Sylvania/Osram 49908 Fluorescent Ballast - Perfect for Illuminating Your Home or Office

Amazon Customer: work fine for me , light is on bingo

Canada on May 18, 2021

DeltaAlphaVictorEcho: Based on the scratches seen on the housing and the need to straighten the sheet metal mounting flange on the one end, Im not convinced that where even new items.

Canada on Jan 29, 2019

optyman: 2nd time I had to replace this. When all bulbs of your light go out after using your switch, it probably is related to this ballast. But, before you order, check your switch. I looked into other ballast options, and none are as cheap as these. They came under label OSRAM as pictured. No shrink wrap, just rubber band wrapped, and a few mars or scratches on them. I ordered two, including one for backup. Instead of forgetting where I may have placed the backup when the replacement fails, I stored the second one up within the light, under the long tin piece that covers the ballast for storage. Installation is more like 15 minutes after reinstalling the bulbs and light cover. I read about another option, which is bypassing the ballast altogether and using LED lights. I may try that after my backup ballast fails, as I know it will.

United States on Oct 09, 2018

Startechie: One ballast replaces two old magnetic ballasts in 4-tube fixture. Replaced aging T12's with new T8 tubes (temporary). So bright now I need to wear sun screen! Next step is off to Costco to get LED tubes and start saving energy $$$. Ballast fits exactly into existing mounts in fixture. Connections are easy - turn OFF brain and just match the colors. Does not interfere with X-10 communications as far as I can tell so far.

UPDATE: I installed 18W LED tubes. Just as bight! Bad news is the electronic ballast interferes with X-10 communications. Good news is that inserting an inductor (200uH @ 2A.) in series with AC hot wire eliminates the interference. I still love it!

Canada on May 20, 2018

Harold L. DuBose: It worked for my 2 8ft single pin bulbs.I had to do a little rewiring mine. Doubled the two blues from ballast to the single blue , then connected the two reds to the single red. I connected the black from the ballast to the black power and the white to the neutral. Then I connected one yellow to the white and one yellow to the black on the light sockets on the other end. Took a little figuring and I closed my eyes when I first cut it on. They want about 50 dollars at Lowe's for a ballast , so it was worth a little figuring for me.

United States on Nov 12, 2015

Wahoohead: Needed to check with an electrician friend about wiring, but after that it was a breeze. Instant on and I will hope that it last for a few years.

Update: It only lasted 4 months. Disappointed that I only got 4 months of service, especially since I bought another one just to have on hand when the next old ballast fails. Well it was not an old ballast that failed it was the new one. Any piece of equipment can fail. I will see if the seller will warrant it.

No warranty, and after installing the second one I am NOT PLEASED to report that it only lasted a month. I don't know why, my electrical buddy (licensed master electrician 20 + years) doesn't know why other. I will not buy from this vendor again. Junk as far as I am concerned.

United States on Aug 31, 2015

C. Kinerd: Bought several of these to upgrade my flourescent fixtures in our garage, laundry room and master closet. I originally tried the 48" LED bulbs in our closet and one garage fixture, and even though they were quite bright, two only lasted a few days and the cost is still astronomical. I have since re-wired the garage fixture using one of these back to flourescent and upgraded to T8 bulbs. Very bright and instant on, the old flourescents were much dimmer, whould take a lot of flickering to come on and always had magnetic waves in them. Rewiring takes a slight bit of McGiver knowledge as I re-used the tombstones that required a bit of re-engineering to get them to make solid contact with the wires. Wiring diagram is included and fairly simple. I replaced two ballasts per fixture with this one as I have 4 bulbs in each fixture. What a difference in the garage and laundry room. My wife almost needs sun glasses for our master closet. I did use 5000K bulbs rather than the warmer 2700K bulbs. But if you do as I did, get the bulbs locally, I ordered a large box from Amazon and several arrived broken. Amazon is known for their customer service, so I just contacted them and returned the...

United States on Sep 10, 2013

Ron H: Purchased 2 to replace aging Motorola ballasts that had over 10 years of 8 hours/day use. And these are a great value in just under half of what the home improvement stores sell them for and a third the cost at a lighting store.

These went in very easily. The wires are attached to the ballast so I only needed to remove the wires from the bulb socket ends and plug these in.

It is almost fool proof. Red wires on one end and yellow on the other end of the bulb. And the other set of bulbs get a blue wire and yellow on the other end. As long as red and blue are not on the same bulbs, its good to go, just follow the wiring schematic on the bulb.

I since put in both ballasts and have purchased two more to keep as spares. I did have a bulb go bad on one of the new ballasts and it was very forgiving. Put a new bulb in and it was running again. The old ones seem to knocked out by bad bulbs. The Sylvania seem very robust. They work very well. In fact I have a spare fixture that I already have wired with a new ballast to make change out a snap. Its not really necessary, but having the spare fixture and getting the wires laid out ahead of time works for my shop.

The...

United States on Jul 07, 2012