Fluorescent Ballasts ...WTF, They Changed Those Too Now!

SMITTY wrote:JUMPED WAIST DEEP into the PCB liquid to make repairs

Back in the 60's my Dad worked at a chemical plant in this town that made caustic soda. They used mercury as a catalyst. Each night when he got home from work he'd stand outside the back door and shake his pant cuffs so he wouldn't bring mercury into the house. I mean, gee, everyone knew it was bad for ya. Until a short time ago I still had a glass vile of mercury that I saved from playing by the back steps. I finally took it to a hazard waste clean up. To this day they are cleaning mercury from the soil at the place where the chemical plant used to be. They have decided to not clean it from the river.

Oops.... sorry to get off topic. I agree.... I don't think the new ballasts are going to last long. Grrrrrr

SMITTY wrote:What the hell happened to us???

The lack of mercury in our diet has caused us to go insane.

Another observation, does the rise of autism coincide with the banning of lead paint?

As far as ballasts go I had a round fluorescent give out a year ago. I took the cover off and kept it going by beating it with a broom handle to make it come on for about two months but it finally went caput. Being a cheap HD light a new ballast was not an option so a cheap Lowes replacement fit the bill. It has I tiny ballast that I guess is electronic, I duno but so far so good. It has been working for a year now and that is pretty good for a PRC-POS.

I bought one of those CFL replacements for those 500w halogen "torchiere" lamps. The thing was like $10 thru my electric company's push for energy saver bulbs.

It lasted 2 solid months. My torchiere was 10 years old!

Smitty, I swear we're related. You sound like me. I think we're brothers or something.

If our paths ever cross at a coal meet and greet I'm buying you a beer.

Alas however I don't know anything about ballasts other than when I was doing electrical work as a kid and my boss handed me one he was changing. Me being the idiot I am grabbed it by the body. M'yep, burned myself pretty good.

Is that why you call yo-self "I'm on Fire"? couldn't help myself.

Yup. Wouldn't be the first thing I set fire to while working.

HAHAHA. Years ago at Christmastime I went into the local Drug Fair and saw a pile of flourescent torchiere lamps on sale for $5 apiece! I thought that was a tremendous deal and got five or six of them. PRC-POS hahha cool word. They were boxed up in that china cardboard that's prolly made out of dead bodies and earthquake hut straw. Massive styrofoam molded halves held the whole lamp in pieces with the wiring through the base, pole sections, screw in pole connectors and to the lamp top. The screw in pole connectors were plated cast pot metal with cast threads, prone to busting out if the lamps get moved too much. Two round bulbs in the top with a three-intensity switch on the pole.
I got a lot of mileage out of those lamps, but they attract stink bugs in my place like crazy. I've been nodding out more than once when one will fall on my head and I'll jump up out of the recliner "Gaaaaaaa", slapping my own head in surprise.
So I got this forced ritual where I hear that annoying buzz, know one has landed in the lamp top with a "clink", get up, get the dustbuster, and vacuum the bug out. I always have to tilt the lamp to see the bug. I was summarily executing them by tossing them in a coffee can of laquer thinner for a while.
Last week I was after one and dropped the lamp and the bulbs busted all over the place I think the stinkbug got away
Now I know I'm supposed to call the EPA, HAZMAT team, the cops, the fire department, NASA, and the FBI, when a flourescent bulb breaks.
I just got the shop vac hahahah.
Usually save everything like Les Stroud on Survivorman, but I just clipped the wires and threw away everything. OK I saved the tube sections. And the switch. But I fully intend to throw away the base and I already threw away the ballast and lamp top. Wait. Did I? Maybe I can use it as a Jethro Bodine cereal bowl.

I thought I was the only one that did that *censored*! I think we're ALL related!

I've got all the parts for that china torchiere layin around here somewhere . I figured I could de-solder a capacitor or a resistor & repair something else with it in the future. Already used one in the Blazer for that stupid pulse board that controls the wipers. Works mint.

Some good news on the ballast front: I just bought 2 "old school" magnetic ballasts I found online. When I clicked on them it said "marked for export only" so I figured they weren't going to accept the order, but it went through. Actually, I should save the dancing smilie for when they arrive. My luck they'll chicken out and cancel the order by Monday .... Company shall remain un-named ...

Smitty, I have a bunch of GE T8 ballasts. Well, at least a box of 10. You may be able to convert to T8 bulbs & ballasts if the end connectors are not in bad shape. I take that back, my ballasts are for 48" bulbs, not 96". Grainger sells ballast but they are not cheap. Be better with all new T8 light fixtures like others have said

I'll probably do all that way in the future. As for now, I have 4 brand new 96" bulbs, and 4 old ones that still work .... well 3 of them l I can say for sure work. Plus I ordered 2 ballasts this morning - should be set for another 14 years at least. I'll worry about all that then.

Hopefully by that time LED's will be affordable.

Just change all of your lights over to led. Seesmart and a few other companies sell direct replacement led tubes to replace your existing tubes. Just remove the ballast and wire the ends directly and install the led tubes. You can purchase the led tubes in different output and color. They are suppose to last for at least ten years with average daily use. I am in the process of changing all of my tubes to the led tubes. They are cheaper to run and last longer with no electronic starter or old fashioned ballast to go bad. Just my two cents.

The snowman.

Snowman, do you have any idea how those would react to cold temps? Do the instructions say anything about it, wouldn't mind using something like that in the garage once those start going bad.

I'm told by the company rep from Seesmart they will start in any temp. They start immediately and light well. A local school district has been replacing their tubs with the led tubes. I first looked at them before making the move to replace any of mine. The school district has had the led tubes for about eight months and they seem to be working fine. With fourteen light fixtures in my shop, it makes sense to convert to the led. There are a couple of companies who offer very very low prices on the led tubes. I researched them and they are cheap except they do not have a distributor in the US, so shipping/handling raises the prices above what Seesmart can provide them. Seesmart has a dealer in Watertown, NY.

Snowman.

I've installed a lot of fluorescent lights over the years and have run across some interesting observations. One time I installed some 8 foot strip fixtures in my basement, and the ballasts hummed so loud you couldn't think. They were brand new Advance magnetic ballasts, but sound rated "C", I believe, which means they aren't meant for quiet, residential use. I bought a couple of electronic ballasts to replace them and they weren't a whole lot quieter...

I also found out that not all 4 foot fixtures are 40 watts per T12 lamp. I bought some shoplight fixtures back in the mid 90s. They were real, USA made fixtures and came with GE lamps. They worked fine and were silent (magnetic ballasts), but one day about 10 years later, I bought another one. I had to buy lamps for that one and found it to be MUCH brighter. Thinking it was the lamps, I swapped them into the other fixtures and they were just as dim (relatively speaking). I had the "aha" moment when I took apart the dim fixture to find out that it was a 25 watt ballast! Evidently, at some point in time, someone came up with the 4' 25 watt T12 "shoplight". You can use 40 watt lamps, but they still only run at 25 watts. It's really not a bad idea because I had the lights mounted to the usual lowish basement ceiling and they provided plenty of light over the work bench without glare since they were only 4' above it.

That's exactly what I have for ballasts now. They were here when I moved in -probably been in that barn at least 15 years before I got here judging by the looks.

Sam, I have an LED strip in my workshop section of the barn - so far it's worked from 20° to 95° out there - no flicker in the cold, like with the fluorescents.

Someday I'll convert, but I've got a million other things I need to spend money on. Lights are the last thing on my brain.