Metal Halide Problem - Need Help

[Don227]

Hi,
Im new to this website. I have a 175 watt metal halide set up with mogul base and a magnetic ballast. I had a Hamilton tech. 10000k bulb fail on me that was only 5 months old. It would be on one day and not the next. I watched it fire and noticed it fired up and went out several times before it stayed on if it did stay on. I returned it to the mfgr. and got a pro rated replacement. In the mean time I put the old bulb back in and it fired up well untill I received the new bulb. The new bulb worked well for 2 months and now it to fires up and goes back out most of the time. I could not get it to stay on at all today.
Has Hamilton Tech been having trouble with their bulbs lately?
Could it be the ballast damaging the bulbs?
Anyone else ever had this problem?
Anyone else had a bad bulb?
I ordered a new Ice Cap ballast today to be safe but Im not sure it's the ballast. Today I put an old bulb in and it fired up on the first pop and stayed on all day.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Loverotties]

Welcome to TRT! That is strange,I don't know the answer and going to tag on and here what it is.Someone must have an ideal.Some thing tells me it is the ballast,but the old works.

[wharyat]

Welcome to TRT!!


How do you have the ballast plugged in? Is it through a power strip?

If so, try plugging the ballast in directly to the wall.

A magnetic ballast is a wire-wound transformer and can only transform the power in to a proportional output; if volts are low, the output voltage to the bulb will be proportionally low. Magnetic ballasts need as much current as they can pull, around 3.75A for a 175 when firing up. If an underrated power strip or extension cord is used between the wall and it, current will be too low causing the bulb to not light at all or abnormally.

Electronic ballasts are "smart." An Ice Cap (and most other brands) ballast can operate between a rated voltage range and still supply a constant and clean power output to the bulb.

[ckusnierek]

I have the Ice Cap Electronic Ballast and have had no problems... I have also ran Hamiltons with no problems. I suspect you have a failing ballast...

Perhaps the cap going bad???

either way the icecap's have a slow start and power outage safe start which will help to protect the bulb.

What is the make and modle of your current ballast?

[Don227]

Hi,
Thanks for the replies. My ballast is a magnetek brand. It is plugged into a power strip so I can have it turn on with the powerheads for the corals. I will have to try plugging it directly into a wall to see what happens. Something must have changed because I have had the same set up for years and have only had trouble recently.
I ordered an Ice Cap last weekend and I will change it over when it arrives. It will be interesting to see if the "bad" bulb work with the new ballast.
Don

[Fat Tony]

Sounds to me like a failing ballast. Good thing that you ordered a replacement.