I have been dealing with this exact issue with the Philips InstantFit T 12 LED tubes . they are useless . Philips could make it more clear what they care compatible with but they don't . Being annoyed as I am now I will not buy another Phillips light product .....ever . Actually I might buy some that will work and put these back in the package and return them for a refund since I bought these long ago and have never been able to use them and can't return them now .
I too had the same challenge. Philips LED fluorescent did not work. Thought to cut the ballast wires and retro fit. Had a gut feeling NOT to do it since my Utilitech ballast 4ft light fixture is only two years old. Glad I listened to the inner voice. Returned the Philips back to Home Depot. The LED fluorescents that did work were: 1- (Home Depot) Feit Electric 4 ft. T8/T12 17-Watt Cool White Linear LED Light Bulb $9.92 per bulb 2- (Lowe’s) GE LED 48” 15w 1800 lumens. $14.98 2pk I opt to keep the GE daylight for my kitchen because it’s the best lighting for me when cooking. Just remove old fluorescent bulbs and replace with GE LED. Done. Hope this helps.
This vid may need to be updated, so I'll share my Feb 2021 experience. Philips instafit worked with the ballast, but nothing after ballast removed. Took the Philips back to Home Depot because my goal was direct line voltage, no ballast. Paid 3x the price for tubes at a lighting store where the counter guy also informed me of the problem. The original Florescent tubes had the line and neutral connections wired to the opposite ends of the tubes. The LED tubes he sold me are "single end" meaning the line and the neutral pins are on one end of the tube, the pins at the opposite end are there only to hold the tube in place in the fixture. So with my 2 tube fixture I needed to replace the tombstones at one end with non-shunted ones, then wire one side of each tombstone to line and neutral(AKA neg and positive.) (consult a wiring diagram.) Works fine and no ballast needed. DISCLAIMER: If you do not have knowledge of electrical wiring, you should seek assistance or hire an electrician. Hope this helpful.
That is great advice. I got suckered into this instant-fit and it didn't work as I had ancient magnetic ballasts. The ones that don't require a ballast (like the Philips Mainstay) are hard to come by in the 5K (Daylight). Time to shutoff the breaker, rip out the ballast and do some rewiring in the fixture. I would do a RUclips video, but hey just not enough time.
Hey brother not to say anything you did or say is wrong. Maybe they fixed the problem idk. I just got done plugging my instagit lights into my light fixture that i had aslready removed ballast for my last leds. And they work fine. Not sure why that is but it is. Have a good day
These tubes disassemble very easily. There is an electronic package at both ends, one has several resisters and a capacitor and connects to the led strip with a micro 4 wire plug, the other end in one single wire going thu another set of what appears to be capacitors, then to the other pins. Be nice to sort is out and make them adapt to a direct connection or a dc power adapter.
The retrofit type, at least the Philips T8 glass instafits have the leds wired in series to take 240 volts. The ballast supplies that, so you have to use the ballast with them. I got the right ballast and they worked. Oddly, the ballast makes them mimic old school lamps on startup. They come on dim for 2-3 seconds, then brighten.
Philips publishes a list of compatible ballasts online, which is good to reference. It would be nice if this was included in the box or on the package, but the online guide is up to date. I've installed over 60 of these LED bulbs. Even in an electric start ballast, if it's not on the compatibility chart, the bulb will either not work, or will burn the ballast out within a couple weeks. Don't bother if the ballast isn't compatible. Having said that, when the bulbs are installed with compatible ballasts, they work really well. The bulb provides superior light, and the energy usage is close to advertised on the box. images.philips.com/is/content/PhilipsConsumer/PDFDownloads/United%20States/ODLI20180301_001-UPD-en_US-PLt-16118CR_InstantFit_Ballast-Compatibility-Guide_2018-1.pdf
Same issue. The old magnetic ballast in my fixture didn't work. These are the glass 17 watt 4 foot T8 instafits. HD has an electronic ballast for $15, so I'll look on Philips site to see if it's compatible. Yep. REB-2P32-SC is a "system certified" ballast. I'd love to know how many people returned these to the store! I bet HD will soon stop carrying these because of the hassle caused by lack of installation and applicability details.
