Gallery of Lights
The Site => General discussion => Topic started by: Form109 on March 26, 2014, 12:11:31 PM
-
Here's a thought that just happened to wander my mind in the Last few minutes.
and it's pretty self explanatory through the title. But who makes the best of what these days?
im talking Fixtures,Lamps,Ballasts.
somewhere in my mind I want to think GE is supposed to be the pinnacle of quality when it comes to lighting stuff but who really is on top of things when it comes to them lasting in the field in active day-to-day duty?
-
Well for cobraheads I'd say Hubbell makes the best quailty lights but they come with a hefty pricetag... GEs are good quality too and less expensive. Personally, I think AEL is the best value for your money since they're inexpensive, make a good quality light, easy to deal with, and have the most options.
For lamps, I've heard EYE is great, but they're mote for people growing pot in their basements with their specialty wide-spectrum lamps lol... I'd say Sylvania is the best for light bulbs, except for CMH lamps and household LEDs, where i think Philips is the best (yep, Philips!)
for ballasts, i think a ballast is a ballast but Advance seems to have the best reputation...
for photocells I'd say DTL is the best value for your money. Inexpensive, pleasant to deal with, lots of options, and great quality.
-
IMO from what I've had experience with:
T12 fluorescents: Sylvania
Incandescents: not sure
RS ballasts: Universal (back in the day that is)
Not sure about others, just avoid cheap junk...
-
hmm i didn't think about fluorerescents... all fluorescetns are sorta junky now (fixtures that is) though GE and Sylvania lamps aren't bad.
for incandescents I'd say Sylvania hands-down since they made their lamps in the USA. The latest GE incandescents and halogens I'ved bought were terrible. Not too much experience with Philips but if they're anything like their alto brothers... lol
I've noticed GE halagens will dim out prematurely after a month or two or even after a few minutes! Their incandescents will dies after only a couple months of use.
-
Not much experience here with incandescents since my house is mostly linear fluorescent, preheat circline adapters and, yes, spiral CFLs. The incandescent ban won't affect me at all!
-
I actually have a question reguarding the quality of Lumec lights.
anybody know?
the first time I saw one was In a parking lot in Gladewater,Texas....now up here in Fort Worth I see a relatively small amount but they're in quite a few places if you really look. they're the small ones with 100-250 Watt lamp size.
-
I am not sure who currently makes a high quality fixture. From my experience with Central Mass lights, the GE's were very robust in construction and quality up until 1993. That is when GE redesigned their doors/heads on the M250R2's with thinner metal construction and the flatter flimsy doors that would fall off if the wind blew just right. After GE redesigned the M250R2 doors "again" for 1994 and beyond (to look like pre 1992 versions) the construction stayed flimsy especially with the glass refractors installed. I remember seeing poles nearly bent in half from an accident and the original M400's, M400A1's would still be intact and functional. Since 1993, the M250R2's would almost always "drop its pants" (and maybe also lose its reflector) if someone just barely bumped the pole! GE used to build "beefy" fixtures but the past 20 years have become very "cheepy". They look good when new but with their flimsy construction and the amount of "dims" the 250 watt versions have in our city (due to bad capacitors) they are just throwaways after only a few years. Back before the HPS conversion of 1989, we still had fixtures from back in the 20's and 30's on up still rocking in service. Most of that quality got scrapped unfortunately.
-
Very true. I've never seen a "flat door" M-250R2 loose a door here. Seems here that the post-90s M-250R2s tend to loose their doors a lot. Though those flat door R2s were only made for about a year or so, there were lots of them in RI. In 50W, very few 100W, and 250W HPS drop lens in former NECo territitory and 70W, 100W, and 250W HPS FCO in former BVE territory.
The flat door M-250R2s were the last version to have the 4-bolt fitters too, which I prefer over the leveling steps in just about every light now. There have been dim 250W HPS M-250R2s here but I believe that was due to GE having a bad batch of 250W HPS lamps in the mid-90s that had bad vacuum seals, preventing the arc tube from building up enough heat. Or so I've heard. The lamps get stuck in "warm-up mode" and mimic a LPS light and they seem to last forever. Normally I'd only report cycling or out lights but those dim HPS weren't dying lol. They were about as effective as 50W HPS is not less effective too. I've since reported all the dim 250W HPS lights I see and a new lamp solves the issue.
-
The bulb issue could be a factor. However, I have rarely seen any other manufacturer model do the "dims" like the vast GE's do. Back in the early 90's when I used to rebuild these lights i would run into many dim 250 watt HPS GE's that with a cap change would fix the problem. Always suspected faulty caps since then.
I know I went off the subject a bit but figured this was good info to pass on in the quality dept.
-
Ahh I see. Yeah I heard GE's caps weren't always the best (specifically the 70s and 80s 400W MV). Nah this is good info to know so you didn't go off topic. :)