the tractor vet
Well-known Member
I was wanting to up grade the GROUCH Cave to L E D's and while at Homer Depot i saw Phillips LED PLUG and PLAY , great instead of 27-30 bucks a new light i can JUST replace the old 40 W tubes with the new LED , so i bought 2 two packs and installed them in a repurposed four tube kitchen fixture over my table saw and like wow are these bright . So a couple months later i buy three more sets and go down to brighten up the CAVE , Took out two good tubes and installed the fist set and turned on the light and only one comes on vary dim and i wiggled the one that did not come on and nothing then SMOKE out comes the plug out come the bulbs and they are Super HOT with smoke coming out . hummmm , SO DOWN COMES THE FIXTURE AND I CHECK AND SEE IF THE Ballast is hot or fried , Nope it is cool so put the light back up install the old folressent and it works just fine . HUMM something is not right here so i try the second set of bulbs in another OLDER light fixture and they seam to work fine ----------- for and hour and a half and they go up in smoke . Well the first fixture came from the land of almost right with a China ballast and the older light is one of them rare finds of made in the U S A lights . Well i just smoked 376 bucks of bulbs i am un happy and the WAR DEPT. is living up to her Handle . So i called Phillips and i went to the PRO line not the Consumer line i want answers as i have about 17 lights i want to up grade . First person i talked to was a fairly well speaking Indian , ok i can deal with him and we talked , he dod not have the answers but did say that they will not work on all fixtures and certain ballasts , Well you hould have that on the package , and i get well it is and i start looking and out comes the 2.00 reader then the magnifying glass and yep it say to contact Phillips for the list of expectable ballasts . Well if you don't have Ballast #XXXXXXXXX made by Phillips or #XXXXXXXXXX made by GE or Ballast #XXXXXXXX made buy someone else they don't work and can go POOOOOOOFFFFFFFF I had this feeling that i should have went with the ones that you remove the ballasts and do the jumper wire deal and go straight 120 volt . Now had i not been down there when these took a DUMP or left the lights on when i came up from the cave like the War Dept does about 80% of the time and i only catch it when i do the late night dog walk this OLD house might have GONE up in flames Fast as a 130 year old home will go faster then the local fire dept can make the five block , but they are great about saving the Chimney and basement .