Count me in as another fool who fell for this. I have magnetic ballasts both on 2 separate 4' T12 fixtures, and both are on the verge of failing. I returned my 4 Instafit bulbs to Home Depot. The electronic ballast is $20 (needed 2, one for each fixture) , so I opted for single-ended non-ballast T8 leds from Amazon for about the same price as the 4 that I returned. Live and learn.
I was at Lowes and just bought Utilitech 48 inch retro fit bulbs, I think the box said it works with an electronic ballast, the price was $17.xx for 16 bulbs on clearance. I used an ohm meter and measured the resistance pin to pin = 500K ohms on each end and infinity across the 48 inches. Possibly applying 120 v. at each end might light it? Any one know what the pin voltages are from an electronic ballast? Is there any chance that they might work on 120 volts directly -- NO BALLAST??
I am also searching for these direct answers. Utilitech customer service does not offer support for light bulbs and say all light bulb service is store level. I am interested in removing the 2 T 12 ballast from my 4 bulb fixture and replacing with the same Utilitechs that u bought on clearance. I bought 30 cases of them!!!!!!!1 I know they will work with an existing T8 ballast plug and play.....but not certain about them working without any ballast....let me know if u find out please.
I grabbed a few boxes on clearance as well they do take the electronic ballast and will not work with the bypass method or the old magnetic ones. found an easy and fast way to check to see what ballast you have, use your cell phone take a picture of the light while lit with the fluorescents in it. clear picture means electronic vs a pic with lines running across the bulbs will indicate a magnetic. Bottom line bulbs were still a great deal I have 10 4 bulb fixtures to redo and I can pick up a case of 10 high rated 4 bulb electronic ballasts on amazon for 90 bucks to the door. hard to beat redoing 10 fixtures and having a few spare bulbs for the same price as 2 new 4 bulb fixtures and without bulbs. hope this helps
Correct......apparently Lowes made a mistake on the $17 price.....by the time the sale was over we had purchased approx 60 cases....have 4100 color half 6000 color. The 6000 are extremely bright...would be good for a shop but not good for our retail stores. I have been doing T12 to T8 ballast retro fit and just installing the 4100's...they work perfectly with the T8 electronic ballast. I wish I could get them to work without a ballast but so far no can do.
Home depot said the Philips would work with or without a ballast. The Phillips started to burn after a few weeks. I had to replace them with the Toggled.
My old ballast was partially working with fluorescent and my new LED bulbs, but I decided to take out the ballast and wire directly to LED. Now I get nothing. These Philips bulbs don't work without ballast. I am taking them back to Home Depot.
No need to watch this video. Instantfit bulbs work with electronic ballasts only. They don't work without a ballast and they don't work with magnetic ballasts. This information is straight from Phillips. If you use your phone to video tape your lights running and see lines flashing across the phone screen that means you have a magnetic ballast which won't work with these bulbs. No lines means that you have an electronic ballast that will work. Ideally though you should remove your ballast as they waste energy when using LED bulbs and will eventually fail. If you do remove the ballast you do need a different type of LED bulb. Not instantfit as they are require a ballast. Moral of the story is do your research before wasting hours like Nick did. It only took me maybe 3 minutes to look this up.
Thanks, John. Trust me ... in 2017, when I posted this video, it was the only bit of information on these bulbs, and it took me a while to find that info on the Philips site ... and therefor the video :-)
Thanks, just bought four of these and they didn't work. Was about to remove the ballast and rewire. Instead I'm just going to return all of them and buy an led fixture and get rid of all this fluorescent crap.
These things are crap. Installed them and they didnt even as much give off a flicker of light... DOA... You're better off removing the ballast and getting a 50% energy savings every month on your lighting bill by using regular LEDs...
First valid information I have found for the Philips Instant fit that doesn't work.
Thanks bro, your video has saved me a lot of time trying to figure out why these LED replacements wouldn’t turn on
I have been dealing with this exact issue with the Philips InstantFit T 12 LED tubes . they are useless . Philips could make it more clear what they care compatible with but they don't . Being annoyed as I am now I will not buy another Phillips light product .....ever . Actually I might buy some that will work and put these back in the package and return them for a refund since I bought these long ago and have never been able to use them and can't return them now .
I too had the same challenge. Philips LED fluorescent did not work. Thought to cut the ballast wires and retro fit. Had a gut feeling NOT to do it since my Utilitech ballast 4ft light fixture is only two years old. Glad I listened to the inner voice.
