Drat! I put it in my 1950 "Shop light" that weighs a ton and it instant started. I had some minor swirling and pulsing. I turned it off when I took the dogs for the evening pee run, and when I came back in it would not light so I rotated it and shorted out the end and it lit. No swirling or anyting yet. From when I put this and the other bulb in I think it's between 30,000 and 35,000 hours. The middle lamps in the fixture are Phillips Alto F40DX bulbs. They have been in there a long time also. In the other fixture there are 5000K bulbs. The middle are ECO F40 Chroma 50's and the outer bulbs that are a year or 2 older Sylvania Design 50. They have brown spots. The GE ECO bulbs are noticably dimmer, and were when I put them in. I think when they go I will go with F40DX lamps in the other fixture also.

The failed lamp on the other end has only slight aging, and when I checked on them a month ago, neither end and none of the bulbs had much aging signs.

More as the event progresses.

Powell

30 minutes in, but Mickey My SILLY Sibe (Siberian Husky) is right quite close to it as if he were sunning himself ! No, just burning like it weren't EOL.  GRRR !!      


Powell

AWWW!  AT 45 minutes out there was a second of swirling and it faded out. So I put the bulb in a shoplight that runs T8 and T12 bulbs. Well it swirled orange flashed and made both lamps flicker and the solid state ballast shut down. I then put it in my single lamp solid state F30/40 T12 test ballast. It came on and flashed orange one time and settled down, and then faded down to dim and SSSS and went out. I thought the solid state ballast in the shop light was destroyed as I put 2  T8 bulbs in it and it wouldn't light. I unplugged it.  After a minute there was a brief flash and I thought WTF, over?  I plugged it in and it works. Ah such a fast EOL I didn't have time to take a picture and it would have been unimpressive. Have no fear, I have some ACE F40T12 CW lamps with lots of hours on them also !

Powell