Fluorescent tube problems

[Gordon Shumway]

I have 8', Sylvania T12, 75W tubes (2 each) in my shop fixtures. The other day one of the tubes quit working. I replaced it with a used spare I had and it worked but appeared to not be as bright as a new tube would be.

Today I bought a box of new tubes that are exact duplicates of what I had

and replaced both of the above tubes with new tubes. Neither new tube would start properly, they flickered and hummed and would only produce about 1/2 of the expected light output.

I moved the new tubes to another fixture and had the same results. I replaced one new tube with a used tube and the used tube worked fine and the new tube still flickered and hummed and produced 1/2 the expected light. The results were the same in a third fixture. All in all I tried variations with six of the new tubes and none worked properly.

I don't have any spare ballasts to test for a dying ballast. I'm not sure how old the ballasts are, maybe 10 years old. Could the ballasts be the culprit or did I get a box of bad tubes?

[Ralph Mowery]

Could be a box of bad tubes. It could also be that over the years the gas inside the tubes have changed due to the mercury scare and the old ballast will not fire them off correctly.

By any chance was it cold in the area ? If much bleow 60 deg F the newer tubes have trouble starting up.

I just switched over to some LED type shop lights in my unfinished basement because of the tluorescent tube problems.

[Gordon Shumway]

My shop is in an unfinished basement, but the temp is never below 60 deg F.

What kind and how well do they perform?

[Tekkie®]

Gordon Shumway posted for all of us...

Have you had your tubes tied?

[John G]

It could be the ballast. However before you change it I would leave the ne w bulbs in the fixture and let burn in for a while. I have not used 8' lam ps for a long time, but I have had similar problems with new 4' lamps. I no ticed that after the 4' lamps are on for an hour they come up to full brigh tness and no more flickering. After that initial burn-in they are fine.

[Ralph Mowery]

The fixtures were bought at Home Depot for about $ 40 each. They are the 4 foot long ones. They plug in a standard 120 volt socket and at one end there is a small socket socket on the fixture that a cord about 6 inches long will fit in so you can put several in series. They seem to be just fine.

[bob haller]

make certain the fixtures are properly grounded, solid ground.........

make certain the fixtures are totally clean.

i have the same problem here. and just bought one new LED 4 foot shop light to test.

new fluroscents ddont appear to work as well and arent as brite. plus just plain fussy.

i repair machines in my shop and like it nice and brite.

i am about to toss all the fluroscents if the led work well

[Stormin Mormon]

At church, they had been using 4100k color tubes. I rather like that color. Bright, good color display and all. Trace of blue, but not enough to matter. Some one up in the church structure decided to go with

3000k bulbs, which are totally yellow. Now, all the bulbs we get are 3000k, and I've been putting them in. As those get replaced, we'll have a new color scheme.

The ones we used to use were Phillips, and seemed to do okay. The newer Sylvania tubes don't last very long.

What color do you use, and what do you like?

[Paintedcow]

I'm trying to picture these LED ones. Are they just 4' tubes filled with a strip of LEDs, or what? I have not seen them yet.

How costly?

[danny burstein]

There are two types of LEDs that fit into the standard 48 inch, nominally 40 watt, fluorescent fixtures.

The first work with 120VAC, so you have to take 15 minutes and rewire the fixture to bypass the ballasts.

The second somehow or other (and my head hurts at visualizing the electronics...) is a "drop in" that simply replaces the fluorescent tubes and doesn't require any rewiring.

Here are pictures of the "drop in"s that are available at Costco.

and

ANd yes, both types are a four foot tube with umptity dozen LEDs in a row..

[Paintedcow]

Some people are not happy unless they turn EVERYTHING into a political arguement.

[Stormin Mormon]

I don't know if the tubes my church uses are eco. But, I do know they don't last very long, and the light output is poor. Not sure which admin did this to us, but I do know I don't much like it.