Tri-Ballast Special

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Published 2010-04-18

I have gotten the third out of my four vintage Universal Thermomatic X rapid start ballasts up and running. They say good things come in threes so there is more. The "Big Three" lighting manufacturers are represented in this video. From left to right, Sylvania, Philips, General Electric. All three sets of lamps are daylight, one of my favorite fluorescent color temps. The Sylvanias always start up very fast with not much flicker. The Philips lamps are a little more flicker-happy. And last but certainly not least, the GE's, the most flicker-happy by far. When started up together, they produce a cool "one-two-three" effect. Enjoy

All Comments (5)

@redbarron1 13 years ago

I bet Westinghouse bulbs would fit nicely in there! I pair up Westinghouse and GE daylight bulbs on my HPF rapid start ballast. Gotta love that startup flicker delay! Love the vid!
@Parrot175 14 years ago

I like daylight and cool white the best!
@seansy59 14 years ago

NICE STARTUP!!!......5 stars....Imagine having a few sets of those on the ceiling of a long room, in a row, first ones startup by the door proceeding to the last in the back, and when you turn them on, they light up from the front, to the back of the room. I like the magnetic rapid start too, instant start is just plain boring.
@bamaslamma1003 14 years ago

@seansy59 Several of my school classrooms had rows of 2 x 4 troffers. I loved turning them on and watching all that rapid start startup flicker en masse. Hopefully they haven't been replaced by boring instant start electronic fixtures. Several of my other classrooms had F96T12 slimline fixtures (the kind of instant start I like). I was also treated to a swirling and flashing slimline burnout as well.