Got some Phillips alto bulbs today at Taylor’s do it center. Now how long do I leave it on the Christmas lights setup to go mercury starved? Will I just be able to see it go pink on the ends? Please help!

@LucasColley:
Sent a reply to the question you'd asked in a PM, so check there..

Do I leave the bulb on with the starter hooked up so it will flash on the ends? Or no starter?? Help

Somethings happening xmaslightguy! Believe this bulb will go mercury starved, it looks more pink in person, and I’m using no starter.

@LucasColley:
Might well be going mercury starved (I personally haven't seen a starved GE before so interesting test here.)
Put it in a normal fixture & compare brightness side-by-side with a good one...

@LucasColley:
Might well be going mercury starved (I personally haven't seen a starved GE before so interesting test here.)
Put it in a normal fixture & compare brightness side-by-side with a good one...

Oh yes I have it’s definitely dimmer, not mercury starved tho but when you first turn it on after a while you will see a purple glow at the end looking like it’s burning out but then it stop with the circles inside. May not have time to do the alto bulb today. But I’ll keep ya posted!

Success thanks you guys. (Ge bulb in back and Phillips alto in front)

Mercury starved Alto II .. I guess it does happen with those as as well, not just the original version .lol.
GE partially mercury starved.

I see they're striating too

Yea. The Ge bulb is a slight pink (like the tiniest tiny ist bit of pink) mixed in with the dim grey when first firing up after a few hours. Usually in the morning. I know the alto bulb is really pink only after like an hour but not sure about a few hours. I will turn them on both tmr morning. I was worried abt the alto 2 bulb not going pink but I guess I was wrong! Thanks tho for your help and everyone else’s help.

Just turned on the lights since last night and the Ge bulb fired right up in its greyish color and the alto bulb was kinda weird. On the side where it has the logo and specs it was sort of a dim pink and of you go along the bulb to the other end it was a super, super dim grey. ( almost looked like the bulb wasn’t on ) There were no rings around the bulb and I was like it’s that it? And after like 5 mins of being on, poof! The bulb goes back to the bright pink color like it was yesterday. Now I will say it got down to 59 last night not sure if that had anything to do with it. (The bulbs are located in my shed)

Now how do you make a cfl mercury starved permanently or just have the rings going around it?

  it got down to 59 last night not sure if that had anything to do with it.

Yep cooler temps like that will make them dimmer.

I've just for fun set lights (with good fully working lamps) out in winter on nights when it gets really cold - below zero.
Assuming they even light at all, they're really dim, sometimes even get a pink tint to them, and striations are frequently there too.

Yea, I live in Virginia Beach. That was a record for this time of year. Usually like the n the 90s