LEDVANCE 75173 SubstiTUBE Instant Start 4100K Compatible LED T8 Bulb, 4-Feet, Cool White

My basement and workshop are marginally illuminated by twelve twin-tube fluorescent shop light fixtures. If the ballasts don't burn out first, the lamps eventually begin flickering and turning black on the ends accompanied by diminishing light which necessitates maintaining an ample supply. Changing these tubes has been a pain for 35 years. It's long been known that flashing lights can cause seizures in some people. I don't lose awareness when a tube starts flashing but certain muscles do seize up real tight when it happens. Standing on a ladder and holding a chain-mounted fixture steady with one hand while inserting and turning the tube with the other hand is an art that's hard to master. I was both interested and skeptical when Amazon offered me this expensive LED T8 bulb. However, it was perfect timing as I had recently installed two new twin-tube T8, 32W 4100K fixtures and was cursing those responsible for making me work under such pitifully DIM lights. Life is all about learning curves. I crashed and burned on my first attempt at installation as all the light was focused upward into the fixture. Although unmarked, these tubes have an up and down side just like a light bulb and I had inserted the wrong prongs in first or else twisted them the wrong way. Once the tube was inserted correctly, I was amazed at the INSTANT brightness. With this much light, I don't care what color it is. I've never seen this much illumination from any fluorescent tube in the 32W - 40W category. Having said all this, I do have one major problem. I need 24 of these LED T8 tubes which would currently cost $420.00 and last 41 years. Why do I need a 41-year light bulb? Are they heirlooms or what? In 2056, our indoor light will be emitted from paint and wall paper. When CFL household light bulbs first hit the market, they were expensive and advertised to last 7 years. I purchased several of the top brands. They were all about the same, PITIFUL! I would flip a switch and then stumble in the dark for a minute waiting for the light to appear. The absolute worst of the bunch was the enclosed spiral bulbs. Some didn't last a year. The packaging boasted about how much money these magic bulbs would save me. I have yet to have one last more than 2 years. I felt like I was a gullible kid again getting ripped off at the county fair trying to win a Teddy Bear for my Honey Bear. If Sylvania will cut both the price and lifespan by 50%, I'll buy what I need now. 24 LED T8 tubes for $210 that will last 20 for years sounds about right. I can live with that. eheheh Never having to stand on a ladder again to change a shop light bulb does sound too good to be true. That's what worries me. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. As the old saying goes, "Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me." At the moment, I couldn't be happier with this LED 32W T8 bulb. I wish I had 23 more. Unfortunately, I can't read the future. I've got about 20 new fluorescent bulbs on hand. Some are outlaws that are not made anymore. It will take about 3 years to burn through the bunch. If this LED T8 bulb is still burning brightly at that time, I'll be a semi-believer. Until then, it's wait and see. In 3 years, I suspect the price of LED T8 bulbs will drop by half. If I haven't fallen off a step ladder and killed myself by then, I'll go shopping for a truck load. Let me get this straight. If the average lifespan in the USA is 78 years, that means that any purchaser over 37 years old will probably not live to celebrate if these T8 bulbs do last 41 years. Go far for the brass ring. You only live once ... albeit not long enough.

Worked as expected, but I ordered 2, but only received one. I guess the second one will be arrive in May, wierd. the 2nd item finally arrived worked will.

In our laundry area, we have a single T8 fixture. Housed in that fixture we have always had Philips Colortone 40watt T8 bulb. The color range is listed as natural sunlight and the lumens are 2200. The temperature is 5000K. This bulb type has lit up the area nicely allowing us to see what we are doing quite well. I always thought it was a pretty bright light - until we put THIS bulb in. WHAT IS THIS BULB LIKE? Not glass like florescent bulbs are, this is made of what appears to be a pretty sturdy plastic. The ends go into the fixture just like any other T8 tube. It comes in a box with basic information on it. HOW DOES THIS BULB PERFORM? I could not believe the difference in this bulb when I put it in. What I thought was a fairly bright light turned out to be quite weak compared to this bulb's output. The increase in light is about 2 1/2 times that of the other bulb. The visual appearance is a bit more on the yellow side than the previous bulb, but that was not unexpected. I am very sensitive to lighting, so I tend to notice things that others don't even notice at all. The visual clarity is really nice- but it is a different type of light than the florescent bulb. This takes some time to get used to, as it different enough to notice, but I have not had any problems with it so far affecting me in a negative manner. Some lighting does that and I can not use it. I have to be careful with light bulbs as I can get dizzy or headaches from certain bulbs/lights. As I leave the light on, it does tend to intensify just a touch as the LED's warm up. The light turns right on without the blinking factor. I didn't notice any significantly warmer feel to the bulb itself (as in touching it) over what I would expect. THE BOTTOM LINE This bulb is not cheap, but it does claim to last a very long time. The lighting offered from it is a touch warmer than the 5000K sunlight temperature of lighting we had in the room, but it is a LOT brighter, making it easier to see in all areas of the room. My only concern would be over time the plastic getting cloudy and or yellowing from age and use. Only time will tell about that. For now, it is a great addition to our laundry area. It does say that it can be used in damp areas (just not outside in the elements) so it is good for basements and such. UPDATING As with all of my reviews, if something happens that causes me to need to offer more information or updates on performance, I will update on this bulb.

