Issues with 48" T8 LED tubes?

[JTK]

I recently bought a pair of Phillips daylight 5000K 48" T8 LED "plug and play" tubes to try in an older T8 fixture at home. No go. They wont light. These retrofit tubes are designed/marketed to be used WITH the existing ballast. No ballast bypass. Given I wanted to swap out a cheap T12 fixture in the garage anyway, I bought a new cold temp start T8 to try these LED tubes in. STILL no go. From what I've read online, these tubes won't necessarily work with all ballasts. Back to Home Depot they'll go.. They were under $10/ea FWIW..

 

[440Magnum]

I had one T8 ballast in a utility room that wouldn't restart my hybrid LED tubes unless you left it off for several minutes. Since the tube were hybrid, I just tossed the ballast and direct-wired. All 8 fixtures in the garage worked without issue.

 

[Drosselmier]

Do you connect Black AC wire to one side of the lamp and White wire to the other ?

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
I had one T8 ballast in a utility room that wouldn't restart my hybrid LED tubes unless you left it off for several minutes. Since the tube were hybrid, I just tossed the ballast and direct-wired. All 8 fixtures in the garage worked without issue.


I almost wish these were hybrid where you could run them with or without the existing ballast. I'm just going to return them and wait for the technology to get a little better/cheaper.

 

[mk378]

Why would anyone leave an old ballast in there, it is just going to waste energy, and eventually fail. Either bypass the ballast or replace the whole fixture.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: mk378
Why would anyone leave an old ballast in there, it is just going to waste energy, and eventually fail. Either bypass the ballast or replace the whole fixture.


Like said, these lamps specifically say to leave the ballast in place. They use 17watts each. Huge waste there.

 

[Cujet]

Originally Posted By: mk378
Why would anyone leave an old ballast in there, it is just going to waste energy, and eventually fail. Either bypass the ballast or replace the whole fixture.


To maintain the fixture's UL compliance. Such might be required in commercial buildings and by certain leases.

 

[Cujet]

I purchased Costco "Luminus" 4 foot 2200 lumen, LED replacement tubes. They require a ballast.

They are fantastic. And absolutely brighter than the 3300 lumen T12's they replace, as the LED's don't waste much light upwards.

I want to try them with direct wiring, just to see if they will work. It's possible the internal power supply will work on anything.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: mk378
Why would anyone leave an old ballast in there, it is just going to waste energy, and eventually fail. Either bypass the ballast or replace the whole fixture.


There's little or no efficiency penalty for using an electronic t8 ballast as the current limiter for the LED string inside the lamp. When direct wired, the hybrid basically uses an internal ballast anyway. No hybrid works with the old magnetic rapid-start ballasts.

 

[Vikas]

Doesn't Costco sell the complete light for about the same price? Couple of weeks ago, they were on sale for $25 each. They are bright. I purchased bunch of them last year when they were at $35 and lighted up my attic, basement and garage.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
Originally Posted By: mk378
Why would anyone leave an old ballast in there, it is just going to waste energy, and eventually fail. Either bypass the ballast or replace the whole fixture.


To maintain the fixture's UL compliance. Such might be required in commercial buildings and by certain leases.



Also if you have to pay labor to do an entire office space, the labor cost would add up quickly if you have to rewire everything and remove ballast.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Doesn't Costco sell the complete light for about the same price? Couple of weeks ago, they were on sale for $25 each. They are bright. I purchased bunch of them last year when they were at $35 and lighted up my attic, basement and garage.


The tubes are about $10 each / $20 for a 2-tube fixture. The nice thing is you can switch slowly as the old t8 tubes fail instead of shelling out hundreds to do a whole room before the old tubes fail.

 

[eljefino]

My WM "Lights of America" electronic ballast doesn't work with the HD LED tubes but another brand does. Semi-disappointing.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
My WM "Lights of America" electronic ballast doesn't work with the HD LED tubes but another brand does. Semi-disappointing.


I was burnt by Light of America long enough that I'd rather buy a Chinese brand Chinese made product before anything from this brand. My failure rate so far is 100% within 6 months.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
My WM "Lights of America" electronic ballast doesn't work with the HD LED tubes but another brand does. Semi-disappointing.


The new T8 fixture I bought from Lowes to use with the Phillips T8 LEDs is made by Utilitech. Apparently this combo is a no go too.

 

[JTK]

Returning these tubes to Home Depot was quite comical. I explained they wouldn't work with my fixtures. "Oh.. so they don't work then?" Uh.. I can't say that. They just wouldn't work for me. "So they DID work then?". Umm, no..

I hate having to return things.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: JTK
Returning these tubes to Home Depot was quite comical. I explained they wouldn't work with my fixtures. "Oh.. so they don't work then?" Uh.. I can't say that. They just wouldn't work for me. "So they DID work then?". Umm, no..

I hate having to return things.


Next time just tell them they don't work, their engineers will figure it out if they want to, and see why they didn't do a good job designing it.