best T8 replacement ballasts??

[Tom M King]

Put fixtures from Lowes or Home Depot in my Mother's kitchen and garage, and the ballasts don't last, as I'm sure a lot of you know. I thought someone here probably had already researched it. An online source would be good.
Thanks,

[Ole Anderson]

Dump the florescents and go with LED and be done with it.

[Greg R Bradley]

Good ballasts like Lithonia Mvolt series are going to cost as much as the cheap fixtures unless you are an electrical contracter with a good wholesale supplier. Home Depot is vastly better than Lowes for this type of lighting and even carries some of Lithonia's lighting above the cheap junk. In the future, if you go to HD and use Lithonia that have an Mvolt ballast, you will be fine.

If you have to buy a ballast anyway, going to direct wire LED can easily be worth it. You will have to replace the tombstone ends with non-shunted ones.

LEDs in the garage is probably an excellent idea. I wouldn't want the color in a kitchen but it depends on the person. Tends to look better in contemporary or modern designs.

[Jim Becker]

Dump the florescents and go with LED and be done with it.

After installing two LED units I got through Costco today in my shop, I have to agree with this...holy light-source, Batman! Two for $69...and free shipping...although one must be a Costco member to buy, of course. (The BORG wants about $50 each...) I'm planning on getting more and gradually eliminate the rest of the old T12 fixtures in the shop, outside of peripheral areas where light is merely for convenience.

[Tom M King]

She'll be 100 in April, and wanted it lit "as bright as an operating room" back whenever it was that I put these in. She likes the light, so I'm not going to get into changing the fixtures. Ballasts ordered from Home Depot.
Thanks for the help,

[Randy Rose]

She'll be 100 in April,

! Best wishes to your Mom !

[Jim Becker]

She'll be 100 in April,

'Sounds like she's a real whipper-snapper!

[Bill Cunningham]

After installing two LED units I got through Costco today in my shop, I have to agree with this...holy light-source, Batman! Two for $69...and free shipping...although one must be a Costco member to buy, of course. (The BORG wants about $50 each...) I'm planning on getting more and gradually eliminate the rest of the old T12 fixtures in the shop, outside of peripheral areas where light is merely for convenience.

I just bought a pack of two from Costco for $27.00 (Canadian). The Kitchen tubes started flickering, and figured it was time to replace them. They are the older fixtures, and I was worried that the LED ones would not fit or work in the older fixtures. Pulled the old tubes, and put in the LED replacements and WOW were those things nice and bright. The light is a purer white than the glass tubes were, and for $13.50 each (and a advertised 50k hours life) Seeing they are a 'direct' replacement, nothing has to be changed, I will work towards replacing all the ones in my shop as well.

[Jim Becker]

Mine aren't the replacement bulbs, Bill, but that's a great solution for places where keeping the existing fixture in place is either required or desired. And honestly, the price isn't bad either when you consider the nice light, instant startup and temperature tolerance of the LED setup.

[Bill Cunningham]

I wonder what they cost in the U.S. considering the Canadian dollar is currently about $0.70+/- USD Should be about 8 or 9 dollars a set which makes replacements even more sense.. The box says 19 watts, 2200 lumens. I assume that's for the two 4' LED tubes..

[ken masoumi]

When I was into freshwater fishkeeping hobby I used to hear a lot of praises on Workhorse ballasts made by Fulham Lighting, as you might know, aquarium lighting must be very reliable and must also take a lot of abuse for being in a damp environment, running day 7 days a week.
Another good place to look at :
http://www.ballastwise.com/item.asp?...FID=15&level=1

[Tom M King]

I ended up ordering some off amazon. The replacements were GE. The ones in the fixtures were Phillips. They looked like the cases came out of the same stamping machine, and the labels were identical, even down to the color combination, with the only difference being the name.