UPDATE: Ok, after several hours of use, the light has started cycling on and off. It stays on for about 15 to 20 minutes and then it shuts off. After about 5 minutes, the light comes back on and the cycle starts up again. At this time, I cannot recommend the product or give it anything higher than one star since failure within 6 hours is no where near the 45 year life expectancy. I will attempt to resolve this with Sylvania and will update my review when I have more information. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++Original Review++++++++++ Like a lot of folks, I have a garage that was built 25 years ago and that has florescent light fixtures in it with T8 bulbs. While I have always appreciated the amount of light they put out, changing bulbs every four to six years was never one of my favorite jobs. Also, whie they came on almost immediately, they did take a bit of time to get to full brightness. I have tried replacing a few of the bulbs with LED bulbs before, but those bulbs required me to rewire the light fixtures which was also not a lot of fun since the fixtures are 10 feet off of the ground. So, when these lights appeared on Amazon and said that I would not have to rewire the light fixtures, I was all in and ordered a bulb to try. Here is what i found: 1. While this bulb is like the new energy efficient Florescent lights in that it is thinner, it is a direct replacement for the 1 inch thick light bulbs. Just keep in mind that as you put in this new bulb, the metalic label on the bulb goes UP into the fixture. That will keep the LEDs pointing down which is what you want. 2. This bulb works in either a two lamp or a 4 lamp fixture. I do not have any single bulb fixtures, so I cannot tell you if it will work in one of those, but have to presume it will. 3. Here where I have an issue with these bulbs. The light output is not a warm white, but it is also not a cool white either. It is right inbetween. So, if you have several light fixtures and you do not plan on replacing all of the bulbs at once, expect to have a color descrepancy. The LED lights that I had to rewire have a cool white color that matches the cool white color of my florescent bulbs. This bulb is warmer than either and it shows. Does it put out enough light? Yes, it is just that the color is off. All in all, this is a nice light, but would be much better if the color was actually a cool white instead of being inbetween. Probably not a problem if you replace all of the bulbs in an area, but does definately show up if you try and mix the lights. Keep in mind that it is cooler in color than a warm white florescent as well. I did try it with my kitchen florescent bulbs and it then looks odd as well.

I hesitate giving this product only 2 stars because I'm not exactly sure what the problem is. I used it in a 4 ft fluorescent fixture and when I turned it on, it stayed lit all of 1 second and then went off. I then put the original fluorescent tubes back in the fixture and they didn't light at all. I pulled the plug on the fixture, plugged it back in and then it worked fine (with the old tubes). I tried the SubstiTUBE on a different fixture and the exact same thing happened. It was almost as if the SubstiTUBE was tripping something inside the ballast that didn't allow it to work. Note, one of the fixtures has an "electronic" ballast in it and the other has a "rapid start" ballast. Both are less than 5 years old. Any suggestions on this problem will be appreciated.

Packaging: It arrived packed in a reinforced box placed inside another box. It was well protected and arrived in perfect condition. Appearance: Thinner than the typical florescent bulb, made of a plastic material with a reflective sticker on one side to reflect the light downward. Installation: Easy, just make sure that the reflective sticker is on top so the light can project downward. Output: Bright! It outshined the florescent several times over. Performance: Great at first, but it blinked out and wouldn't come back on. I'm not sure what we did wrong - I read through the instructions and it said to call, so that's what I'll be doing and will update once we figure out what the problem is. Could be that we placed it in a light meant for two bulbs and left the florescent on one side while trying the LED on the other. Not sure if that would make a difference, but it was the only thing I could think of. Overall: Definitely pleased with the safety factor, ease of installation with no fear of crushing the thin glass (something that terrifies me with florescents), the extremely long life of the bulb and the brilliance of the light. The only drawbacks are the price and the fact that we haven't figured out why it won't work (yet).

