Random Pieces of Trivia About Yourself...

[Mike]

I like the Alto's green ends after I paint them black lol. Then they look like vintage blackenders. with the green etch tough there's nothign you can do about it though. It doesn't bug me though but I know it bugs you. Just like the green ends don't bug you but the bug me lol. They don't bug me with most rapid start fixtures but seeing an alto on a Preheater is just weird... lol

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

Yeah I guess...but then again it says, "Still going with lots of hours to boot!" about the fixture.

[Mike]

yeah it also says the fixture is well taken care of too since altos weren't around before the 90s, meaning the preheaters were atleast relamped in the last 15-ish years... did philips start the low mercury eco movement?

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

Possibly.  I think the first Altos were circa '97-ish and were only 34w T12 at first.  I have a pair of non-Alto Home Light Cool lamps that came with my current house that date to June 1999 I think (9F).
I think the only low-mercury lamps in my house are some GE Ecolux 3500K F32T8s.  On my boat there's some 6500K and 4100K Sylvania Octrons but that's IT!

[Mike]

Ahh well i have 3 full mercury Philips 34W T12s from 1997 so i guess they were from one of the last full mercury batches.

My brother's closet light has a GE F20T12/D (maybe /DX) EcoLux lamp and my 1973 RS fixture has a pair of EcoLux 4100K GEs and the 1950s preheater in my laundry room has a pair of 3500K GE EcoLux lamps. The only full mercury linear fluorescent lamps in service at my house is my closet light F20T12/CW Canadian Sylvania (original to the house), my parents' closet light F20T12/CW American Sylvania, the F30T12 undercabinet light that's mounted to the wall with a Sylvania lamp, and my F20T12 preheat undercabinet light with a late 80s 3500K GENERAL (GE) ELECTRIC lamp. The reason I'm using it instead of a newer lamp is because it has a bad pin on one end so I want to use it up before the pin gets too damaged to the point where it won't work.

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

Ahh I see...is it in the same room as the 3500K Ecolux lamps in the '50s long-john preheater?
The closet lamp is likely just a plain D as I think 2' lamps are exempt from the regulations that affect F40s and F96s.
The full mercury linear lamps in service right now are...
A '91-'94 GE-made ACE F40CW and a Sylvania Cool White Plus in a Lithiona wraparound in the garage on a Radionic LPF ballast
The Sears shoplight in there with the GE Bonusline ballast and Sylvania Cool White Plus lamps
A cheap Lithiona shoplight also out there with some pre-Alto "cool" Philips Home Light lamps
In the other shop, an 80s shoplight with some GE Mainlighters on an LPF ballast
In my room, the 3-lamp troffer with 3 GE Plant&Aquarium lamps (Yes it's got plants under it)
The other 2-lamp troffer with a Universal Therm-O-Matic ballast and a GE Residential Light lamp and a Sylvania Workshop F40 lamp.
I don't think the lamp-cooker shoplight counts...

[Mike]

the 3500K F20T12 is in the F20 undercabient light which is in the utility room with the cool white lamps in the RS 1973 fixture. the F30T12 undercabinet light has a cool white lamp and is in the laundry room with the 1950s preheater, which has the 3500K lamps.

yeah it's a little mis-matched lol. I like the warmer colored tubes in the laundry room plus they're brighter. All my F30 tubes are cool white though. when i firsy installed the f20 undercabinet light it had a cool white ecolux. And to futher mismatch things, the 4ft light in the laundry room is preheat and the F30 light is RS. the 4ft light in the utility room is RS an the 2ft undercabinet light is preheat lol.

ahh you seem to have more fixtures in service than i do (well of course you do lol. Right now i only have four lol. after tomorrow I'll have six though.

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

To further mismatch things at my house, there's umpteen cases of fixtures that are newer than the lamps in them! Except for the Sears light.

[Mike]

my F20T12 preheat undercabinet light has a lamp that's older than it. (i took out the GENERAL (GE) ELECTRIC SP35 F20T12 and stuck that in the Western Electric spec'ed light). It's one of my 30 Sylvania F20T12/WW lamps from 1986. The undercabinet light is (was) NOS from I think the late 90s-early 2000s and is very well built.

I think that's my only fixture with lamps older than itself.

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

I'm going to be around that M-400A and Regent yardlight with the Lifeguard lamp come this Tuesday...I'll try to get pics.

[Mike]

Wo-hoo! Can you get pics of the side, bottom, top, a shot with the refractor door open, and a show of the ballast and the inside?

JI made a video showing how to open up the M-400A since i know you said you had trouble with the latch last time. I posted it on the LG. I made the video with my M-250A but the M-400 and M-400A also used the same latch.

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

I saw that vid...maybe I'll even have to get a vid of the /DX Lifeguard firing up!

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

The oldest linear fluorescent lamp I have is a May 1977 GE F40CW Mainlighter, made at the Jackson, Mississippi factory, which I found in the trash behind the Port Alexander city hall building in 2013.  It's heavily used but still works.

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

My newest linear fluorescent lamp is currently a 2013 Sylvania F40/Daylight Full Spectrum

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

There's no cell phone service at my house.