Lights of America Fixture
Parcxman
particular Lights of America flourescent ceiling fixture. Here's a cut and
paste of it's description: (My problem is described below.)
http://electrical.aubuchonhardware.com/light_fixtures/fluorescent_fixtures/
fluorescent_fixture-533610.asp
Decorative dome ceiling fixture for bedroom, kitchen, utility rooms, and
more. Electronic circuit allows instant start, no flicker. Replaceable
fluorescent bulb lasts 16 times longer than a regular bulb. Warm, natural
light color. 120V, UL listed.
MODEL NO. 4026: 14", white diffuser with white mounting plate, 160W of
light output for 30W, uses replacement circline fluorescent tube model No.
2630B or equivalent
MODEL NO. 4027: 14", white diffuser with polished brass mounting plate,
160W of light output for 30W, uses replacement circline fluorescent tube
model No. 2630B or equivalent
The problem is that the ballasts keep going out which causes the tubes to
go out. I know this because a new tube will not light up until you also
install a new ballast. Also, a component on the ballast looks scorched
after failure. I bought six of the fixtures for different parts of the
house, and all of them went out in less than a year. When the first one
went out, I replaced it. When the second one went out, I replaced it, too.
That's a total of eight fixtures going out.
I thought that perhaps I've got surge problems on one circuit, but the
lights are on three different circuits, and, my father-in-law had the same
problem at his home which is a few miles away.
We bought all of them at Home Depot. They don't carry them anymore. I
wonder if this is why.
Anyone else had similar problems with Lights of America or any flourescent
fixtures?
Thanks
j...@noname.com
store for refund... i was at a furniture store few years ago the day
after a big sale.. they sold alot of brass lamps cheap.. they had a line
about a block long with people returning lamps.... bet they dont sell
them anymore either....
HowAboutADrink
money due to the price of the bulbs..the LOA bulbs sell for about twice the
price ( about $10) compared to about $5 for the regular 22 or 32w
Parcxman
news:20021120220023...@mb-cp.aol.com:
I like the LOA fixture, and a regular circuline bulb won't fit. Besides,
it's the ballast that keeps going out, which blows the bulb.
Actually, I was just asking if anyone else had this problem with LOA.
Thanks
Parcxman
news:3DDC44...@noname.com:
> Parcxman wrote:
>>
>> Just wondering if anyone else has had the problems I've had with a
>> particular Lights of America flourescent ceiling fixture.
>> <snip>
>> Thanks
> they dont carry them anymore because most of them were take back to
> the store for refund... i was at a furniture store few years ago the
> day after a big sale.. they sold alot of brass lamps cheap.. they had
> a line about a block long with people returning lamps.... bet they
> dont sell them anymore either....
Are you talking about this particular model by LOA?
Don Klipstein
wrote:
Do a Usenet search on Lights of America, through Google or otherwise.
In order to be fair, do the same on their major competitors - GE / General
Electric, Philips, and Osram/Sylvania (or either Sylvania or Osram alone).
Oh, and just to be fair, take a look at how many compact fluorescents of
every brand are successfully being used. I see lots of working Philips,
GE's and Sylvanias and smaller quantities of Lights of America, with LOA
having more than its share of dead ones (especially in LOA's heydays,
before being replaced with another brand or replaced by incandescent due
to LOA giving some people a distaste for compact fluorescents in general
rather than just LOA ones).
Now, for another issue where I have to be fair: Those spiral/twist
compact fluorescents are available under quite a variety of brands but
they all seem to be made by some much smaller number of actual
manufacturers in China. I have had some really bad luck with 25 watt ones
made around 1999 or 2000 of both LOA and GE brands. More-recent and
lower-wattage ones seem to do wel, and regardless of brand.
Now for another complaint I have of LOA: Overstatement of light output.
If they cleaned up their act since roughly late 1999, sorry LOA, I stopped
buying your products due to failures and consistently occurring serious
deficiencies in meeting claims of light output in your compact
fluorescents marketed from 1992 through 1999.
Other brands (especially other than Sylvania) sometimes give optimistic
figures for light output and I have seen serious shortfall of meeting
claimed light output in a couple, but not most, GE models, but every LOA
unit of over a dozen units of 6 different models I have examined have
significantly fallen short of claimed light output. Yes, I allowed
several minutes warmup time and light output was always short, even
regardless of operating position and whether the room temperature was on
the cool side or the warm side.
This is my experience! Others may have more positive experience,
although I believe that a fair and even-handed session of Usenet seaching,
even excluding posts by me and following up to me or anyone I could be
found to disproportionately follow up to, would show that LOA has earned a
disproportionate share of dissatisfied customers.
