Fluorescent Wrap, 2 X T8 4-foot lamps. Electronic ballast. Made in China. Numbers on fixture (model #'s??) 157644 & FW842. Manufacture date 10/12/07.

A lighting guy approached us to install 13 fluorescent fixtures he was supplying for a daycare. He was doing them a favor by supplying them at cost, but needed an EC to install them. We installed these last week, and within 2 hours of them being on, one fixture died - it was a bad ballast.

A couple of days later, one of the diffusers fell down and broke apart on a table - luckily no kids were at that table playing. We checked all the fixtures and found 5 of them had broken clips that keep the diffuser from sliding end to end and falling out. When the diffuser is installed, the thin plastic clips tend to break. We know how we are going to fix the problem, but for now we removed all the diffusers for safety reasons until we get the problem addressed early next week.

Fortunately for me I'll be billing him for the "warranty work" as I obviously don't warrant 2nd party materials. The daycare is a non-profit society on a fixed budget, and the lighting guy was trying to save them money by purchasing cheaper fixtures - it bit him in the rear. A few bucks more per fixture would have given him a quality product with no warranty issues.

My reason for posting this thread is to advise anyone against purchasing or installing these fixtures. They are absolute garbage.

Actually I have seen a lot of fixtures now a days where the metal is thin and flimsy, and have had to replace ballasts on because they have cooked within days of first being energized. Usually this problem is more common to T-5 H.O fixtures for some odd reason, not usually to T-8 fixtures but regardless, beware, what may seem like a quality item because its stamped with a well known manufacturer's name may be junk.

A.D

They quit making quality light fixtures years ago.

We have no control over what the customer might want. We can't warranty everything they fall in love with. They do the shopping and see the price, so the mark-up is too small.

At our company, we make residential customers buy the lights. We don't want to be responsible for the lumens nor the luminaires.

It starts when I open the box and the glass is broken. It doesn't even occur to the customer that I should take the fixture back.