T9 LED Circline Light Bulb, 8 Inch 1600LM LED Circular Light, 13W Clear Cover 4000K Soft White Replacement for FC8T9 22-Watt Fluorescent Circular Bulb(FC8T9), Ballast Bypass Required

This is a really pleasant upgrade for my luxo-style magnifier lamp which had a 5000K fluorescent circular bulb. I absolutely abhor 5000K bulbs whether it be fluorescent or LED, which give off a cold blue and very unnatural light, so I bought the 2700K version of this LED bulb which gives a very warm yellowish light, similar to an incandescent bulb. Installation is not as tricky as it seems. You just need a screw driver, wire cutting pliers and a little patience. My lamp had a starter module wired in between the switch and the bulb. You just cut the wire midway between the switch and the bulb, and then cut the other wire that doesn't go through the switch in about the same place. Strip about 1/4" of insulation off the ends of the wire and use the wire nuts to join one wire coming from the lamp to one wire on the included harness, and then join the other lamp wire to the other harness wire. My lamp's wires had a woven insulating sleeve around them, which I put back on the wires coming from the lamp for extra thermal protection. This bulb did fit into the spring brackets that held the previous bulb in place with no additional modification. My lamp also had a metal plate which held the starter module, but it also covered the switch, so I removed the starter module from the plate and put the plate back in to give the switch a little better protection from the heat. Now my beloved magnifier lamp turns on instantly without the five seconds of flickering and no longer makes my computer speakers pop when it does come on. The light is bright and warm and uses close to half the power of the ugly blue fluorescent bulb it replaces. Definitely worth the money, time and effort.

Works exactly as described. Perfect replacement for the florescent bulb. It is bright...bright enough that I replaced two bulbs in our ceiling fixture and it still lights our entryway better than the originals. You do have to be aware that this light won't work in a fixture with ballast. So I simply removed the ballast from the fixture and connected it directly to the house wiring as shown in the instructions. Since the polarity doesn't matter (it explains that in the directions too) there was no confusion when wiring it up. If you are not comfortable with home electrical systems call an electrician.

My original fluorescent bulb was 22 Watt cool white which is around 4000 Degrees Kelvin rating, also called natural white, whatever that means. I opted for the 6000 Kelvin LED for more white daylight color as a chart said this is good for task lighting. I don't see a blue hue, but it is definitely brighter than the 22W fluorescent bulb yet is 13W. This 6000 Kelvin LED is a bit stark so it may be better to stay with a 3500 to 5000 Kelvin rating. Instructions are simple -- First, unplug/remove power. I am replacing the fluorescent lamp for a magnifier lamp, so I like to see the plug and cord to the unit in my hand. Remove ballast and wire the supplied connector to the incoming AC power - after the switch if this is for a magnifying light -- with the supplied wire nuts, making sure all stranded wires are inside the wire nut. I put electrical tape on the nut and then the wire to be sure the nuts stay on and wire-tied the two wires after the nut together for better security. The wire nuts supplied with my unit had metal inside. Test each wire with a gentle pull before adding tape to be sure the nut and wire are secure -- some videos online show how to do this if this is not familiar to you. Update: I have used this LED replacement for a while and I like the greater intensity and find the color spectrum good. A brighter light helps to see details better. I think my comment about it being a bit stark was just initial impressions of the greater intensity. I have an antistatic blue mat which could bias initial impressions. I am satisfied with this replacement!

I (like many here) purchased this to replace the broken fluorescent tube in a Harbor Freight magnifying light. It fit well, but did require some minor bending of brackets to adjust for a slightly different size. This is unlikely to be an issue with 99% of ordinary light fixtures, but the design of this lamp with the magnifying glass had a special mounting mechanism. In any case, it only took seconds to do. The install process was very easy. The ballast was attached with screw-down terminals, so there wasn't even a need to cut wires. I simply had to remove it from the equation, then use the included wire nuts to attach the new connector. FWIW, I believe the old connector would have worked fine, but the new one was tapered to more closely fit the new LED bulb, so decided to use it instead. The result is as brilliant as expected. The light output has doubled, and the 6,000 kelvin color temperature provides a very "daylight" like appearance. While the original fluorescent was by no means yellow in color, this color temperature certainly looks a bit closer to a "true" white now. All in all, I recommend this product highly. It has the added benefit of not being breakable! My light sees some abuse in the shop, so knowing that I won't have to clean up shattered glass again is wonder.

