ballasts

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Pierre C Belarge said:
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.
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As I said in my above post I'm quite convinced it has to do with a cheaply made product that is not made robustly enough for the environment it is in.
 
There's nothing more embarrassing to me than going back just a couple years later to replace the exact same ballast again, particularly when the room has 50 other fixtures that are just fine. I've always used Advance brand ballasts, which I have regarded as being of high quality. I really don't know what else I can do, but I do feel my reputation suffers a bit when this happens. It is hard to explain to a customer that it's out of my hands, but I did pick the ballast after all, so it is my "fault" you might say. I just hate putting so much effort into high quality work, only to be thrown under the bus by products that fail to perform.
 
I have opened a few dead electronic ballasts.

Each of the ones I opened had a blown fuse on the input wiring. Of course the fuse is soldered in place and I have no way of knowing if replacing it would fix anything or if it would just blow right away.
 
iwire said:
I have opened a few dead electronic ballasts.

Each of the ones I opened had a blown fuse on the input wiring. Of course the fuse is soldered in place and I have no way of knowing if replacing it would fix anything or if it would just blow right away.
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I am left to wonder if lamps not being solidly in contact with the tombstones, or tombstones with marginal stab connections, would contribute to a sufficiently high current to blow that fuse? On another forum recently, it was advised by a knowledgeable person to check the condition of the tombstones, and the lamp connection thereto, carefully when servicing a fixture that has gone through multiple ballasts in a short period of time.
 
have had that happen twice with the exact same problems and the first time it was a loose neutral in a j-box and the second it was a neutral was crossed and carried the load of 2 ckts on the same leg. next time you go there if all the lights are on the same circuit I will almost guarntee there is a loose neutral somewhere and if it is 2 or more circuits than the neutrals are crossed somewhere. either way it has something to do with the neutral
 
Are you close to a power station? voltage spike when switching grids fry a ton of our electronic universal ballasts. The other thing that comes to mind is losing a neutral down line and feeding 480 to the ballasts.
 
installing the lamps

installing the lamps

i would most likley bet it was a bad batch, but spikes, the location of a substation and installing the lamps while the power is turned can cause damage to the ballast
 
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