Now, for your particular fixture: Are you able to get to one of those
electrical or electrical/lighting shops that contractors go to? Can you
get to one of those shops when their staff is not busy waiting on people
paid by the hour doing work other than standing in line? If so, then you
have a fair (but not absolutely good) chance of getting such a shop to
recommend a different and better replacement ballast for your fixture.
You may need to do the ballast replacement work yourself (requires being
at least to some extent mechanically inclined) and if the shop can only
sell you a ballast that also requires a starter, then good luck getting a
starter socket - my favorite way of doing that is to buy the cheapest
(thrift shop if they outprice Home Depot) lamp or fixture that has a
starter socket and then be prepared to use a drill and other tools. The
starter itself is usually easily enough available, and the type is usually
FS-2 for wattages 22 watts or less, and FS-4 for wattages more than 22 and
up to but not exceeding 40 and excluding 32. If the wattage is 32 or more
than 40, you don't want a ballast requiring a starter.
Ballasts usually come with wiring diagrams. If the ballast has only 2
wires, it usually does not come with a wiring diagram and will generally
require a starter (or a momentary pushbutton switch either rated for
fluorescent lamps or with at least any kind of horsepower motor load
rating). Basic, standard (at least in the USA) fluorescent fixture wiring
diagrams are in Sam Goldwasser's fluorescent lamp FAQ, and I have a copy
at: http://www.misty.com/~don/f-lamp.html
Can't do fixture upgrading fixup work? Then get one of a better brand.
But some more popular sizes of retail residential grade fluorescent
fixtures often have junky ballasts almost regardless of brand - in such a
case, go to the electrical supply shop and get a commercial grade ballast!
Good Luck,
- Don Klipstein (d...@misty.com)
Don Klipstein
>
>I like the LOA fixture, and a regular circuline bulb won't fit. Besides,
>it's the ballast that keeps going out, which blows the bulb.
What, another LOA proprietary fixture requiring that replacement bulbs
be of the LOA brand? I have heard this complaint of some other LOA
fixtures and ballast-adapters - in terms of LOA discontinuing bulbs
while nobody else makes ones that fit and are of the proper wattage.
If you are really up to adventurous hacking, get a bulb of a different
brand of the same overall size and same tubing width and hack off the base
and hack on the base from the LOA one! This requires knowing how to use
wirecutters, a soldering iron and rosin core solder, and sandpaper to
clean to bare metal the wires and parts you are soldering to, and the
patience and mechanical inclination (and maybe wearing gloves) to deal
with any plastic parts melting out of shape in the process.
And if you would rather take the safer route and get a different
fixture? I recommend that you verify that you can get replacement bulbs
of the brands GE, Sylvania, Osram, or Philips. Preferably with a color
rendering index 82 to 86. (That range usually has its color distortions
in the direction of brighter and more vivid, while outside that range has
color distortions usually mostly towards darker and duller. Also, light
output of a fluorescent is usually seriously compromised if color
rendering index is near or over 90.)
Good color codes are /SPX(number) for GE, /D8(number) for Osram or
Sylvania, and /8(number) or /TL8(number) for Philips. And as for that
number? 27 is an incandescent or orangish-incandescent common for compact
fluorescents, 30 is a "warm white" or roughly incandescent warm color, 35
is a whiter but warm color, 41 is plain white, 50 is an icy cold pure
white, and if you can find something somewhat higher like 65 it is an
icy bluish cold "daylight" white. For home use you usually want 35 or
less, since 41 or higher/cooler can look "dreary gray" except where you
achieve "office-bright" or "classroom-bright" illumination.
- Don Klipstein (d...@misty.com, http://www.misty.com/~don/index.html)
Parcxman
d...@manx.misty.com (Don Klipstein) wrote in
news:slrnatoq...@manx.misty.com:
Thanks, Don. You have a great website that I have bookmarked. I also did
a search on usenet about this topic. Yes, you are all over the place.
Now, about my next steps...
I'm a do-it-yourselfer and handle almost all types of big and small jobs
around the house (and car). Plumbing, new electric circuit runs, moving
outlet boxes, remodeling kitchens/baths and all that this entails such as
cabinetry, venting and drainage, repair large appliances, design and
install sprinkler systems, home pc networking and running and making my own
cat5 cabling, etc. If I don't understand how to handle a project, I collect
information and then proceed.
With flourescent fixtures, I've replaced cheapie ballasts with commercial
ones to eliminate hum, but I don't entirely understand the
theory/schematics involved. I basically just followed the instructions
that came with the ballast, and connected the old blue wire to the new blue
wire, etc.
