Customer Reviews

Lights of America 9266 Outdoor Fixture

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

The 65-watt 9266 lamp can proudly wear the title "Lights of America". We have 9 of them in our barn, and they have been trouble-free. The light plastic gooseneck is a bit weak and requires a lot of tightening to prevent movement. A more robust pivot point would help prevent fractures from over-tightening.

However, Lights of America has been getting cheaper with its lower-wattage lights. The 27-watt version comes with the lens retaining screws simply taped to the inside of the mounting plate. They also stopped supplying the alternate black plug to disable the photocell.

Lights of America needs to review their Quality Control. Simply tosssing hardware into a box without an explanation could lead to easily avoidable failures. (Such as the lens falling off and/or leaking!)

Their cheapest version (18-watt) is the model you should avoid like the plague. We installed ~30 of these, and over 50% of them failed within 3 months. Truly a piece of junk!

Whoever designed/qualified the 18-watt version should be fired for incompetence/negligence. They should recall the 18-watt version and redesign it to make it reliable! Smoke in my barn is a no-no!


So, here's my summary:
65-watt -- Buy without worries
27-watt -- Some assembly required
18-watt -- 3-month disposable version *JUNK*

Very bright white light illuminates a large area but has serious electroncs problems. Purchased four units in 2006 and two years later all are non-functional with circuitry not bulb related burnouts. Initially I gave the unit an excellent review with five stars.

No Stars due to electronics problems.

After purchasing a full spectrum light box and dozens of compact fluorescent variants, I came across this product on eBay. With a 6500k color temperature and 4550 lumens, the Flourex 9265/9266 provides fantastic light output at fraction of the cost of other products. Trusting these figures and the rated 65 watt power consumption, it produces an incredible 70 lumens per watt, which is about 6-7 times the efficiency of incandescent bulbs.

While I like my bulky $300 Sunray light box by SunBox, I decided to experiment with smaller and less expensive products to fill the role of a light box. Most of these are from vendors selling light fixtures for outdoor security and "hydroponics". Presumably, the latter indicates cultivation of illegal substances. While I only grow mint plants indoors, I do like natural sunlight when I am working. More importantly, however, is that I like to wake up to bright natural sunlight. Hence, I have connected this floodlight to an Intermatic electronic timer set to turn on a few minutes before my alarm. With the lamp pointed towards the ceiling, I awake to a room filled with white natural light regardless of the weather or time of year.

The indirect lighting mode works quite well, albeit less efficiently than a downward-facing arrangement. This particular product is a bit intense to directly face working areas. Of course, plants to do not care nor does it matter if the it is perched high on the side of a building. In its original design intent, the light fixture is designed to fill a large outdoor area with light. Controlled by a photo sensor, it turns on at dusk and off at dawn. My application is entirely different. I place the light on top of a tall piece of furniture to act like a torchiere lamp. This drops the luminous efficiency quite a great deal but provides a pleasing ambient light.

Lights of America did an excellent job with this product, which combines energy-saving light output with excellent full spectrum characteristics. If you enjoy full spectrum lighting in the home or need a good outdoor security light, this the Fluorex 9625/9626 is an excellent choice.



Pros
Excellent full spectrum light output for the price
Tremendous energy savings over halogen
Built-in light sensor for dusk to dawn operation
Includes mounting arm and hardware


Cons
Excessive warm-up period
Application specific bulb (will work only in this fixture)
Mounting arm may not be ideal for indoor applications

Costco in California has had these available for under $10 since last Fall. I put 3 up at my home as outdoor down lights (under the eaves) and 2 dozen of them as work lights in the theater where I work. One of the units at my home stopped working so I took it down to check it and it started to work again on the bench! Can't find the flaw so I am putting it back in palace to see what happens. One of the units I put in the theater would not start from the get-go (LoA replaced the faulty unit, no questions asked) but the other 23 worked fine. They are replacing 750 and 500 watt quartz fixtures above the stage. We now run at about 10% of the power we used to consume. The light is much more diffuse and blue then previously (think moonlight vs sunlight) but easy to adjust to and much cheaper day to day. I am about to add another dozen as work lights in the audience space to save our houselights (which must be dim-able) and also further cut energy consumption. I have also used these as bounce lights inside pop-up tents at some outdoor functions. Lots of light and no heat! The housings are very cheap but they do the job. I would worry about them installed on the ground in a high traffic area.

I have four of these units and they work only half the time. I talked to the company engineer today and he said that the ballast was designed to cut off if the power was interupted and would have to be reset. The engineer told me if the light shut down to cut off the breaker for a minute turn it back on and see if that didnt solve the prolem. Will try that the next time it shuts down. At any rate this is a problem that the consumer should not have to be concerned with..

Bought this product about 5 or 6 years ago. Prior to the 65 watt version, I tried the 27 watt version and it just did not put out enough light. This one is wonderful. I loved it so much that when we moved to a brand new home 2 years ago, I took this one with us and installed it there. Home Depot or Lowe's used to carry these, now they don't carry the fixtures. Ours died last week. I found the bulb at Lowe's but no fixture. Replaced the bulb, no worky so I'm on the hunt to replace the fixture. This time I will modify the internals of the unit so that the light sensor points out differently in my application. As it is now, it takes so much light to turn off that it is usually still on at 10:00 AM. The problem is how my light fixture is positioned under the eves and how much light is getting to the sensor. Other than that, no issues. Only gave it a 4 Star because the casing is (as mentioned) plastic and a bit flimsy. If it were made in metal, it would get a 5.

Absolute TRASH! Bought 6 of these and 2 still work! 4 worked for 3 days and no longer come on. Electronic ballast is a real piece of junk. Why can't any company make a product that will last for any time at all. We pay them for this mess and then have to worry with replacing the junk when it breaks; at our expense! Good electronics are cheap but these manufacturers have to use even cheaper junk electronics that don't last 3 days and design circuits that can't reliably switch a few watts. I'll never make the mistake with these again. would have been cheaper to buy $100 commercial fixtures!!

Love these lights! Great light output for the power. Previous purchase of this product was a HUGE disappointment with multiple failures (prox 40% failure rate). Bulbs were good and no mechanical problems with the failed fixtures but the ballast circuit died on the problem units.
I disassembled one of the new fixtures purchased through Amazon, comparing it with one of the failed units from a previous purchase, and the circuit board has been redesigned with a better quality board and components. The new lights turn on faster and are brighter than the old lights that are still working. Perhaps they fixed their quality control issues. No problems in the three weeks that the new lights have been in service. Looks promising...

I bought two of these lights about three years ago on sale but only installed one at the time. It lasted about two years and then suddenly died. I took it apart (thought it might just be the outside light sensor) but apparently one of the circuit board components had failed. Installed the other one it only lasted 11 months before failing. Same problem. When the light works it works well, but don't expect to get more than a year out of it, if that.

I actually used this light for the sump on my salt water tank so this may not be overly helpful to the average user.

I have a 29 gallon sump on my saltwater aquarium and wanted a reasonable priced light for the plant growth. This light fits the bill perfectly. It comes in at 6500K and since plant growth is 6400K (so I read) I am a happy camper. The fact that it is compact makes it fit perfect. Since it is meant for outdoors it is pretty well sealed up and that helps protect it from the salt creep. I love the color of this light aw well. It looks much better then the cheap light on my main aquarium.

The only downside I found so far is that the photo eye is a fix mount, you can't disable it. The directions actually say to cover it with electrical tape. I taped over the eye and now the light only comes on with the timer but not sure how long that will last though.