The light is bright, does not get very warm, and feels like it is of sturdy make. My main complaint is that the description advertises that it will be very easy to install, and that there will be a manual to help. If you already do electrical stuff, I'm sure it is. But for someone who doesn't, I found it kind of harrowing. The process required me to pull out all the electronics in the head of my lamp, cut wires, strip them, and then splice them together. This is obviously a pretty intense commitment for a replacement bulb to ask of you because if something went wrong, that could break my entire lamp. I watched many videos on YouTube and didn't find one of a similar lamp or that actually explained whats going on. The website from the manufacturer was even more useless. It just says to remove the ballast - to me ballast is sand used to form the bed of a railroad, or weight a ship. When I googled it, all the electronic ballasts looked nothing like what was in my lamp. The included manual was one tiny slip of paper that again, just said I might need to remove the ballast without further erudition. The actual physical steps were finicky, but weren't very difficult. The ballast in my lamp is marked in red outline in my image, I had to cut off that whole piece to put the light in.

Super simple to install once you accept the fact that you must bypass the ballast. It says it clearly in the description, it’s not hard at all. I purchased this in 2022 and it’s now 2025, been on almost 24hrs a day since purchased and still going. It’s bright, doesn’t get hot. Fits perfectly just like the regular bulb it will replace. Very nice looking bulb, well packaged also. Zero issues with this. Anyone saying otherwise or returning it simply doesn’t know how to bypass the ballast.

The bulb has no markings to be UL listed/tested or any other adherence to regulations. Without some sort of testing and approval being completed or even adhering to electrical code regulations, I would be hesitant to install a product that can potentially cause problems with my house. I am not saying you shouldn't buy this product or that it is dangerous. I am saying that after spending the money and finding no indications of approval, I chose not to install this in my house because I thought the risk of problem, fire, and insurance claim denial out-weighed the benefits of saving $50 of not buying the new LED light fixture to correctly replace the light in my kitchen. Other problems: 1. The instructions are poor. It is up to you to interpret the drawings to determine which wire/post is the hot and which is the neutral. 2. The piece they ship to splice wires together is AWFUL! It relies on spring pressure instead a cheap plastic case to join wires together. You will not find a connector like this in an electrical supply retailer or row at a big box store. If you are going to use this light, go buy some REAL wire nuts or approved connectors. 3. There is a chance this bulb will not directly replace the 118 inch build I bought it to replace. This means that the overall diameter is different, so the bulb holding clips in the fixture may not hold this bulb. They did ship clips for you to screw into the old fixture using drywall anchors to solve this problem. Why wouldn't the bulb just be designed as a direct replacement for the common bulb size? I waited too long to write this review to get a refund. I should have listened to the other reviews about the quality of this bulb before ordering.

I bought this because I felt like the ballast in the fluorescent bulb might be bad. Since I had no way to be sure, I went ahead and spent the extra money to get an LED bulb. The LED bulb uses less energy, and is brighter than my old bulb, but I had to remove the old ballast. If your house is like mine, then be sure to mark which wire was connected to white and which one was connected to black. ( I have no idea why both wires in the fixture were black, but I suspect that the house was remodeled, and the previous homeowner just used black wire for everything.) The wires that come with the LED light were also much smaller than the wires in the existing fixture, most likely because LED lights use so little electricity. The twist-on wire connectors did not hold firmly, so I went to the hardware store and bought a couple of step-down crimp connectors designed specifically for connecting two different gauge wires. The LED light is brighter than my old fluorescent light, and is much closer to a natural color. Some people might think 6000K is a little bit blue, but to me, it looks very much like sunlight. My old fluorescent light was supposed to be 5000K, but for whatever reason, it always looked too yellow to me. This new light is the same size as the fluorescent that I replaced, so I was able to use the same same clip and covering from the old light. I rated the light five stars for "longevity", although I really wouldn't know. I have had some LED lights that have lasted for many years, but I had some that failed within a few hours. This looks like a similar design to another replacement bulb I bought a few years ago, and that one has been going strong for about 5000 hours of use. My experience is that LED bulbs last at least 10,000 hours no matter how often you turn them on and off. In comparison: The fluorescent bulb that this replaced lasted about 7,000 hours in total.