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Electronics Repair (sci.electronics.repair) Discussion of repairing electronic equipment. Topics include requests for assistance, where to obtain servicing information and parts, techniques for diagnosis and repair, and annecdotes about success, failures and problems. |
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#1
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Fluorescent shop light woes
Within the past few months I installed a new fluorescent shop light fixture
in the basement. Came from Lowe's if memory serves. This thing has been killing bulbs ever since. Three replacements already. I've never had this experience with a shop light in the past. Of course the fixture is made in China. Do you think the design of the fixture is to blame or is it just a manufacturing defect. On the other hand the bulbs could be defective, but the ones I'm using aren't cheapos. They are made by GE, but who knows in what country. 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? |
#2
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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. |
#3
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Fluorescent shop light woes
In article , "Silver Surfer" wrote:
Within the past few months I installed a new fluorescent shop light fixture in the basement. Came from Lowe's if memory serves. This thing has been killing bulbs ever since. Three replacements already. I've never had this experience with a shop light in the past. Of course the fixture is made in China. Do you think the design of the fixture is to blame or is it just a manufacturing defect. On the other hand the bulbs could be defective, but the ones I'm using aren't cheapos. They are made by GE, but who knows in what country. 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? 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 |
#4
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Fluorescent shop light woes
On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:43:42 -0500, "Silver Surfer"
wrote: Within the past few months I installed a new fluorescent shop light fixture in the basement. Came from Lowe's if memory serves. This thing has been killing bulbs ever since. Three replacements already. I've never had this experience with a shop light in the past. Of course the fixture is made in China. Do you think the design of the fixture is to blame or is it just a manufacturing defect. On the other hand the bulbs could be defective, but the ones I'm using aren't cheapos. They are made by GE, but who knows in what country. 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? 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. |
#5
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Fluorescent shop light woes
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. |
#6
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Fluorescent shop light woes
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 |
#7
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Fluorescent shop light woes
On Dec 11, 9:43 am, "Silver Surfer" wrote:
Within the past few months I installed a new fluorescent shop light fixture in the basement. Came from Lowe's if memory serves. This thing has been killing bulbs ever since. Three replacements already. I've never had this experience with a shop light in the past. Of course the fixture is made in China. Do you think the design of the fixture is to blame or is it just a manufacturing defect. On the other hand the bulbs could be defective, but the ones I'm using aren't cheapos. They are made by GE, but who knows in what country. 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? 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. |
#8
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Fluorescent shop light woes
"Silver Surfer" wrote in message . .. Within the past few months I installed a new fluorescent shop light fixture in the basement. Came from Lowe's if memory serves. This thing has been killing bulbs ever since. Three replacements already. I've never had this experience with a shop light in the past. Of course the fixture is made in China. Do you think the design of the fixture is to blame or is it just a manufacturing defect. On the other hand the bulbs could be defective, but the ones I'm using aren't cheapos. They are made by GE, but who knows in what country. 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? 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. |
#9
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Fluorescent shop light woes
I bought about 10 fixtures at a local building store, for about $10 ea. One went bad. I need to change that one out. I'm sure they are Chinese. Not bad odds. There are also some very bright lamps these days. Look for the total lumens output. Some 40 watters have 3300 and more. Don't buy any less than 3000. GE Ecolux are amazing. It's all in the phosphors. The modern trichromatic phosphors put out a lot of light, and the color rendering is substantially better which improves visual acuity. Some ballasts drive the lamps a lot hotter than others too, the cheapest magnetic ballasts run a 40W lamp at about 25W, few give you a true 40W, but some commercial ballasts are at least close. |
#10
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Fluorescent shop light woes
I have also found these cheapo light fixtures are eating lamps. It's that f***ing "electronic" (a.k.a. energy saving or green) ballast. They're not there because they're energy saving, they're there because they're cheap, not only to produce, but to ship because they're light weight. The best ballasts you can buy in both performance and efficiency are electronic, but you won't find them in low end fixtures. Magnetic ballasts are middle of the road, there's only so many corners they can cut and still have them work without catching fire. I use T8 tubes with good quality programmed start microprocessor controlled ballasts in most of the linear fluorescents in my house. They provide good cold weather performance in the garage, no flicker, long lamp life, and good efficiency. Retail is about 50 bucks a piece, but I found a deal on ebay. |
#11
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Fluorescent shop light woes
In article D5A7j.3035$xd.1922@trndny03, "James Sweet" wrote:
"Silver Surfer" wrote in message ... Within the past few months I installed a new fluorescent shop light fixture in the basement. Came from Lowe's if memory serves. This thing has been killing bulbs ever since. Three replacements already. I've never had this experience with a shop light in the past. Of course the fixture is made in China. Do you think the design of the fixture is to blame or is it just a manufacturing defect. On the other hand the bulbs could be defective, but the ones I'm using aren't cheapos. They are made by GE, but who knows in what country. 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? 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. 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 |
