# Electronic Ballasts ....



## kbsparky (Sep 20, 2007)

... are ...

Gimme a J



Gimme a U



Gimme an N



Gimme a K



Whadda you got?



JUNK!!




Here are the details:

We have some fluorescent fixtures, mounted outside of a store front, over the main sign on the building. These are single-bulb high-output tubes, mounted on 3/4" pipe extending out a few feet from the top of the building. There are 5 segments, each one eight feet long, for a total length of 40 feet.

The first 2 sections are powered by a 2-tube ballast, the middle section has its own single tube ballast, and the final 2 sections are fed from another 2-tube ballast.

The ballasts are housed within a trough located inside the store, just above the drop ceiling. The trough is located below one end of the string of fixtures, with a short section of carflex passing thru the roof, and feeding to the array on the top of the storefront.

This setup has been there for well over 20 years, designed and installed by myself.

We get called that 3 bulbs are out.

I take a new case of bulbs over there, and replace the "bad" ones. The center light now works, but the 2 sections at the far end are not working.

OK, so we get one of them new-fangled so-called electronic ballasts, and replace the offending ballast. It has a slight leak of tar showing, and after more than 20 years it has outlived its usefulness.

Installed the new ballast, and those new bulbs still don't work.

Maybe something else is wrong here, we wondered.

So, we take a few hours this afternoon, and literally check every connection, wirenut, socket, and anything else we can think of for proper integrity. Tried 2 more bulbs, and we even installed another ballast, thinking the one we got was bad somehow!

Still those last 2 bulbs won't work! ARRGH!!!

Finally, in desperation, I switched the ballasts from the near end to the far end.

Voilà! Everything now works!

It would appear that the new-fangled electronic ballasts can NOT be remote-mounted, with over 50 feet of lead wires between it and the bulbs! The more-than 20 year old electro-magnetic ballast works just fine with this arrangement, but the electronic one can't handle the wire length!!!

A hard lesson learned, since I am dealing with installing ....


(ready?) ...
















JUNK !!


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

I have also found that electronic ballasts cause noise on radios and rarely last very long. We have been sold a bunch of junk. IMO


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

Yes junk.



Now where is that industry rep that told me the failure rate of these ballasts was acceptable and it did not matter because they are replaced free under warranty .......... of course no answer about who is paying for the time and perhaps lifts to replace them.


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

BBQ said:


> Yes junk.
> 
> 
> 
> Now where is that industry rep that told me the failure rate of these ballasts was acceptable and it did not matter because they are replaced free under warranty .......... of course no answer about who is paying for the time and perhaps lifts to replace them.


No kidding. I just installed 80 fluorescent fixtures. I am wondering if I can get thru the first year without changing a few.


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

Dennis Alwon said:


> I am wondering if I can get thru the first year without changing a few.


Magic eight ball says


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## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

BBQ said:


> Yes junk.
> 
> 
> 
> Now where is that industry rep that told me the failure rate of these ballasts was acceptable and it did not matter because they are replaced free under warranty .......... of course no answer about who is paying for the time and perhaps lifts to replace them.


Acceptable.. they are ,junk the old mag ballast would last for 30 years and many lamp cycles these ballast can't make it through one..In fact there was no problem with the mag ballasts at all till they came out with the miser lamps and those lamps don't warm up to full brightness unless it is 70 degees + what good is that:no:and these electronic ballast have end of lamp life sensors(Stupid idea) so when a lamp gets tired the ballast shuts down funny how they don't reset when you intsall new lamps


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## jwjrw (Jan 14, 2010)

Dennis Alwon said:


> No kidding. I just installed 80 fluorescent fixtures. I am wondering if I can get thru the first year without changing a few.


 I put in over 200 2x4 lay ins at a shopping center in 2008. I do all the work for this customer so I know no one else has replacd any of them. I have had only 3 go bad so far. BUT in December I put in 8 in an office and have already replaced 1 ballast. So some of them do last......some don't. IDK why.:blink:


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## kevmanTA (Jul 20, 2010)

We had a run of Defective 120/277V Electronic ballasts in a dealership we redid over 300 lights in.. The highbay 6 lamp 347V T8's have been wonderful, with only 2 or 3 that have had to be changed.


