ballasts

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Len

Len

Senior Member
Location
Bucks County
What would make 277v ballasts keep burning out? Customer has about 75 lay in lights and burns out atleast 2 ballast every 2 weeks, factory keeps replacing ballasts under warranty but customer is concerned. Came to us to try and resolve. Anyone have any ideas?
 
C3PO

C3PO

Senior Member
Location
Tennessee
We had a job in my area that had about 50 lay-ins, and every ballast had to be replaced in about a year. And I thought that was bad. Two weeks is way too short. What brand are they?
 
C

charlie tuna

Senior Member
Location
Florida
we have had problems with dual voltage ballasts. 120/277 volt. don't know why? the last time was inside a prison and it got very expensive changing them out -- a few at a time??? so the fixture manufacturer sprung for changing all of them plus the labor. think there were 176 fixtures........
 
R

RRSUPT

Member
i've seen several ballasts burn out on several different jobs, commercial. Replaced under warranty. Owner buys fixtures and buys the cheapos. I've personally had an entire bad batch(approx 80) of 277 ballasts go out within a week of installation. replaced under warranty and still no problems.
 
I

ironman3452

Member
i have found that there might be trouble with a loose neutral wire in the feeder panel, we use regular 277 ballasts, ans 120/277 ballasts, went and changed out and with in a couple of weeks found 277 regular ballasts were no good, so did some troubleshooting and found the neutral was loose in panel, on the off days we worked , we asked for an outage to take the panel down and found the problem, so far no problems with the ballasts we had to change.

hope this helps
 
mdshunk

mdshunk

Senior Member
Location
Right here.
Why is it that I often replace magnetic ballasts that are 30-40 years old, but replaced loads of new electronic one's just a few years old? I know there's probably no cut-and-dry answer to that, but it's an observation I'm sure others have made. I sorely doubt that any electronic ballasts will ever last as long as their former magnetic counterparts.
 
N

nakulak

Senior Member
ItsHot said:
NAFTA!!! yes. I'm yelling!:mad:
Click to expand...

politically incorrect, but unfortunately true.

it seems that certain companies who shall remain nameless have had problems with QC in their recently moved factories accross certain borders. we had a problem with internally miswired fixtures, though, which bunrt out the (electronically dimming) ballasts.
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
mdshunk said:
Why is it that I often replace magnetic ballasts that are 30-40 years old, but replaced loads of new electronic one's just a few years old? I know there's probably no cut-and-dry answer to that, but it's an observation I'm sure others have made. I sorely doubt that any electronic ballasts will ever last as long as their former magnetic counterparts.
Click to expand...

I agree entirely.
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
mdshunk said:
Why is it that I often replace magnetic ballasts that are 30-40 years old, but replaced loads of new electronic one's just a few years old? I know there's probably no cut-and-dry answer to that, but it's an observation I'm sure others have made. I sorely doubt that any electronic ballasts will ever last as long as their former magnetic counterparts.
Click to expand...

I also agree except I would add that even the newer magnet ballast that have replaced the old ones don't last anywhere near 30 years. Maybe 2-3 years.....
 
H

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
We have had a lot of problems with the new electronic ballast not liking generator power. The ballast seems to get confused and quit working, disconnect the neutral AND hot, reconnect, then most of the time they will start working again.
 
peter d

peter d

Senior Member
Location
New England
mdshunk said:
I know there's probably no cut-and-dry answer to that...
Click to expand...

I'll go out on a limb here and just say that a cheaply made circuit board ballast is not nearly as robust as a good old fashioned core and coil made of heavy steel and copper windings. Add to that the modern electronics are enclosed and spend all of their time cooking up there with the lamps right next to them. I'd guess that the intense heat buildup plays a part in their failure. The old "chunk of metal" ballasts do a much better job of dissipating the heat.
 
Pierre C Belarge

Pierre C Belarge

Senior Member
Location
Westchester County, New York
Playing Devil's Advocate...

Playing Devil's Advocate...

Here is another thought to add to the trend that the magnetic ballasts in general last longer than the current trend towards electronic ballasts.

The usage of electricity in the building today has changed considerably over the last 30-40 years. There are more problems with the current/voltage relationship within buildings than in the past.
Maybe this is contributing to the 'burnout' we are seeing today.





*I am not saying I know this as a fact, just that it may be a contributing factor.

I will also say that I agree that it seems we see more burnout of lamps/ballasts/motors/contactor, etc... then when I first came into the industry.
 
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