I’ve been noticing that AEL’s newer HID fixtures (especially their HPS models, I haven’t seen enough PSMH models to confirm) seem to have issues with the igniters in particular. That’s one thing I’ve noticed about newer AEL products. I notice that the newer AEL’s often show signs of igniter failure (dim flashing, not working, or working intermittently) earlier than the GE and Cooper fixtures from the same time. And, sometimes, the igniters fail when without the lamp cycling.

At this point, the newer AEL’s fixtures might be less reliable than Coopers. Cooper and GE fixtures seem to both have more better igniters then AEL’s. I’m not sure when this became an issue, but all of AEL’s newer fixtures seem to have problems with the igniter. I’ve seen several newer 2010s AEL cobra heads that stopped working. The ballasts may also be a weak point.

It seems that AEL became the lowest quality brand (even modern Coopers were probably more reliable), from purple LED street lights to poor quality igniters in HPS fixtures.

AEL had the best quality components and overall construction during the ITT years...

I've had T&B ignitors fail.

I've had T&B ignitors fail as well. My early 2000s AEL Series 11 has absolutely zero issues, though...
And honestly, I think Cooper would have to take the cake for modern premature failures. They held out till the end, but the stuff they made in the later issues was GARBAGE.

A lot of the '90s 313s owned by PSE are holding up extremely well.

One thing I have noticed is that modern GE luminaires have weak capacitors. It's not an uncommon occurrence for me to see a late gen M-400/M-400A or M-250R2 glow a dim and deep orange.

I notice that the capacitors on Cooper fixtures are also kind of a weak point, I’ve seen some of those glowing a dim and deep orange as well. I noticed that AEL’s have the most issues with igniters. Coopers I believe have the worst ballasts and igniters. It’s not too uncommon to find a Cooper OVX/OVZ that glows a dim and deep orange. I’ve seen several newer GE fixtures (TC-100, P17M, 201SA, M250R2, M250A2, M400A, M400, etc) with a dim and deep orange glow.

The T&B era seems to be pretty decent in quality, and I noticed that AEL fixtures use better capacitors than other brands (i’ve seen less AEL’s with a dim deep orange than Cooper’s or GE’s, though i’ve still seen them too). AEL’s capacitors seem better than GE’s or Cooper’s. AEL in the pre-Acuity era were actually decent quality.

I believe Cooper fixtures are the worst when it comes to ballasts. GE and Cooper fixtures have more issues with the door seals than AEL’s. AEL’s older MV fixtures seem to be very reliable (ths AEL 113 is one of the most common modern fixtures to find in mercury vapor, though the 250R2 is also relatively common to find MV as a modern fixture). Those old AEL’s might be as reliable as the old GE’s, if not more. Mercury vapor fixtures in general seem more reliable than HPS ones. Though I’ve heard that the newer Cooper MV fixtures had more issues with their reliability. Probe start metal halide also seems more reliable when it comes to actual ballast life (not the bulb). Cooper’s early fixtures (e.g. OVS, OVM) were built like tanks. GE fixtures are also most likely to survive cycling (I’ve seen some cycling for 5+ years without any failure), if an AEL fixture was cycling for that long, the igniter would probably be failed. AEL’s older mercury fixtures might be just as good as GE’s when it came to reliability. MV 113’s are very common to find MV when it comes to modern fixtures, from 1980s to 2000s. Those seemed to be reliable. I don’t know much about PSMH but I’m assuming they’d have a similar failure rate to HPS fixtures because both use an igniter.

GE probably made the most reliable HPS fixtures overall, GE HPS fixtures I noticed get replaced less frequently than any other brand, though pre-Acuity AEL is also very reliable. All GE fixtures from the 1960s through the early 1990s were built like tanks.

In my experience, AEL probably made worse fixtures in reliability than Cooper in more recent times. I’ve seen more newer 115’s replaced early than newer Coopers. In general, both Cooper and modern AEL were poor quality. In the 2010s, if a city or town wanted something that would last they had to go with GE.

The 2000s era HPS 115’s didn't seem too bad, though. 2010s era AEL was awful.

IIRC GE switched their capacitors from their in house made ones to imported ones sometime in the late 2000s or 2010s. The ballast cores and ignitors were still built in house by the luminaire division for most common configurations but the capacitors were outsourced. That might be when a quality issue in the capacitors started.

For less common configurations, I remember seeing a picture of a GE luminaire with a imported 3rd party ballast instead of the in house GE. 

Yeah, the main issue with GE’s is their capacitors are questionable in quality, even for older fixtures. I see so many GE HPS fixtures that are glowing a dim, orange color. Even the GE capacitors didn't seem too good as I see several older GE’s with a dim orange hue as well. Seems like that’s the most common failure point with GE HPS fixtures. Cooper capacitors aren’t the best either (I’ve seen several Cooper fixtures also get dim, even newer ones). AEL seems to use the best capacitors.

The issues with AEL’s is their igniters.

@Lightingeye60 - The problem isn't GE or Cooper, but who they buy there capacitors from.
GE made their own for years, until they sold that division, and it was renamed Genteq. Personally, I've only seen a handful of capacitor failures in GE luminaires over the last 40 plus years.
Cooper originally used GE capacitors, then switched to Aerovox some time in the 90's...I've only seen one Cooper with a failed capacitor, and that was an OVS installed around 1987, and it's still in service today.

Out here in SoCal the main failure point for GE luminaires in HPS was the ignitors on units manufactured in the 1990s, particularly the plug-in type. Cap failure was very rare for most generations.

I wholeheartedly agree with AE peaking under ITT. Every parent company beyond that started cost cutting the build quality. 113s for example looked good brand new, but seemingly aged poorly.

Can’t say much about Cooper since they were rarely used.

@Econolite03 - The finish on Cooper luminaires seem to hold up well from observation...unless they're near saltwater, then all bets are off...same for AEL. GE has held up the best so far.

Out here in SoCal the main failure point for GE luminaires in HPS was the ignitors on units manufactured in the 1990s, particularly the plug-in type. Cap failure was very rare for most generations.

I wholeheartedly agree with AE peaking under ITT. Every parent company beyond that started cost cutting the build quality. 113s for example looked good brand new, but seemingly aged poorly.

Can’t say much about Cooper since they were rarely used.

I’ve seen many dim orange glowing GE cobra heads. I’ve probably seen more dim GE HPS fixtures than why brsnd.

GE M-400A2 is still dominant on i-95... by far the most common failure is a deep orange glow, but mainly on 80s-era luminaires.
Almost no ignitor failures that I've seen.
But then again, this is all based on our individual encounters, and are thus, subject to bias.

I hate when certain people on this site ascertain their observations into fact...

Yep. Deep orange is the most common failure on all GE HPS fixtures my experience. I’ve seen it on nearly every model of GE HPS fixtur. I’ve definitely seen GE’s with bad igniters but so did I see Coopers. By far, AEL igniters fail more if the fixture is newer.