Good F15T8 tubes?

[N8N]

Good afternoon

yesterday I picked up among other things a Dazor draftsman's lamp at Value Village. It has in it some GE "Chroma 50" tubes which after a search appear to be 5000K and 90 CRI. So, score - I got two good tubes and a free awesome lamp. Thing is, though, I like the high CRI but would really prefer something with a lower color temp I as I already have a very similar lamp (literally, the same model lamp but painted a slightly different color) with high CRI, 5000K Sylvania (I think? it's been over 10 years since I bought them) tubes in it.

Is there anything out there that would be similar but in the 2700-3000K range, or is that a pipe dream?

thanks!

 

[N8N]

Trying this again... I finally got at and shined the lamp up, replaced the cord, and discovered a flaky switch so ordered a replacement. Am waiting for the paint to dry on the reflector as attempting to clean it with warm water resulted in the original paint disintegrating. Going to have this back together and operational as soon as the new switch arrives.

 

[brickbat]

I'd go with LED. These, from SATCO are 'ballast bypass' and use only 7 watts each. They're 3000K. I doubt you'll find 90 CRI though...

We have a kitchen full of SATCO LED replacement lamps, and they seem pretty decent.

Satco|Nuvo S11950 Product Page

 

[N8N]

Back to the top. I just picked up another Dazor today. The two I had before, one has Philips "Alto" tubes in it that I bought at either HD or Lowe's maybe 15 years ago as they were at the time listed as 90 CRI (I think? something like that anyway.) The other is mentioned above that I picked up last year and it still has the GE Chroma 50 tubes in it. The one I got today has no tubes, and a quick web search shows me that not only are there no 2700-3000K high CRI tubes available (the two I mention above I believe are both 5000K or thereabouts) but Philips now only makes 3000K 83 CRI and 4100K 63 CRI (gasp), and the Chroma 50s I suspect are also discontinued as all I can find are very expensive.

So are there ANY affordable high CRI F15T8s of any color temp or did I just buy a paperweight? It doesn't seem to make sense to put low CRI tubes in a task lamp, but here we are. I was figuring on fixing this one up and then picking one to sell but it's really not a money making proposition if I have to spend almost $100 for tubes when the lamp will probably sell for $100.

Edit: even the tubes that Dazor themselves sell as replacements are 4100K, 60 CRI (aak!) or 6500K 72CRI (not much better...)

Here's the weird thing, HD lists a 4100K/83CRI and 3000K/85CRI? But that's not what Philips' web site says? They're still $10.98 apiece at the Orange Colored Store so not cheap.

 

[N8N]

This is what they actually have at HD. Doesn't match Philips' web site... well I bought the 3000k/85CRI because it looks like that's as good as I'm going to get and I actually like 3000k.

 

[LEDphile]

Looks like HD still has some old stock

 

[IMA SOL MAN]

They make LED replacements for FL tubes. You might be able to get the color and CRI that you want that way.

 

[jtr1962]

I would have just rewired it to use LED tubes (basically you connect the mains wires to the tube sockets), then looked for LED tubes matching what you want. For example, this one is 3000K, 95 CRI:

Dimmable True-Color F15T8 LED Tube-17-3/4"- 3000K | fulight-led

Working from 110-120VAC, this product has the highest Color Rendering Index (~95CRI) in the LED light bulb market, providing the best lighting quality by restoring the objects color up to 95% as shown in the sunlight for your eyes. It extensively outperforms the fluorescent tubes with CRI ~75%...

www.fulightopto.com

 

[N8N]

I would have just rewired it to use LED tubes (basically you connect the mains wires to the tube sockets), then looked for LED tubes matching what you want. For example, this one is 3000K, 95 CRI:

Dimmable True-Color F15T8 LED Tube-17-3/4"- 3000K | fulight-led

Working from 110-120VAC, this product has the highest Color Rendering Index (~95CRI) in the LED light bulb market, providing the best lighting quality by restoring the objects color up to 95% as shown in the sunlight for your eyes. It extensively outperforms the fluorescent tubes with CRI ~75%...

www.fulightopto.com

I thought about that but that is even more expensive! and I like to keep things original. However that may end up having to be the solution as it looks like every time I revisit this it's harder to find good tubes.

I just saw an interesting idea on another page however. Someone was using a blacklight to illuminate his turntable as it would show dust/dirt on a LP very easily. I know there's blacklight tubes available in F15T8 format, are any of them any good?