All israeli companies now produces only T5 ballasts and fixtures and you can't find T8 fixtures anymore.

All israeli companies now produces only T5 ballasts and fixtures and you can't find T8 fixtures anymore.

Next, they are going to ban t5, saying it's "too old fashioned". At elast t5 is better than LED. Then, they are going to ban LED because it is "too harsh", making everyone go back to using torches and gas lanterns.

That's sad that they ban T8 are all governments just blindly following each other? If the ban LED I will cheer BRING BACK FILAMENT LAMPS and 8foot preheaters!

Why a ban?
I would rather guess just the demand from their customers disappeared, so they stopped making something not selling that well anymore...

I don't think that the demand of the T8 disappeared, but the Israeli companies wants to push themselves farther to the energy saving solutions, so they discontinues T8 fixtures and products, even if there are demands for them.
Today in Israel, only Eltam produces T8 ballasts, and these are the magnetic ones. Electronic ballasts they produces only T5 and TC. Electrosen produces only LED fixtures and T5 and TC electronic ballasts. Gaash lighting, once the top place in fluorescent fixtures produces only T5.

The main demand come not from the replacement market, but the new commercial installations. And there the efficacy of the T5 and/or the expected life of the LED is very strong motivation, mainly when the newly installed systems are expected to last for the next 10 years.
The replacement part business is very small and by itself does not justify the production...

So now there's no retrofit option for existing fixtures? That's a shame. I hope the USA doesn't follow suit.

Well, the thinking is so:
For the individual repairs you need only small amount of pieces and for that the existing stock should be sufficient.
If a more extensive damage occurs, it would mean a major overhaul and for that you will most likely use new fixtures anyway.

Well, this way (how I had described) is the only one acceptable, how all the less efficient technologies get replaced by the more efficient ones. If a maker decides to stop making something, it is his free decision. If no maker remains on the market, it may be sad, but no one has any right to force anyone into making something he does not want to. You can not find a spare parts because no one is willing to make them? Well, your business. Find another maker and maybe convince him by e.g. some better pricing offer...
There are many people as you and someone makes good money on that? Well, his decision and his luck and maybe bad decission of the traditional makers, so could be their bad luck. Their business.
In any case the government has no right to pick their noses into that at all, in any direction.

You can still buy T8 lamps in Israel, but not T8 fixtures or ballasts.

What are you talking about Dor ?

http://www.gal-or.co.il/category/אמריקאים

I have a few of their 2x36W version. It is a ripoff of the Gaash 5054/01, not as high quality as the Gaash original (flimsier metal), but is proper switchstart with Eltam made chokes

Gal-or are the only manufacturer I've know to produces T8 fixtures with T8 ballasts of any type now. Electrosen don't produces fluorescent fixtures anymore (They are a LED company now), and you can't find T8 electronic ballasts made in Israel, but only T5 and TC. Also, you can't find T8 fixtures at all in DIY stores.

That is not bans. The people buy T5 and LED, manufacturers bring them T5 and LED



Peeps are oblivious idiots and the good manufacturers pay the price..

But read this right. When i say peeps are idiots, i mean that they are idiots because AS CONSUMERS they act like oblivious idiots. This have NOTHING to do with their choices of lighting technology



MSlight (Shaltiel) were making T8 Switchstart lanterns in a good price point - While Gaash were allways investing in galvanised sheet metal, elaborate assembly designs etc for their lanterns and so were top quality but also expensive, MSlight were made basic and affordable - while cutting cost on things that generally dont shorten the lifetime of the lantern - an MSlight will last forever, same as a Gaash, unless you abuse it...

So MSlight would be the perfect lantern for the DIY users that want a good lantern without paying a lot. In fact, MSlight WERE the DIY'ers choice for many years now



Now, remember that article abut the dangerous LED lamps, that i mentioned a few other companies in the comment there ?

Those other companies - Mainly the suppliers of IG, Orot Amakim and such, are related to the wholesalers that supply to DIY shops. Maybe a few of them are a single company acting under different names, this i cannot know for sure, but thye indeed act like if they are

Those wholesalers offer the small hardware shops "package deals" i.e. "order all your electrical aisle from our company". There you get a package deal with all electrical devices (receptacles, ...) from IG, lamps from whatever brand IG imports at the time, some untitled Fluorescent strips, all come monday morning straight to the shop in one truck on a single pallet



The common thing to all those products in the package deal is, they are all substandard quality big time. Very often to the point that they are dangerous

Plugs and receptacles are made of flimsy plastic, that crumbles within a year of exposure to light, and it is very easy to crack by slightly overdoing the screws right at the time of installation. The plug pins are too short and too thin - not up to the standard. Same with other similar products

Fluorescent strips there really are untitled. There is NO manufacturer name. NO standards compliance signs, and from a single glance i can tell you, those strips won't pass standards. NO voltage/wattage ratings either - Just trust that it is 240V 50Hz and will work with the lamp that fits in by length....

They are Switchstart, but nowhere near the quality we came to expect from Switchstart. The plastics used on the ballast coil caps, terminals, lamp holders... are not made to withstand the operating conditions - They crumble within a couple years max. The ballasts are inefficient - They run VERY hot. The wires dont withstand the heat where they go past the ballasts. Some units come with loose wires from the factory - and i mean live wires that pop out of their connection hole and touch the lantern body from inside



Now what i suspect is, those "package deal wholesalers" aim specifically at "assassinating" the good manufacturers still surviving here

 - They undercut them by cost - And they can, first since they import cheap imports, second because they use the cheapest stuff that does not meet any standards - that the good manufacturers would never do

 - They offer everything as part of the "package deal" - so the shop does not need extra logistics overhead to get their stuff, but does to get something else

They obviously do this as part of their market strategy, but its been a while now that i suspect a relation to the political Middle East conflict as well....



2 years back, when i did lighting for people, i would come to DIY shops and ask for MSlight lanterns (mostly model A2 2x36W). The shop would offer the Chinese thing instead. I would ask if i can order an MSlight product. Some shops said no - and i turned away. Some shops said yes, but the product that arrived was an "equivalent" - and i turned away. Some shop ordered MSlight and i bought it there, even at double the price (FFS, back in the day i could get a Gaash for this price)

If all customers were doing this, we would have MSlight around today, in good shape, and would NOT have some 1000s of fires waiting to happen - all those Chinese lanterns installed on flammable surfaces (where an F mark lantern would be required for safety), that ARE going to start a fire once they get a stuck starter and a tube with a bit too sturdty cathodes...

The consumers are idiots because they fell to this scam so willingly - They are happy that they got a receptacle or a lantern for less. If they were acting correctly as consumers, they would give the shops a shake and require some proper products