# HID Pulse Start Ballast Failure



## kaboler (Dec 1, 2010)

What causes ballasts to fail? Use and time.

How long? God, I bet they last 20 years some of them.


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

lighting123 said:


> HELP!
> 
> 1) what causes pulse start ballasts to fail (w/o the lamp)?


If you take the lamp out the igniter will sit there trying to pulse-start the atmosphere and burn itself out. That's why you gotta disable it or put a capacitor across your meter leads if you're testing open circuit voltage on the socket.


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## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

lighting123 said:


> HELP!
> 
> 1) what causes pulse start ballasts to fail (w/o the lamp)?
> 
> 2) how long does the pulse start ballast take to wear out/fail?


It is usually two lamp cycles that will do it ,If you allow the lamps to completely burn out but if you change them before they reach the end of life the ballasts will last longer.

When you have to change a ballast change it as a kit with a lamp the matches the ANSI rating.........

Welcome to the forum enjoy the ride....:thumbup::thumbup:


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## Electric_Light (Apr 6, 2010)

lighting123 said:


> HELP!
> 
> 1) what causes pulse start ballasts to fail (w/o the lamp)?
> 
> 2) how long does the pulse start ballast take to wear out/fail?



1.) The ballast usually doesn't. The igniter. The igniter is only activated until the lamp is struck. But missing lamp will cause the igniter to continuously retry. The igniter can be made fail safe by including duration/attempts limit into each unit, but that would increase cost. The ballast doesn't need to be replaced if the external failed. 

2.) That depends on operating temperature. Excess temperature will reduce life. This is not an easy question to answer. Core and coil ballasts aren't as likely to have sudden failure from surge and spikes like electronic ballasts.


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