Quasar Retrofit
I’ve heard a few people asking about how to fit 6 quasar tubes into 4 bank Kino housings and thought I would do a quick walk-through of the process. First, I’ll go over what you need since I’m fairly certain you guys already know the benefit of getting more, better, and brighter lights into Kino fixtures.
In this walk-through, I’m going to be using a 4’ 2Bank and putting (3) 4’ Quasar tubes into it. If you’re looking to go the 4Bank-to-6Bank route, just add to some of the materials. Also as a note this wont work with the T8 bulbs until they release Q-Blocks for them.
You’re going to need:
Q-Block T12 (6 for a 2Bank, 12 for a 4Bank retrofit)
Machine Screws #10-32 x ¾ in (2 per Q-Block)
Washers and hex nuts
Quasar Tubes
Optional:
18-2 Lamp wire
Once that all arrives, you’re going to want to grab your Kino housing and Dremel off the standard Kino clips, probably the most painful step, ha.
Once the clips have been taken off, you will need to figure out the ideal spot for mounting the Q-Blocks onto the housing. Put the Q-Blocks onto the fixture and try inserting some of the Quasar tubes so that they line up from one end to the next. For me, I placed them right next to the metal where the old clips were and that gave me a straight line to work from on both side.
Mark all 4 sides of the Q-block with a sharpie and mark each of the holes.
Now it’s time to drill some holes! We drilled the holes slightly smaller than the screws themselves because we wanted them to fit snugly right off the bat.
This is the fun part. Start threading the screws through the fixture with the washer on the bottom.
Once you've finished threading the screws, simply put the mounts on and tighten them. Insert your Quasar tubes and you’re done! Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a retrofitted Kino!
Quasar sells cluster harnesses to power these on their website, but if you didn’t want to spend around $200 for that you could spend about $15 and make your own version. It’s not as pretty but it will get the job done. This is where the optional stuff comes in. Basically, you just need to get the lamp wire, attach the female and male ends, then clip Add-A-Taps near the female end wherever you want the connections to be. Because it’s a lamp wire, it doesn’t have a ground. Quasar sells the power connectors without grounds also.
