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Posted By: golf junkie Electronic Balasts - 05/08/03 10:35 PM
What is your experience with the reliability of electronic balasts.

We recently changed out all the balasts in a medical clinic from magnetic to electronic. The magnetics were 15 years old and starting to fail frequently.
Now after less than 6 months the new electronics are failing at about the same rate that the old magnetics were.

On our new contruction projects it seems like we get approximately 2-3% of new fixtures with bad balasts.

What is your experience and opinion of electronic balasts?

GJ
Posted By: John Steinke Re: Electronic Balasts - 05/08/03 11:43 PM
Electronic ballasts are reliable.

If you are sharing a neutral on a 3-phase system, use a true-RMS ammeter to make sure that the ballasts are not overloading the neutral (through harmonics).

I like electronic ballasts because they are smaller, lighter, and quieter.
Posted By: HotLine1 Re: Electronic Balasts - 05/09/03 02:54 AM
Golf Junkie:
I have seen quite a few of the "first generation" electronic ballasts (T8) that had a high failure rate. The current generation appear to be reliable, and we have not had more that a handful of "callbacks" with the current items. We did see an abundance of "brands" in the first wave, seemed that a few of the TV mfgs where making ballasts.And there was a few "imported" ones floating around.

THe first generation had a harmonics issue, and quite a few of the "off" brands disapeared. Now, as with everything else, time and actual experiences have weeded the patch. Seems like only the major players are left, and the products are good.

We also found out that the single voltage (120 specially) aren't fond of voltage spikes. Have you monitored your problem site??? Spikes didn't bother the old magnetics, and the "newer" dual voltage electronics don't seem to mind "spikes".

Did you have a major brand that's giving you the problems?? Have you contacted the Mfg?? Check the stamped date for a "made on" date; if it's current you may have a warranty claim for the ballasts, and if you bitc*, they may give you a labor allowance.
John
Posted By: frenchelectrican Re: Electronic Balasts - 05/09/03 05:20 AM
i work with alot of electronic ballast and the early models are kinda rough but new one are alot better than the old verison but i carry multi voltage electronc ballast that cure the voltage surge pretty good and make sure the ballast housing is grounded right if weak grounding it can trick you with some prb with it i work alot of T-8's and few T-12 too with electronic but the qualty is better now but you can check out the electral supply centere to see what they have and i will stay away from big box store they always not carry good grade ballast there

merci marc
Posted By: sparky Re: Electronic Balasts - 05/09/03 11:03 PM
Does anyone here suppose that s/he will change out an original electronic ballast in 2050?

It would seem i've (i'll assume you've also) changed out some original 1950's ballasts....

'nuff said?
Posted By: golf junkie Re: Electronic Balasts - 05/09/03 11:17 PM
Manufacturer's are usually Magnetek, Triad, and Motorola. I've seen failures with all three. The current problem is with Magnetek.

There is no problem with warranty on the balast.....but no allowance for labor, call backs, and lost goodwill with the customer.

These are all T8 FWIW.
GJ

[This message has been edited by golf junkie (edited 05-09-2003).]
Posted By: txsparky Re: Electronic Balasts - 05/10/03 01:01 AM
Not electronic, but I remember a battle with a ballast manufacturer on a High School that I did about ten years ago. The problem with them was noise though. We finally got the rep. from the co. out and he agreed that there was a problem and the manuf. paid the labor and furnished the ballasts for replacment.
Took a little hell raisin to convince them that they needed to pay for labor though. [Linked Image]
Posted By: Trumpy Re: Electronic Balasts - 05/10/03 03:34 AM
Donnie,
I hear you there.
I had a problem a few years ago in a Chemist shop, where the light fittings that all had Electronic HF Ballasts installed, were making this high-pitched squealing sound, it was really annoying.
But these were among the first lot of Electronic ones to come on to the market, replaced them, haven't been back since!.
Posted By: electure Re: Electronic Balasts - 05/10/03 08:51 PM
If you use Advance ballasts, you will never have a problem again.
Use a OEM replacement (probably an Advance reject), and you can fight it...forever...S
Posted By: golf junkie Re: Electronic Balasts - 12/04/04 12:21 AM
"If you use Advance ballasts, you will never have a problem again."

Electure,
I have a box full of burned out Advance ballasts that you can have if you want them. [Linked Image]

I decided to resurect this thread to see how others are fairing with electronic ballasts.

I spent part of two days this week changing out ballasts on commercial projects we have finished in the past two years. They were all Advance or Sylvania, mostly Advance.

To Advance's credit they are giving us a labor allowance and 5 year warranty.

It's hard to explain to an owner why his brand new facilty will constantly have a dozen or so ballasts out.
Posted By: Sandro Re: Electronic Balasts - 12/04/04 12:28 AM
I agree with the above Advance comment. From my experience, it appears their quality has slipped in the last few years. Better success with Sylvania ballasts.
Posted By: electure Re: Electronic Balasts - 12/04/04 01:09 AM
Did I say that? [Linked Image] I still think they're the best

We have had pretty good luck with electronic ballasts...except for 1 job where we had a 40% failure rate within the 1st 8 months, and 60% within a year. Motorola 3 lamp 32W 120-277 volt.
I'm the warranty-guy for our company. Lucky me.

CFLs seem to go out a little more often than the tubular lamp ballasts.
Still, though they seem as reliable as the mags ever were. Let's wait until they've been around 30 yrs and see


[This message has been edited by electure (edited 12-03-2004).]
Posted By: dmattox Re: Electronic Balasts - 12/04/04 03:27 AM
Wow, you guys are bad luck, dont stand near me at the craps table [Linked Image]

We have never had any major issues with eletronic ballasts. I do most of our warrentee repair and in the last couple years I can only recall replacing 1 bad electronic ballast and 1 electronic that was noisy. Thats with probably a thousand ballasts installed in new fixtures.

I personally love electronic ballasts, run cooler than magnetic, I believe operate at a higher frequency (no flicker), not as noisy, use less power, seem to usually start faster.

I would check voltages and neutral connections. Or maybe you just got a bad batch?

We did have a problem with a single building we wired 10+ years ago. One room a very large building was always going through ballasts, even though the rooms fed before and after it were fine. This room was even temperature controlled 24/7 at 68 degrees. I checked every connection, replaced every fixture completely and still had the problem in the same room. I ended up just running a new curcuit over and that seemed to fix the problem. Still to this day don't know exactly what was going on.
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