They do not want to start in the preheater UNLESS I take the lamps out. The GE 32 Watters don't do this most of the time. They were dim in the middle to start, but eventually got very bright.  They have cathode shields. I do have a fixture with HF ballast so that might be the way to go.

Powell

I have a couple of 36w somewere I tried them on a rapid start ballast but they did not work but I know the tubes are good.

I haven't tried that yet. I have a rapid start fixture that will start the 32 watters fine, but it over drives them I have another fixture that will light them but they don't burn steadily; they don't rectify but the annoyance is WORSE than that.  Actually, HMMMM I have 2 fixtures that have RS ballasts..... wait....  no nothing on that one.

Powell

F36T8 and F32T8 are way different spec lamps, even when they look exactly the same.

The US F32T8 is deigned to lower current (0.27A) and is not compatible with F40T12 at all.

The F36T8 is designed to run on F40T12 spec preheat ballasts, so the operating current is the same and arc voltage a bit lower. But it does require higher voltage for ignition, above the F40T12 RS ballast OCV, so it does not strike on it.

Also: The F32T8 are interanlly coated with an electrically conductive coating that considerably lowers the ignition voltage, so that they would be operated on a rapidstart ballast, despite of their krypton filling.
The 36W T8s haven't this coating, because they designed to be operated only on preheaters (Which are the primery ballast in Europe [Israel also had Rapidstarts and UK had SRS and Quickstarts]) or electronic ballasts (Provided they aren't electronic rapidstart ballasts).

F32T8 magnetic ballasts also had a higher OCV than F40T12 ballasts, my F40 ballast has a OCV of around 280V while my F32 has a OCV of 330V.