#12
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Fluorescent shop light woes
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. 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. |
#13
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Fluorescent shop light woes
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 |
#14
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Fluorescent shop light woes
wrote in message ... 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. |
#15
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Fluorescent shop light woes
"Michael Kennedy" wrote in message
... wrote in message ... 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. 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. 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:.). |
#16
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Fluorescent shop light woes
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 www.leevalley.com 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 |
#18
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Fluorescent shop light woes
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 _____ "Silver Surfer" wrote in message . .. Within the past few months I installed a new fluorescent shop light fixture in the basement. Came from Lowe's if memory serves. This thing has been killing bulbs ever since. Three replacements already. I've never had this experience with a shop light in the past. Of course the fixture is made in China. Do you think the design of the fixture is to blame or is it just a manufacturing defect. On the other hand the bulbs could be defective, but the ones I'm using aren't cheapos. They are made by GE, but who knows in what country. 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? |
#19
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Fluorescent shop light woes
"JANA" wrote in message ... 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. 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. |
#20
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Fluorescent shop light woes
"James Sweet" wrote in message news:2Qq8j.5400$W27.3270@trndny09... "JANA" wrote in message ... 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. 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. Honestly I'm starting to wonder if we make anything here anymore other than mag lites and craftsman tools. It won't be long before those are out of business or being made overseas. |
#21
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Fluorescent shop light woes
And the best part is that every dollar we spend on Chinese products helps
them build up their military and technological capabilities. The US's technology lead could soon disappear. Maybe then all those short sighted American companies that shared their valuable expertise with our Chinese "friends" for the sake of a profit now will realize what a horrible mistake it was. Buy American while you still can. This poster tries hard to do that, but as others have pointed out certain American products no longer exist. For example I'm still looking for a set of American made automotive jack stands. The last time I looked there was one genuine Made in America set of stands out there for a price that was at least four times the price charged for the ubiquitous Chinese types, Craftsman being a good example. Holy cow. Sad to say, but there is a financial limit to my patriotism. Still looking though. Have not bought the Chinese jack stands yet and have no intention of doing so. "Michael Kennedy" wrote in message . .. "James Sweet" wrote in message news:2Qq8j.5400$W27.3270@trndny09... "JANA" wrote in message ... 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. 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. Honestly I'm starting to wonder if we make anything here anymore other than mag lites and craftsman tools. It won't be long before those are out of business or being made overseas. |
#22
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Fluorescent shop light woes
I have three flourescent screw in light bulbs in my house.One in my
kitchen and two in the light fixture above the medicine cabinet in my bathroom.I never turn them off.Lights of America, I think is the brand name of them, I bought them at the Wal Mart store.Back in the 1970s, a W.T.Grant store was going out of business and closing that store down.They had a lot of stuff on sale.One of the on sale items I bought was a made in Nederlands flourescent thingy.When I installed that light in my bathroom, I wrote the day and date on it with a ball point pen.That light lasted for about fourteen and a half years untill the plug in glass bulb itself finally gave up the ghost.If I can find another plug in light bulb like the old one, I will give it another go. cuhulin |
#23
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Fluorescent shop light woes
wrote in message ... I have three flourescent screw in light bulbs in my house.One in my kitchen and two in the light fixture above the medicine cabinet in my bathroom.I never turn them off.Lights of America, I think is the brand name of them, I bought them at the Wal Mart store.Back in the 1970s, a W.T.Grant store was going out of business and closing that store down.They had a lot of stuff on sale.One of the on sale items I bought was a made in Nederlands flourescent thingy.When I installed that light in my bathroom, I wrote the day and date on it with a ball point pen.That light lasted for about fourteen and a half years untill the plug in glass bulb itself finally gave up the ghost.If I can find another plug in light bulb like the old one, I will give it another go. cuhulin Lights of America products are, ironically, made in China using mostly Japanese fluorescent tubes. They're also well known to make some of the worst quality lighting products in existence. You get lucky once in a while, but I only have two LOA products that still function, one is an early 1980s circline retrofit with a magnetic choke ballast in the rarely used storage closet light, and the other is fluorescent wall pack out back. Historically, the tubes themselves have been quite good quality, but LOA engineers either can't design a ballast that's worth a crap, or and forced to cheap out by the bean counters. |
#24
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Fluorescent shop light woes
Lights of America products are, ironically, made in China using mostly
Japanese fluorescent tubes. They're also well known to make some of the worst quality lighting products in existence. You get lucky once in a while, but I only have two LOA products that still function, one is an early 1980s circline retrofit with a magnetic choke ballast in the rarely used storage closet light, and the other is fluorescent wall pack out back. CU has reported that LOA CFLs have relatively short lives. |
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