Flourescents have always confounded me, though. I have six standard 4'
tubes in a recessed fixture in my kitchen ceiling. On cold (under 55 F)
mornings, the tubes are sometimes tempermental and take a while to light,
and them hum for a while once lit. In my garage, I have eight standard 4'
tubes in 4 shop light grade fixtures. Two of the shop light fixtures are
about 20 years old, and never give me problems. These are the ones that
have to be grounded. The other, newer ones, occassionally hum and don't
light immediately.
I like flourescents in some rooms where the color/temperature isn't
objectionable. They spread out a lot of light so I don't have to install
multiple incandescent fixtures. They also create much less heat per watt,
which is a consideration for ceiling fixtures. Some of the incansescent
ceiling fixtures that I've swapped out with flourescents got so hot that
the lead wire insulation was cracked and brittle where it came out of the
ceiling.
None of the flourescent lights mentioned above are LOA. The following are.
I have/had one each in two bathrooms, one in a laundry room and one in our
bedroom closet. As mentioned above, the old incandescents got too hot and
didn't throw enought light, so I replaced them with LOA fixtures, and have
had problems with all of them ever since.
The two bathroom LOAs have gone out a total of 6 times between the two of
them. Bath A is one it's third LOA, The first two times bath A went out, it
was lights out completely, all at once. Now, the third light, only lights
if I flick the switch on and off a few times.
Bath B has gone through 3 LOAs.
The hallway has two LOAs. One of them has been replaced once, and is still
working, and the other twice, and is now dead.
There's was an LOA in the laundry room. When it went out the first time, I
hated to, but I put a 3-bulb incandescent wall light strip up on the
ceiling. It's ugly, not meant for the celing, gets hot, but throws a lot
of light and is not on much, and is not seen by anyone but my wife (:-).
There was an LOA in our bedroom closet. It went out, I replaced it in the
same manner as I did the laundry room, above.
So, do I want to retrofit a descent ballast and get out the soldering iron
to make my own bulb bases? Well, I generally look at a project by how much
work is involved and how much payback (not monetary, but fixing a problem,
creating convenience, or improving appearance) I get. Sometimes I will
just do it, though, because I like it. In this case, I'm fed up with LOA,
and I can see that the retrofit could take a lot of time to do six lights,
I think I'll just look for a commercial grade flourescent ceiling fixture
that will look ok. It such an animal is too expensive, I may bite the
bullet and consider something like canned recessed lighting...but I'd have
to install lots of them to get enough light, especially in the long
hallway. Another research project, crawling in the attic, pulling wire,
getting hot and itchy. I think I'd rather have a root canal.
Don, thanks for all the information, especially about light
temperature/color.
Bruce (parcxman)
peter
wrote:
>I thought that perhaps I've got surge problems on one circuit, but the
>lights are on three different circuits, and, my father-in-law had the same
>problem at his home which is a few miles away.
The problem is probably sloppy workmanship by the
manufacturer. I have had problems with LOA in the past. Some of
their products work; some don't.
If I were in your shoes, I would contact LOA directly. They
will probably replace the fixtures for you. Hopefully the new ones
will be from a different factory and work properly.
You would be wise to stay away from this brand in the future.
I tend to be suspicious of brands that have names with
"America" in them. They are often attempting to give the impression
of good workmanship to products that are poorly made elsewhere.
Good luck.
Peter
akivae
one of them keeps burning bulbs. Again the bulb went out and this time
a new bulb doesn't work, I imagine it's the ballast. I went to Home
Depot to buy a new fixture and they don't seem to stock it any longer.
I called LOA, since the fixture is still under the 2 year warranty and
they said they will send me a replacement ballast. I'll see what
happens.
d...@manx.misty.com (Don Klipstein) wrote in message news:<slrnatop...@manx.misty.com>...
tiefl...@gmail.com
The Lights of America are the absolute winner of world's biggest piece of crap. I bought 2 dome circling T9 fixtures about 2 years ago. I had to buy a new fixture for one location, since these fixtures don't have replaceable ballasts - or starters. I'm on my 4th T9 tube & hoped that's all it would take for the flickering light. No, the new tube still flickers after being on for 5 minutes or so. I had been googling to see if the fixture (the one I replaced with ANOTHER Lights of America fixture) might have a replaceable ballast - it's clear immediately that there's no starter, by looking at the fixture. It does not. I've had it with trying to maintain the "look" of the fixtures *they are attractive on the exterior) but they are such garbage that I'll go to the level of Lightolier, Lithonia or other. It's almost impossible to find something actually made in America anymore. I'm becoming convinced that when you read "Made in China," you can here a vaguely faint bit of laughter coming from some Chinese that took the American job one of our corporations gave away, to make a few bucks. JMHO.
Tad Moore
> The Lights of America are the absolute winner of world's biggest piece of crap.
trader_4
plastic covers, bought 20 years ago and they all work perfectly.
I've replaced the bulbs in two of them that get the most use.