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The Sorta working Fixture...
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This one has a pre-Alto Philips F40 lamp, i think either daylight or cool white. The brighter lamp is a Sylvania Daylight lifeline lamp. this basement is full of them. when i first came down, the lamp worked normally, though the philips strobed. But when i came back to take a pic, it'd bink, then light for a second or two, then shut off and try to start again. all the while the starters are pinging crazily. the lamps don't even look blackened though. the switch is REALLY dirty. could it be to blame? i know with RS fiddling with the switch helps when the lamps won't strt but does the same hold true for preheat?
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Is that Philips F40CW pictured above still in existence in your collection or somewhere in the McCann Family network of preheat fixtures?
@ Aaron, if you're sure you don't want it... Do you want your money back? (i suppose that's a dumb question lol)
That Philips lamp was EOL right? If it's done on preheat it likely won't do much except rectify on rapid start (Although I associate Philips' logo with flickering lamps; Vince has said he does too; they used to be really common). Preheat will sometimes squeeze a little more life out of a spent lamp that's done on rapid start...but grab this one anyway! You can toss it later if it gets in the way...I knowingly did just that to a March 1976 F40Cw Mainlighter since it was all done...it had even had the electronic F32t8 ballast treatment.
So the lamps might be fine, although I remember that GE looking pretty spent or at least well-used. It's likely a Mainlighter or maybe a Early Watt-Miser (Let's hope not for the sake of the ballast) judging by the blackening it had in that pic, or at least before 1992-ish when they redesigned the electrodes and went to the "big meatball" etch.
I agree with you about the Sylvania lifelines all being put in when these fixtures were first installed in the house (and the F20 fixture originally had the 60s inside etch GEs). The Lifelines have different date codes but I think they're all from the late 60s. This house was actually lifted off its foundation and moved when they built Interstate 295. It was moved down the road onto a new foundation. This was in the 60s I believe. So far, the starters between the two fixtures were different brands (the same within each fixture though) so that tells me that the fixtures all have their original starters. Often preheat fixtures had the starters included with them so a lot of people (especially modern home owners) don't know that the starters need to be replaced or that they even can be replaced. I think the fluorescents were added when the house was moved to its new foundation.
Yeah my aunt and uncle have had just about everything rewired in the house and the fluorescents are all disconnected. they're going to install new fluorescents from my aunt's uncles house (my aunt actually isn't by bio-aunt, she's my mom's step-sister but we consider each other blood-relatives). I don't know if they're T8 or T12 but if they're T12 and have electronic ballasts I might offer to convert them to T8.
Not sure how worn the lamps are but the Philips had litte wear IIRC. The lamps are very dirty though and definetly need a good wipe-down.