Returned the Philips back to Home Depot.
The LED fluorescents that did work were:
1- (Home Depot) Feit Electric 4 ft. T8/T12 17-Watt Cool White Linear LED Light Bulb $9.92 per bulb
2- (Lowe’s) GE LED 48” 15w 1800 lumens. $14.98 2pk
I opt to keep the GE daylight for my kitchen because it’s the best lighting for me when cooking.
Just remove old fluorescent bulbs and replace with GE LED. Done.
Hope this helps.
When he says "Lead" he's meaning "L.E.D.". Just incase you are new to this stuff. Great vid. Thanks!
The Philips Universal Fit tubes will work with either electronic or magnetic ballast, but yes, Instant Fit needs electronic.
This vid may need to be updated, so I'll share my Feb 2021 experience. Philips instafit worked with the ballast, but nothing after ballast removed. Took the Philips back to Home Depot because my goal was direct line voltage, no ballast. Paid 3x the price for tubes at a lighting store where the counter guy also informed me of the problem. The original Florescent tubes had the line and neutral connections wired to the opposite ends of the tubes. The LED tubes he sold me are "single end" meaning the line and the neutral pins are on one end of the tube, the pins at the opposite end are there only to hold the tube in place in the fixture. So with my 2 tube fixture I needed to replace the tombstones at one end with non-shunted ones, then wire one side of each tombstone to line and neutral(AKA neg and positive.) (consult a wiring diagram.) Works fine and no ballast needed. DISCLAIMER: If you do not have knowledge of electrical wiring, you should seek assistance or hire an electrician. Hope this helpful.
Thx for the update, John. Yes, these have changed over time ... maybe I should delete this video so people don't get confused ...
That is great advice. I got suckered into this instant-fit and it didn't work as I had ancient magnetic ballasts. The ones that don't require a ballast (like the Philips Mainstay) are hard to come by in the 5K (Daylight). Time to shutoff the breaker, rip out the ballast and do some rewiring in the fixture. I would do a RUclips video, but hey just not enough time.
Hey brother not to say anything you did or say is wrong. Maybe they fixed the problem idk. I just got done plugging my instagit lights into my light fixture that i had aslready removed ballast for my last leds. And they work fine. Not sure why that is but it is. Have a good day
These tubes disassemble very easily. There is an electronic package at both ends, one has several resisters and a capacitor and connects to the led strip with a micro 4 wire plug, the other end in one single wire going thu another set of what appears to be capacitors, then to the other pins. Be nice to sort is out and make them adapt to a direct connection or a dc power adapter.
The retrofit type, at least the Philips T8 glass instafits have the leds wired in series to take 240 volts. The ballast supplies that, so you have to use the ballast with them. I got the right ballast and they worked. Oddly, the ballast makes them mimic old school lamps on startup. They come on dim for 2-3 seconds, then brighten.
Philips publishes a list of compatible ballasts online, which is good to reference. It would be nice if this was included in the box or on the package, but the online guide is up to date. I've installed over 60 of these LED bulbs. Even in an electric start ballast, if it's not on the compatibility chart, the bulb will either not work, or will burn the ballast out within a couple weeks. Don't bother if the ballast isn't compatible. Having said that, when the bulbs are installed with compatible ballasts, they work really well. The bulb provides superior light, and the energy usage is close to advertised on the box.
images.philips.com/is/content/PhilipsConsumer/PDFDownloads/United%20States/ODLI20180301_001-UPD-en_US-PLt-16118CR_InstantFit_Ballast-Compatibility-Guide_2018-1.pdf
If you do decide to keep your ballast, it has to be an electronic ballast, for the Phillips InstaFit to work.
Same issue. The old magnetic ballast in my fixture didn't work. These are the glass 17 watt 4 foot T8 instafits. HD has an electronic ballast for $15, so I'll look on Philips site to see if it's compatible. Yep. REB-2P32-SC is a "system certified" ballast. I'd love to know how many people returned these to the store! I bet HD will soon stop carrying these because of the hassle caused by lack of installation and applicability details.
But isn't one of the main points to eliminate the ballast for more energy savings?
