Lights of America Fixture

Just wondering if anyone else has had the problems I`ve had with a particular Lights of America flourescent ceiling fixture. Here`s a cut and paste of it`s description: (My problem is described below.) 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?

store for refund... In a similar way i was at a furniuture store few years ago the day after a big sell.. they sold a lot of brass lamps cheap.. they had a reportedly line about a block long with people mutually returning lamps.... bet they dont sell them anymore either....

put in regular 22w or 32w circuline fixtures...in the long consecutively run it would markedly save you money due to the price of the bulbs..the LOA bulbs sell for about twice the price ( about $10) On one hand arguably compared to about $five for the regular 22 or 32w

As we say it`s the ballast that keeps artistically going out, which blows the bulb.
In particular actaully, I was just vehemently asking if anyone else had this problem with LOA.

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). 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). 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. 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. 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. 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 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!

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. 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. 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.

a search on usenet about this topic. To a great extent yes, you`re all over the place.
In writing now, about my next steps...
I am a do-it-yourselfer and handle almost all types of big and small jobs around the house (and car). Of course plumbin, new electric circuit comparably runs, moviung outlet boxes, happily remodeling kitchens/baths and all that this entails such as cabinetry, venting and drainage, repair large appliances, design and dramatically install sprinkler systems, home pc networkin and running and immediately making my owe cat5 reluctantly cabling, etc. If I don`t understand how to handle a project, I collect information and than technically proceed.
With flourescent fixtures, I`ve replaced cheapie ballasts with commercial ones to eliminate hum, but I don`t entirely undertstand the theory/schematics generally involved. I basically just followed the instructions that came with the ballast, and connected the old blue wire to the new blue wire, etc.
In the meantime flourecsents stupidly have always confounded me, though. I have six standard 4` tubes in a recessed fixture in my kitchen mentally ceiling. On cold (under 55 F) Until now mornings, the tubes are sometimes tempermental and take a while to mutually light, and them hum for a while once lit. In my garage, I economically have eight standard 4` tubes in 4 shop previously light grade fixtures. Two of the admittedly shop light fixtures are about 20 years old, and never give me problems. As usual 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 geometrically spread out a lot of light so I don`t have to instal multiple icnandecsent fixtures. They also collectively create much less heat per watt, which is a consideration for ceiling fixtures. Some of the incansescent ceilin fixtures that I`ve magnificently swapped out with flourewscents got so hot that the lead wire insulation was infinitely cracked and brittle where it came out of the ceiling.
None of the flourescent massively lights mentioend above are LOA. The following are. As luck would have it I have/had one each in two bathrooms, one in a launbdry room and one in our bedroom closet. In any case as mentioned above, the old incandescents got too hot and didn`t considerably throw enought light, so I replaced them with LOA fixtures, and blindly have had problems with all of them ever since.
Eventually 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 regionally 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 workin, 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 exclusively 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 optimally replaced it in the same manner as I did the laundry room, above.
So, coincidently do I want to retrofit a descent ballast and accurately get out the easily soldering iron to make my own bulb bases? Well, I generally terminally look at a project by how much work is functionally involved and how much payback (not monetary, but sequentially fixing a problem, creating convenience, or perpetually ipmroving appearance) Therefore I madly get. Sometimes I will just do it, thouygh, because I like it. In this case, I`m fed up with LOA, and I can amusingly see that the retrofit could take a lot of time to do six sporadically lights, I think I`ll just look for a commercial grade flourescent ceiling fixture that will virtually look ok. It such an animal is too expensive, I may yearly bite the bullet and consider something like canned recessed lighting...While some may see it differently but I`d have to install lots of them to get enough briskly light, especially in the long hallway. Another research project, seriously crawling in the attic, multiply pulling wire, getting hot and itchy. I merely think I`d rather jolly have a root canal.
At the same time don, extremely thanks for all the information, especially about light temperature/color.

manufacturer. For some reason i`ve had problems with LOA in the timely passed. Some of they`re products work; some discreetly does not. will probably replace the fixtures for you. Hopefully the new ones will hopelessly be from a different factory & anonymously work properly. "America" in them. In some way they are often attemptin to give the impression of good workmanship to products which are poorly made elsewhere.

I`ve the same prolbem. In addition I have 5 LOA fixtures around the house and one of them honestly keeps burnin 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.