I have a large, unheated shop which is currently lit by a number of fluorescent shoplights. I have wanted to convert to LED lighting for some time, but just haven't gotten around to it. These seemed like a good way to start. === The Good Stuff === * I like a well lit shop, and these go a long way. The old fluorescents almost look dull compared to this light. The light is about the same temperature (maybe a little whiter) than the "daylight" tubes they are replacing. Because of the application, I am not all that concerned about color anyway. * I replaced two T-12 lights in one fixture with a single one of these, and there was considerably more light. The packaging calls these T-8 tubes, but lists them as 1" wide. By definition, T-8 lights are 8/4", or 2" wide. However they will fit into standard T-8 or T-12 fixtures-at least they did on mine. Holding this tube up to a T-12, the length and connectors are identical. * The best feature of all is the cold-weather performance. My shop gets down to about 30 degrees at its coldest, and these have lit right up. They seem to be at 100% brightness, or very close to it. * A quick calculation shows that if you can replace 2 40watt fluorescent tubes with one of these 19 watt LEDs, and use the lights for 2.5 hours per day over 5 years, they pay for themselves. That assumes that you keep the existing fluorescent tubes for the full 5 years, and electricity is 10c per KWH. Since I seem to replace fluorescents every two years or so because of cold start problems, this starts to make financial sense. === The Not-So-Good Stuff === * Did I mention that they were bright? Seriously, if my light fixtures weren't 10' off the floor, these would literally be too bright. Even at that height, looking up at them can be blinding...not a great feature with power tools around. I might think about some type of diffuser. * Because of a large adhesive label on the tube, there is a definite "up" and "down" side to them. And since they are plastic, they do flex a bit. As a result, they are a bit more difficult than the old tubes to get into the socket correctly, especially when stretched out on a ladder. Not a big deal-unless you are installing a bunch of them. === Summary === Because of the increased light performance, and the excellent cold-start up performance, it is starting to make sense to convert my shop lighting (and probably garage lights too) to LEDs. They are a bit too expensive to buy all at once, but I will probably change them in as needed over the next couple years. If the lifetime is really as long as claimed, they will be an excellent money saver, especially if you consider the replacement costs of standard fluorescent lights. My only caution is to be careful that they are not too bright for your application. I do plan on trying an LED dimmer as soon as I get all the lights on one circuit converted.

So I've got two old 4-bulb T8 fixtures in my garage. They each take 40W bulbs, and they're old enough that the ballast sometimes doesn't light the center bulbs. I haven't replaced these bulbs in years - I think they may have come with my house, in fact - and I will tell you why: I hate touching T8 bulbs. They are such thin glass, so long and ungainly, it's so easy to drop them or smash them on something when you are up a ladder, or climbing down, or walking around, or even if you look at them funny. And the stuff that spills out of them is toxic, and the glass is very thin and it is the kind of glass that shatters into about 1 million tiny razor-sharp daggers, each one waiting to get into the grooves of your concrete garage foundation slab, only to appear years later deep in the sole of your foot. Anyway. I was pretty excited about this bulb. It goes in one way, it's directional. It was easy to handle and install; it's not as wide as a T8 bulb, it's much lighter, and the soft, slightly flexible plastic was grippy and easy to hold. I did drop it, of course, a fall 8 feet to the concrete; that would have shattered a regular bulb but this one was undamaged. I popped it in in place of one of the center bulbs that doesn't light any more, a burned-looking old tube. It lit up immediately but did not become too hot to touch. The other center bulb lit immediately for the first time in years; but the LED bulb was brighter than all 3 of the other 40W bulbs put together. Pleasant color, too: 4100K, 'cool white', excellent work light for offices and workshops. In comparison the flickery, greenish, nauseous light of the other bulbs is not very nice at all. So I love this bulb, right? Well there is of course a sticking point. Amazon shipped this one to me free through the Vine program in exchange for this review. And I'd love 7 more of them but at the current prices that is really a lot of dough! This bulb claims to use 19 watts instead of 32 - I don't know how they do that math, although I do know that fluorescent bulbs use most of their power at power-on time. More to the point, this bulb advertises a "45+ year life." I am not even sure I will be alive then; my insurance agent would probably take the other side of that bet. But over 45 years this lamp would save more money in electricity than it is costing up front by a huge margin. Of course, fluorescent is not going to be an alternative 40 years from now - and this is really a bunch of silliness, isn't it? I guess priorities matter. I like this bulb because of the light it provides, but I'm not rushing out to buy any more of them at these prices. Hopefully they'll get cheaper with time.