I prefer #47 bulbs, especially in the harder to reach GI bulb locations. I don't notice a big difference in brightness, but they are significantly better for your game overall.

I could be wrong but the way I remember it - the #44 - #47 switch
was an attempt to help save the back glass in the older machines,
so I read.
the playfield should be fine with #44s unless you see problems on the
plastics. Does that sound right?
On later SS pins the GI circuit drops down in voltage in attract mode
but that may not be the case in all SS games

I'd never heard any of this thing about the #44 vs. #47 bulbs. Thanks for all the good information. Every day I learn something new about pinball machines on here.

Bringing back an old thread, I recently replaced a few #44 bulbs in a backbox with #47 to see if there was much of a difference in brightness. Honestly, if you made me guess which was which, I'm not sure I'd be able to tell you. I guess I can see a slight difference, but it isn't very big. However, when you add up 20+ lamps, the lower current draw of the #47 bulbs adds up. I figure I'm going to go with #47 because less heat and power consumption isn't a bad thing. A pin's power supply and wiring is stressed out enough even when brand new.

44 lamps do pull more power than the 47s and the 47s are a little less bright...here is the test for you. Put a 44 and a 47 some where on your pin next to eachother, let it run for a while and then remove the bulbs. This test will show you the difference in brightness (being next to eachother) and it will also give you the results to heat. The 44 will be A LOT hotter than the 47. Try it out and see what you think.

If you switch out to the 47#'s, there might be one or two that burn out really fast. Switch them back to the 44#'s, they seem to last longer and handle the draw better in those hot spots.

I guess this Question needs a scientific outcome to put this age old question to rest?
any pinsiders have one of those hand held temp. meters ?
and are willing to do a back box test on there games with 44s vs 47s type lamps?
would be interesting to compare data among different pin MFGs & years

I have an infrared thermometer, but I think the challenge in making the data mean something would be isolating a single lamp's heat away from other heat sources. Especially in the backbox area. I guess someone would have to run all 44's, measure, then swap to 47's and measure... pulling any other bulbs so they wouldn't interfere.

Personally I think there's enough empirical data to show that plastics melt faster from the #44 bulbs. I recently started replacing bulbs (as they die) with #47's and don't notice enough of a difference. I've been trying various warm white non-ghosting LED's, but that's a topic for another thread!

Seems I remember one of the other big reasons the change was made was because of the problems that used to creap up in the general illumination wiring harneses. I'm sure you've all seen the burned wiring that was frequent in the older games. Especially, the early solid state machines that used the #44 bulbs. Replacing with the #47 cut the current consumption for the GI almost in half in most machines.

I can attest that heat is definitely a factor also. I've changed quite a few pop-bumper caps with the tel-tale brown burn marks from over heating lamps. To a 'T', always pulled out #44's and installed #47 lamps to fix the problem.

G

I remember someone (sorry cant think of your name/avatar ) did readings with LED lamps vs type 47s with a hand held meter in a past topic

I did a little investigating and found the amp draw and luminous information for the #44 & #47 Eiko bulbs.

The amp draw for the Eiko #44 is .25A, and the luminous intensity is 0.9 MSCP.
The amp draw for the Eiko #47 is .15A, and the luminous intensity is 0.5 MSCP.

That being said, the #44 has nearly twice the luminous intensity, or twice as bright.

I ditched ALL the #44s out of all my pins! Too many times I've seen plastics that are severely warped and faint spots on the ramps if located near bulbs.... You can use the arguement that back then, pins were on constantly... But, why take the chance if you own a rare pin where plastics are not available!

I just talked to Steve Engel over at Mayfair the other day. We were talking about backbox lighting and what not. For those who have older pins, especially in the late 70's to early 80's, do NOT use #44s! This holds true for Gottliebs. He told me the paint they used on that era was *cheap*... Guess what's close second? Williams! Instead of #47s, he recommended going w/ #51s.... I have to try those! OR you can go the LED route.....

Resurrecting an old thread...

This is the key bit of info I was missing. Now I know why my system11 GIs are too dim - with #47s, they're 80% dimmer than the designer intended! I'm going to switch back to #44s.

So here's my question: how do the Ablaze Lighting #44s compare to the Eiko #44s? They're a little cheaper ($7.50 vs $10.50 for 100).

Well, I haven't seen a system 11 Pin that didn't look amazing with LEDs...just sayin...beyond that the bulbs really don't matter, luminous intensity should be the same rating for the particular bulb. GL.