The Lamp Room

Was thinking the other day, of the most common fluorescent battens that you see out in the wild so to speak, which is your favourite?

I think I’ve listed the most common players except Tamlite, I’ve left that out on purpose lol, nobody will vote for that anyway

Fitzgerald has to be the winner for me.
Simple fittings, often only in bog standard sizes but made like a lump of Victorian cast iron.
They rarely go wrong and if they do there isn't anything to fix necessarily.
I've never owned a knackered fitzy fitting.

Specifically from that list I picked the Europa... That being said I like them as much as a Crompack 3 (the 3 being manufactured around the same era). The Thorn Popular Pack with the T12 or oval lamp holders isn't that far behind them IMO.

I would not pick the Fitzy Light Pack, they're OK, but they always seem to have poorer lamp holders than the competition and aren't particularly 'heavy duty' and they seem more rust prone.

They're not rock hard but they last.
Seen plenty of bashed about, yellowed and rusted ones but not a knackered one.

In terms of both quality & design:

1) GEC Europa
2) Thorn pop-pack (70's / 80's versions)
3) Fitzy batten range
4) Philips / Crompton Streamlite (these might have been higher, if not for the fact the gear ALWAYS goes noisy!)

This is tougher than choosing between UKIP and the brexit party for me. But I think for me the Europa has to top it just a well made fitting plenty of steel good spring loaded cover clips just well made I’d say better lamp holders than PPs as they tend to go crispy over time

Gaash lanterns of the 2nd half of the 80s and early 90s - The 1600 (strip with tombstone sockets), 4400/2000 (Europa), 4400 later version, and Speedpack (similar, but not identical to GEC)

Fitzgerald Lightpack of the early 90s

Interesting, not much love for the old Pop Pack. Must admit an old PP240 is on my wish list.

I have to go with the Europa, it was the one in our kitchen as a kid, that started the interest in lighting for me.

Back in the 70s / 80s I always regarded Fitzgerald as a poor man's copy of Thorn pop pack (we're talking T12 era, before the oval spring-loaded lamp holders on Thorn). Whereas the Thorns always had PFC capacitors in 4' upwards, the Fitzgerald offerings were usually the cut-price LPF versions without capacitors more commonly available to non-trade DIY-ers, and I think the lamp holders were a bit more 'plasticy' is a cheap way.