasts
in both fixtures a couple years ago.

Recently, one of the fixtures stopped working completely. Actually, not
quite completely: one of the four bulbs flickers dimly. I replaced all
four bulbs and there was no change. The new bulb in the same slot still
flickers dimly, and the other three new bulbs are effectively dead.

What could be happening? Bad ballast? Grounding problem? Any guesses,
based on the symptoms?