What you have is essentially two fixtures built into one housing. Each
operates independently, they're called "Circleline". The only connections
you have, other than power are the four prong jacks that plug into the
bulbs,so there is not much you can check.Your description does indicate an
overheating ballast, as Jeff described. All fluorescent ballasts since the
70's are "T" rated and will turn off when they overheat, then turn back on
after they cool. My suggestion would be to scrap the fixture and replace it
with a straight tube fixture that uses electronic ballasts, which are much
more reliable




"Mark" wrote in message
...
I've got this fluorescent fixture in my kitchen which has two round
12" 32 watt tubes inside... they are each connected to their own
ballast. The fixture is probably only a couple of years old (haven't
had the house that long, but it looks fairly new)

90% of the time the fixture works fine, once in a while though the
tube on the right goes out, it eventually comes back on it's own.
Turning the lights on and off won't restart it, it just eventually
comes back on...

At first I thought it was a bad tube, so I swapped the left tube with
the right tube to see if it was the tube or something else.. The tube
on the right continues to go out, so it doesn't sound like it's the
tube. The one on the left side remains unaffected.

If it was a wiring problem I'm thinking it would probably impact both
tubes at the same time, also if it was wiring it should probably have
shown up before now, or be more consistent (IE just stay off all of
the time)

Does this sound like the ballast is going... I would think that if the
ballast was going, that it would just die, and not work 90% of the
time, then die, then come back...

Any thoughts?

Thanks