Diamond Table Light Question

DJSTEVEZ

DJSTEVEZ

Professor of Human Moves
Silver Member
OK. I've had my Diamond Table Light w/ the same Fluorescent tubes, for over 10 years now.

It seems to me that the tubes are throwing off far LESS light than they used to.

Do Fluorescent tubes diminish in terms of their brightness over the years?

I know this may seem to so many here like I'm asking if water is wet. I'm just not a natural Home Depot type of guy :confused:

THANX! Cheers, -Z-
 
Florescent lights dim with age. They still provide light, just not as much as when they are new. 10 years is a long time for a bulb to last.

You should convert your light over to LED. It is easy to do and you will get a better light for a much longer time. Another advantage is you get rid of the ballast which tend to hum after they get some age on them. LED is also cooler in terms of heat and more efficient in energy use, Check out YouTube for instructional videos.
 
Is it possible to convert a Diamond light to LED's? Does anyone make the correct size panels for an easy conversion? I was thinking about this last night!!
 
poolhustler said:
Is it possible to convert a Diamond light to LED's? Does anyone make the correct size panels for an easy conversion? I was thinking about this last night!!
Click to expand...
I put in LEDs I got off amazon, it was super easy to replace the existing fluorescents...

I later added some diffuser panels from Home Depot which helped with the glare off the chromed diffusers that came with the light. I just cut them a little on the corners and put them on top of the chrome ones...

Obviously, this was for a 9ft with a light I bought in 2016.

Link below:

Check this out: Hyperikon T8 T10 T12 LED Light Tube, 8FT, 36W (75W equivalent), ... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SUMEJRA/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdb_t1_.-mxAbZE1SHB7
 
To answer your question, yes. I buy new bulbs for mine every few years at Lowes. I also replaced the entire ballast because the original one had a horrible hum.
 

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Question: The plug n play LED tubes that will work in existing flourescent fixures with a ballast, does the ballast consume power?
 
jimmyco said:
Question: The plug n play LED tubes that will work in existing flourescent fixures with a ballast, does the ballast consume power?
Click to expand...



Yes it does. No matter what electrical device is in line it will consume or absorb power. Even wire. It’s what they call line loss. If you feel a ballast you will feel heat. Power and more importantly inefficient devices radiate heat. LED are far more efficient and therefore you feel much less heat coming from them.

Removing the ballast (which is what I did) will make your system more efficient and keep it quieter. You can get direct power fluorescent replacements online. I found in my GC light that 8 4’ tunes at 22W worked perfectly.


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SC02GTP said:
Florescent lights dim with age. They still provide light, just not as much as when they are new. 10 years is a long time for a bulb to last.



You should convert your light over to LED. It is easy to do and you will get a better light for a much longer time. Another advantage is you get rid of the ballast which tend to hum after they get some age on them. LED is also cooler in terms of heat and more efficient in energy use, Check out YouTube for instructional videos.
Click to expand...



Spot on!


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When I purchased my LED tubes they came in a box of 10 from an online (Ebay source). I have no need for the other 2. So if someone would like these two I would be more than happy to send them if someone wants to pay shipping.


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DJSTEVEZ said:
OK. I've had my Diamond Table Light w/ the same Fluorescent tubes, for over 10 years now.

It seems to me that the tubes are throwing off far LESS light than they used to.

Do Fluorescent tubes diminish in terms of their brightness over the years?

I know this may seem to so many here like I'm asking if water is wet. I'm just not a natural Home Depot type of guy :confused:

THANX! Cheers, -Z-
Click to expand...
You should be able to convert over to LED tubes which give off much more light. It will likely require a knowledgeable electrician as the ballasts need to be changed out. We did that here to all our pool table lights. It cost me about $200-$250 per table, as I have 8 tubes in each fixture, and they'll cost you around $25-$30 per LED tube. Well worth it, in my opinion!
 
I have the old Diamond light with the 8 foot tubes. I replaced my old fluorescent bulbs with LED's earlier this year and am happy with it. I dumped the ballasts and just rewired the light and put in new tombstones as well.

The LED's were about 35 each. If I had bought new fluorescent tubes and ballasts, I would be in the same ball park price wise.
 
Thanks for all the reply's on this thread.
(Quote button didn't work)??????????? Weird.
Anyway, subscribing for when I want to convert mine.
 
There are two types of LED replacement tubes (Type A and B). Type A use the existing ballast and B you remove the ballast. Type B are good in theory that you remove the weak link but many times the original tombstones are not wired correctly for type B tubes (shunted vs unshunted sockets) and should be replaced anyway as the type B tubes run on 120 Volts. I am not familiar with the diamond lights. Are they 8 footers? The mode of failure in fluorescent tubes is that they fail - they only usually lose 20 percent of light when they burn out (LED by comparison get dimmer over time but keep burning) which would lead me to believe you have a ballast which is failing or you had an inferior ballast to begin with. I sell this stuff for a living (among other electrical items). Can you get me a model number off of a fluorescent tube and your ballast? I can get you some recommendations that you should be able to get locally or a mail order lighting company.
 
Also regarding the power being used by the ballast... when you see a figure on type A LED tubes (example 15 Watts) it is assuming you are using a ballast with a normal power factor (around .87). That means it is 87% efficient. They sell low power and high power ballast depending on the application. Since Diamond obviously designed these lights with a specific optic and lumen output best bet is to match LED tubes with the same lumens as the fluorescent (factoring in the lumen loss that LEd's have).
 
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