Pulling hair out need ideas lighting

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nfored

nfored

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 4, 2008
2,597
14
68
Missouri
For 1 year I have had a shop light above my tank with an 4 lamp ballast that I found in the trash. I found 5 of these ballast unopened in a construction trash can. I moved that shop light and that ballast to another tank and its working fine. I bought another shop light with no ballast and put one of the other 4 ballast on it. in the past 9 days 3 ballast have failed they all failed the same way working fine during hte day then midway through the day start flickering and then finally just die.

I am confused as its the same model shop light same model ballast and wired the same way the only difference in the wiring is before I was running 2x over driven and these three that have died where running normal. I have not changed the electrical outlet, I have not changed the timer, I did use old bulbs but they still work. The fixture is hung in the same place as the other one had been hung for a year. However now something is killing the ballast every 2 to 3 days. I only have one ballast left and hoping to get some ideas before I replace it.
 
BTW I have electronic ballast.

I just read that they can cause noise, is it possible that the working one is knocking out the now broken ones some how? Same electrical circuit.
 
you're confused because equipment you found in the trash doesn't work? I'd guess the manufacturer had a bad run and these were what were left from the install they had to stop because too many lights weren't working.
be happy you got one that works.
plus you say you used odd bulbs, I have no idea what that means, but perhaps they are why the ballasts aren't working, so they don't work and the ballasts are fine.
 
Go to Home Depot and buy a shop light. Really?
One mans junk is still junk.
I feel for you trying to save money and sometimes freebies are cool, but if you have to invest time into something you found to try and get it to work, how much is your time worth?
Nickles and dimes add up.
 
This is true and had they been opened I would have passed them up but I figured still shrink wrapped meh whats the harm. I could surely go to wal-mart and buy a light for 10 bucks. And I will if this last ballast fails but it seems strange to me that they kept failing like that especially since the first one still works. Lets face it if you where walking and saw an an unopened fx5 got it home and had to spend 4 hours fixing something well you tell me. I bet this would have been different if I said I bought 5 brand new lights which is what these where I worked at the building and watched the crew throw them away.

As far as time is money I know this quit well working as a project manager. But Money is also money I think if you have 4 un opened lights and you wire them up one at a time lets say 5 minutes each you have wasted maybe 30 minutes. Now lets take this same train of thought get in the car and leave the unopened ballast there drive to walmart pick up the light wait in line come back home and you have spent what 15 - 20 minutes plus the 10 for the light so now you tell me who lost out on the money/time.

I could understand you critique if I was taking these things apart and trying to fix them, but I am simply hooking them and throwing them out when they break. The only actual decent answer to the question I ask was maybe a bad line which would make since and be why they would throw out unused and unopened ballast. I also wondered about the noise in the line but I guess we will see I have

Edit: By old bulbs I mean the bulbs I have been using in the lamps but they where just older they have been in uses for about 2 years, and since I am not doing planted and simply lighting the tank I don't much care about lower light output over time.
 
Wasn't trying to harsh your gig but I speak from experience, I am an electrician by trade.
A bad ballast is just that. It can be bad right out of the box. If its electronic, even more common. Are you hooking them up to proper voltage/amperage? If required current draw is at the threshhold of the circuit and voltage is low, things heat up or dont work properly, or they hummm or worse.... if the light is designed to work off 120vac 30A and you are giving it household 115vac 15A-20A you could get early ballast failure.
I think it was said,"bad batch or lot"...a ballast is simply a regulator. It take AC voltage, changes it to DC and then back to a corrected AC current. Once the bulb fires off and lights, the ballast just keeps things "flowing" at the proper current sine wave. Fluorescent lights are very simple and if they dont work right out of the box, there usually isnt much one can do to make it work.
Have fun.
 
That is interesting I never new the Amperage mattered that could be the problem, thanks for the tip so far the last ballast is still good if it dies I will be buying a home depot light.
 
I have switched to LED lighting and have not looked back. The initial cost is hard but after the dramatic reduction in $ at the electric bill, I am soooo glad I switched. They make LED flood lights now that cost about $40 and will light even the deepest tank. Check em out.
 
WTH maybe bad timer? brand new shop light from walmart worked for 1 day. I am starting to think it must be the timer nothing else is dying but I also have two normal compact florescent lights on the same timer and they still work.
 
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