Count me in as another fool who fell for this. I have magnetic ballasts both on 2 separate 4' T12 fixtures, and both are on the verge of failing. I returned my 4 Instafit bulbs to Home Depot. The electronic ballast is $20 (needed 2, one for each fixture) , so I opted for single-ended non-ballast T8 leds from Amazon for about the same price as the 4 that I returned. Live and learn.
Thanks a lot man, I've been killing my self trying to figure out why the hell didn't work...going to HD right now.
I was at Lowes and just bought Utilitech 48 inch retro fit bulbs, I think the box said it works with an electronic ballast, the price was $17.xx for 16 bulbs on clearance. I used an ohm meter and measured the resistance pin to pin = 500K ohms on each end and infinity across the 48 inches. Possibly applying 120 v. at each end might light it? Any one know what the pin voltages are from an electronic ballast? Is there any chance that they might work on 120 volts directly -- NO BALLAST??
I am also searching for these direct answers. Utilitech customer service does not offer support for light bulbs and say all light bulb service is store level. I am interested in removing the 2 T 12 ballast from my 4 bulb fixture and replacing with the same Utilitechs that u bought on clearance. I bought 30 cases of them!!!!!!!1 I know they will work with an existing T8 ballast plug and play.....but not certain about them working without any ballast....let me know if u find out please.
I grabbed a few boxes on clearance as well they do take the electronic ballast and will not work with the bypass method or the old magnetic ones. found an easy and fast way to check to see what ballast you have, use your cell phone take a picture of the light while lit with the fluorescents in it. clear picture means electronic vs a pic with lines running across the bulbs will indicate a magnetic. Bottom line bulbs were still a great deal I have 10 4 bulb fixtures to redo and I can pick up a case of 10 high rated 4 bulb electronic ballasts on amazon for 90 bucks to the door. hard to beat redoing 10 fixtures and having a few spare bulbs for the same price as 2 new 4 bulb fixtures and without bulbs. hope this helps
Correct......apparently Lowes made a mistake on the $17 price.....by the time the sale was over we had purchased approx 60 cases....have 4100 color half 6000 color. The 6000 are extremely bright...would be good for a shop but not good for our retail stores. I have been doing T12 to T8 ballast retro fit and just installing the 4100's...they work perfectly with the T8 electronic ballast. I wish I could get them to work without a ballast but so far no can do.
i just installed some with no problem
Home depot said the Philips would work with or without a ballast. The Phillips started to burn after a few weeks. I had to replace them with the Toggled.
Yup ... I rewire (direct wire) all my fixtures now. Can't trust instantFit. Actually, once you rewire a few it becomes very simple :-)
My old ballast was partially working with fluorescent and my new LED bulbs, but I decided to take out the ballast and wire directly to LED. Now I get nothing. These Philips bulbs don't work without ballast. I am taking them back to Home Depot.
I had the same Problem, I need an fast start ballast. better is to buy bypass LED.
Thanks
Nice👏😊
No need to watch this video. Instantfit bulbs work with electronic ballasts only. They don't work without a ballast and they don't work with magnetic ballasts. This information is straight from Phillips. If you use your phone to video tape your lights running and see lines flashing across the phone screen that means you have a magnetic ballast which won't work with these bulbs. No lines means that you have an electronic ballast that will work. Ideally though you should remove your ballast as they waste energy when using LED bulbs and will eventually fail. If you do remove the ballast you do need a different type of LED bulb. Not instantfit as they are require a ballast. Moral of the story is do your research before wasting hours like Nick did. It only took me maybe 3 minutes to look this up.
Thanks, John. Trust me ... in 2017, when I posted this video, it was the only bit of information on these bulbs, and it took me a while to find that info on the Philips site ... and therefor the video :-)
@@nickzigicmusic Ok, yeah sorry I believe that.
Thanks, just bought four of these and they didn't work. Was about to remove the ballast and rewire. Instead I'm just going to return all of them and buy an led fixture and get rid of all this fluorescent crap.
Phillips Universal LED FLUORESCENT TUBE BULBS WILL NOT WORK WITHOUT AN ELECTRONIC BALLAST.
These things are crap. Installed them and they didnt even as much give off a flicker of light... DOA...
You're better off removing the ballast and getting a 50% energy savings every month on your lighting bill by using regular LEDs...
They work if you have the right type of ballast.