DIYbanter - View Single Post

ha escrito:

On 31 Jan 2006 15:24:03 -0500, Sam Goldwasser
wrote:

writes:

Can an old (30 yrs) ballast end up by quickly burning out new
starters? (This is in a 12" 32W circline bathroom fixture.)

Would an old ballast have any telltale signs if it is malfunctioning?
Would it have that burnt smell itself? Thanks.

The light stopped working, so I replaced the ballast. No difference.
So I opened the old and new starter cans (both are FS12) and both
looked and smelled burnt. I don't know if the new starter was
defective when I bought it, but it did provide a really slow start.

Did you also replace the lamp?

yes. They were matched by the guy at the hardware store. The lamp is
32 W and is, I think, T9. I can pull it down and look if that's
crucial. I just put in a new starter, and everything works fine so
far.

(Except... the fixture is not grounded, and never was. It does take
several tries to start. I saw that the FAQ says that the extra
capacitance from grounding is helpful on starting.) Thanks.

had this problem last year. 20 year old unit. became flickery, as if
the tube were old or the starter bad... it would work ok initially,
then despite changing the tube and the starter for new, would soon be
back to its old ways. Changing the ballast cured that problem in my
case. I did note that it was unhealthily hotter after only short use,
probably a sign of some internal breakdown ?
-B.