ahh. here the polycarbonate lenses tend to really yellow badly. of course i've only seen them used in MV and 250W HPS fixtures though so that's why they yellow so badly. I saw a M-250R2 that's not connected to power get a new refractor door when i was little. it's mounted over a closed section of freeway and it is 250W but i don't think it's ever been connected to power. they didn't change the PC, as it still has the baby blue Fisher Pierce photocell so i think they just stuck a new door and lens on. but over the years i guess sunlight alone has made the lens yellow. it's very subtle but when there's snow on the ground you can tell it's a little yellowed. I guess the ozone hole is a little scarier than we think if sunlight along is enough to yellow a poly lens, albeit a tiny amount.

We have a lot of freeways that look "unfinished" and end abruptly so there are usually a few lights at the end that are lighting a gated off section of freeway or even grass. They've been that way since the 60s when the freeway projects were going off like wildfire. What I don't get though, is if the lights have always been disconnected, why were they changed to HPS M-250R2s in the 90s? It would have been nice if they kept those lights MV to preserve a little history...

Eekk yeah scary if the lenses are yellowing and the fixture never been lit. Most polycarb and acrylic lenses here are in pretty good shape as they are never used in fixtures over 150W HPS . All the mercury streetlights before the change-out 21 years ago were always glass. Hmm interesting they just abruptly ended some portions of the freeways there and bothered to change disconnected lights.

yeah i don't know if the east coast salty air might have something to do with it though. I'm thinking we get some hotter weather in the summer here than you would in the Pacific Northwest so maybe heat plays a roll in it. The lens could have been very slightly yellowed when they installed it too, I never thought of that until now...

Either way, those McGraw lenses are pretty well made if they've resisted yellowing for 25+ years.

Oh yeah for sure,the McGraws are pretty well made,even a good number of the Lexalite lenses are approaching 25 years of use around here.Hard to say if coastal environments may play a role,they seem about the same here close to the Pacific,it gets pretty hot here too, especially inland., I do notice some lenses do yellow more than others over time. Not sure if you guys have it in stores on the East Coast, but I find that a good shot of Spray Nine cleaner will remove some of the yellowing on the surface. When spraying it on the inside of some of the lenses the liquid that collects in the bottom becomes brown.

are the McGraw Edison lenses made by a bigger company or are they like the M-250R2 lenses, with no manufacturer origin? it seems with the formed Plastics and Lexalite lenses they will replace their logo with the fixture manufacturer's logo but on the M-250R2 lenses the GE logo is integrated into the prisms instead of being on a flat rectangle.

I did a quick search anbd found that Home Depot sells Spray Nine, or they at least have it listed online. Maybe I'll pick up a bottle for my plastic Crouse-Hinds lens and my ITT lens. As odd as it sounds though, I want to see how yellowed out I can get my GE/Formed Plastics lens lol. it's already pretty browned out so I want to see just how dark I can get it lol.

my ITT/Lexalite lens is just a little brown (more than this one is though) and my westinghouse/Crouse Hinds plastic lens is pretty browned out like the GE/FP one but those are pretty rare here so I'd like to remove as much yellow as i can. Mr.Clean Magic Eraser took some of the yellowing off but most of it is still there.

Ahh, I rarely come across yellowed lenses since the GTA uses mostly glass refractors but I've seen some yellowed up ones before so I guess there would be more yellowed lenses if we used plastic lenses.

Thanks for the tip Darren, if I ever come across a yellowed lenses I should grab spray nine from Canadian Tire and the like as try it out.

Over here they seem to just ignore lights that no longer light a road. There's a incandescent mini gumball here that's been dead for years.

@ Mike: The lens is Manufactured by Lexalite for McGraw Edison.

@ Joe: No problem, I find it works pretty good at removing some of the surface yellowing on the inside and out.Spray it on real good so it runs and you will see the Spray Nine turns brown as it settles to the bottom when treating the inside.

ahh interesting. I wonder if they still have this mold tucked away somewhere and it's just not cataloged. should you let the solution soak overnight or does it do the job pretty instantly? How much of the yellowing does it get out?

That would be cool if they still have this mold. I would let the solution sit no more than 5 minutes,otherwise it may dull the outside and inside surfaces, then hose it off.

yeah i bet it'd be expensive though! does the solution remove most of the yellowing or just a little?

I would say it removes about 50% of the yellowing.

on a lens like this that is just mildly yellowed, do you think it'd remove all of it? have you tried it on this lens? That Spray Nine stuff sounds like pretty powerful stuff! I'd hate to see what it would do to the paint on something lol.

It will only remove most of the surface yellowing if mildly yellowed,there will always be some as any yellowing internally can't be removed. It's a disinfectant spray which is pretty powerful,I don't think it will quite peel the paint off of something, but could dull it leaving it on too long,it removes rust streaks on surfaces too lol.

ahh i see. well sounds like it's worth the buy though!

Yep, good stuff, but also a good idea to avoid using it to clean the reflector,as it can cause some streaking of the shiney aluminum finish.

Hmm, what would you recommend to clean reflectors, I have a few traffic signal ones that could use some cleaning.

for my reflectors i use dish soap (Dawn) and warm water.

Yes dish soap works well,or a spray cleaner such as Windex.

i don't know about windex... I found it leaves whitish streaks in the reflector so i won't use it in my reflectors.

Ahh, I haven't noticed that,I guess then it has the potential to cause streaking like Spray Nine.