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## MarkyMark (Jan 31, 2009)

Electronic ballasts are "new fangled?" :laughing:

Haven't they been around for about 12 or 15 years?


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## BuzzKill (Oct 27, 2008)

kbsparky said:


> ... are ...
> 
> Gimme a J
> 
> ...


So how the hell do you charge for a job like that? $500 bucks to change 3 lamps?! :laughing:


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## kbsparky (Sep 20, 2007)

Such is my dilemma here. Regular customer, for the past 30 years. I'll probably end up eating most of it ....


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## BuzzKill (Oct 27, 2008)

kbsparky said:


> Such is my dilemma here. Regular customer, for the past 30 years. I'll probably end up eating most of it ....


Ugh, I hat that sh*t; don't feel all alone, it happens to me: a 30 minute service call turns into 3 hours, accompanied with trips to the supply house, all over some BS problem.


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## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

BuzzKill said:


> So how the hell do you charge for a job like that? $500 bucks to change 3 lamps?! :laughing:


That allways goes over well.:laughing::laughing:


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

Made in China.. what else do you need to know?? :blink::blink:


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

I think every electronic I have installed has had a note on the label or in the instructions about if they can be remote mounted and how far.


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## wcord (Jan 23, 2011)

Here in Canada we have been using the electronics for a few years.
So far I have observed that the 2 lamp 4ft ballasts seem to work okay. I haven't had to replace too many of them
But the 4 lamp units suck. On just about all of the projects we did, it appears that there is a failure rate of 30% over a three year period. I have one project that has had 75% failure with the 4 lamps and 0% with the 2 lamps. And the fixtures are on the same circuits, so power cleanliness can not be a problem
As to who picks up the labor, that's another story.
One of the ballast manufacturers has teamed up with one of the lamp manufacturers, and you get a whopping $10 to cover your labor. Guess I have to wait till I get 5 or 6 ballasts at once just to cover my truck costs and travel time to and from the site.


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## Tackdriver (Dec 3, 2010)

I installed 6 tube T5HO lamps in my plant to replace problematic High Pressure Sodium fixtures. They saved us on electricity. Im running the Sylvania electronics in mine, and each fixture has, a 4 bulb and a 2 bulb ballast. Unless I redid it. In which case it has three 2 tube ballasts. Anyhoo, they have been fine. The ONLY problem we ever had with them was when we were moving, we were running our new plant off a genny. We still had no problems UNTIL some illegals cut the wiring from the genny to the plant. Copper theft-they recycle it. They did this HOT mind you, and THAT little trick blew almost every ballast. I would have been mad, but I was just thankful that none of the other equipment had been installed yet, or it probably would have roached my pricey electronics. But other than that, no problems. I kinda like them.


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## kaboler (Dec 1, 2010)

They're more energy efficient, they are not hot to the touch (like them damn T12 8' ballasts) and people pay me to replace em!!! And yep, they're junk. But they ARE more energy efficient.

Today, I changed out a T12 to a T8, and to my suprise the T12 was running at 277v! Thank god for electronic ballasts!! 120v to 277v!!!!


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## electrolover (Feb 12, 2011)

ive only been in the trade 5 years but i have replaced alot of the old ballasts with new ones. i dont really care for the old ones, they are heavy as heck and it seems like at least one belly pan will be burnt or melted from a failure in a lighting row. i think i would rather have a light stop working than melt down.
smart ballasts are awesome if you need temp lighting, and still plan on using them later with 277. 
but we always get a couple spares because if your installing 80 fixtures at least two wil be bad. its just part of it i guess....


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## CTshockhazard (Aug 28, 2009)

6 or 7 years ago I had a call to fix a light at my old high school.

The magnetic ballast that I removed was dated 1961. Think the replacement has any chance in hell of lasting anywhere near that long?:no:


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

CTshockhazard said:


> 6 or 7 years ago I had a call to fix a light at my old high school.
> 
> The magnetic ballast that I removed was dated 1961. Think the replacement has any chance in hell of lasting anywhere near that long?:no:


Nope, not a chance and the manufactures smile all the way to the bank.

Planned obsolescence


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