T12 bulb issues

[chevynut]

Some time ago I decided to replace all of the T12 "Cool White" fluorescent bulbs in my shop with "Daylight Deluxe" bulbs. The Daylight Deluxe bulbs are a lot "whiter" and I think they give better light. I have 8 fixtures that hold 4 four foot bulbs each.

I bought a box of 10 bulbs, and replaced the 8 bulbs in two of my fixtures with no problems. A couple weeks ago I bought another box, and I couldn't get 4 of the bulbs to work in any of the remaining fixtures I tried them in. Today I bought yet another box, and I've swapped the lights into all of the fixtures and now I have 6 bulbs that don't work in any fixture. They are dim and they flicker. I thought maybe it was a ballast issue, but the "cool White" bulbs still work fine in the same positions. All bulbs are 40 Watt.

Any idea what the problem might be? This is really frustrating. I can see what looks like "filaments" in 2 of the bulbs....coils of wire. Could the bulbs have been mis-handled causing something to break iside? I didn't think fluorescent bulbs had and filaments in them, but there sure is something in there.

[56-210Sedan]

sounds like a bad bundle of bulbs to me.

[JT56]

sounds like a bad bundle of bulbs to me.

I agree bad batch of bulbs

[chevynut]

But TWO boxes of them?

[carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)]

new means, never ever worked. maybe a bunch of boxes were all made by the same defective machine.

[chevynut]

Carl, my suspicion is that these were handled rough, perhaps dropped, and the filaments got broken. I can see broken filaments through the glass. Maybe they weren't assembled correctly in the first place as you said.

[destroyertta]

i buy cases of t8 bulbs all the time like 50pcs in a box for work and some times you may get a bulb or two that just dont work or light up a little or with some pink in it but if every bulb does it in that one fixture and not in others then it might be the ballest but if they do it in every fixture then it the bulbs but your situation sounds like its the bulbs good luck and nice shop

[c57heaven]

Bought a box of Philips F40 Homelight cool alto and never went through so many bulbs so fast.
Same thing...see little pieces of filament on the bottom after awhile.

[chevynut]

Yep these are Philips bulbs....but they're brand new and they don't work. I sure like the ones that work, but it won't be long and we won't even be able to buy them because of the goddam government. Then what? I have 8 T21 4-bulb fixtures BUILT IN to my ceiling.

[JT56]

Yep these are Philips bulbs....but they're brand new and they don't work. I sure like the ones that work, but it won't be long and we won't even be able to buy them because of the goddam government. Then what? I have 8 T21 4-bulb fixtures BUILT IN to my ceiling.

You can convert them to T-8. But you will need to change the ballast too.