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Any thoughts on "Corn" bulbs?

I.B. Washincars

I.B. Washincars

Car Washer Emeritus
I have some 400W metal halide fixtures that are not working. They are on 25' poles, so I need to hire a bucket truck to get them repaired. It gets pretty frustrating to install a bulb, have it come on and work, only to see that it's not working a few days later and needs a ballast. Has anyone tried the corn bulbs? Like 'em or not?
 
corn cobb is the only way to go when MH fails, dumping ballast, less weight ,heat, cost effective we date replacement corn cobbs to check for life span, pay extra for long life units, labor trade off is worth it
 
I have used several corn cob bulbs in my washes. Most are 60 watt lithonia bulbs I got from Home depot a few years ago for $60 each. I have not had a single one fail yet. I also used a few of these in my garage at home on the door openers. Makes what was a dark place seem like a operating room. I think the 60 watt bulbs were equal to a 250 watt MH.
 
I had the same problem on my exit side of the bays.
I bought these ASD 50W LED SMD SLIM Floodlight with arm 5000K ETL, DLC STD white.
I put 2 fixtures on the 1st. Pole, 3 on the second pole and 2 on the third pole about 12-15 high on th pole.
Plenty of light. Now I can use a ladder if I ever need to change them.
 
FWIW I tried the corn cobs in some 1000W MH and d0 not like them. Since you are going to need a bucket truck anyway to do the work I would price out a new fixture. Webco / Jarvis had some good ones. My rule of thumb is the LED fixture should be about 1/3 the wattage of the MH and you will get slightly better illumination.
 
I.B. Washincars said:
Earl, what did you not like about them?
Click to expand...

The illumination was represented as equivalent to the 1000W metal Halide. This was the frst time I went from MH to LED and felt there was a loss as opposed to improvement, although the other changes were retrofits or fixture replacements. Since they were up on a 25 foot pole I still paid for the bucket ruck and wiring bypass so the whole job savings wasn't that much compared to when I replaced the entire fixture.
 
Pat, Do it right the first time and replace the whole fixture. You'll be happier in the long run. LED fixtures have come down a lot in the last few years.
 
I like the LED fixtures better. The LED bulbs cast light in all directions where the LED fixtures have LED panels that cast light in one direction only no wasted light.
 
Replace the fixture with a LED with high lumens/watt rating.

I did my entire car wash about a year ago. You don't want to know how many times I've checked my video at night and said, "Man, I love the way those things light up the place....."?

Shop around, and do it right......
 
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