Has anyone had any bad experiences with the Philips RELB-2S40-N ballasts
as replacements?

I bought four the other day; two were bad out of the wrapper, and one
failed within an hour. The fourth has four days on it with no apparent
issues. I have scoured the internet to the extent of my abilities, and
not found ONE complaint about the reliability of these units.

(and it doesn't make much sense that _even_Philips_ would put out
something that bad in large quantities)

I'm figuring, I must've gotten some from a bad batch...

Anyone else seen this?

Lloyd

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com fired this volley in
. 3.70:

Has anyone had any bad experiences with the Philips RELB-2S40-N ballasts
as replacements?

Sorry... that's "Ambistar" tradename, not 'Abistar'.

Lloyd

On Fri, 02 Aug 2013 07:56:28 -0500, Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote:

Has anyone had any bad experiences with the Philips RELB-2S40-N ballasts
as replacements?

I bought four the other day; two were bad out of the wrapper, and one
failed within an hour. The fourth has four days on it with no apparent
issues. I have scoured the internet to the extent of my abilities, and
not found ONE complaint about the reliability of these units.

(and it doesn't make much sense that _even_Philips_ would put out
something that bad in large quantities)

I'm figuring, I must've gotten some from a bad batch...

Anyone else seen this?

Lloyd

I've seen it with other products.

I'd also wonder if you got some counterfeits, thanks to some enterprising
Chinese entrepreneur.

--
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com

Tim Wescott fired this volley in
:

I'd also wonder if you got some counterfeits, thanks to some
enterprising Chinese entrepreneur.

Could be; but if so, Ace Hardware has a _real_problem_, because they're
listed as sourced directly from Philips.

I have searched more, and still cannot find any negatives on that
particular ballast. It's made in Mehiko. The ones I got are probably
just a bad batch. Probably something stupid like the one worker who's
supposed to solder in the one fuse was out sick that day, so they just
skipped his/her station. It's probably just flopping loose in the pcb
holes, waiting to arc the copper off the pads 'til it can't make contact
anymore. The fourth of them is still performing to spec.

They took them back (of course), and I know the store manager. He's
going to contact Philips directly (Ace lets their managers go around
distribution when there's a problem). All the failed ones are the same
manufacturing code, so there ought to be some info available.

Lloyd


Lloyd

Tim Wescott wrote:

On Fri, 02 Aug 2013 07:56:28 -0500, Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote:

Has anyone had any bad experiences with the Philips RELB-2S40-N ballasts
as replacements?

I bought four the other day; two were bad out of the wrapper, and one
failed within an hour. The fourth has four days on it with no apparent
issues. I have scoured the internet to the extent of my abilities, and
not found ONE complaint about the reliability of these units.

(and it doesn't make much sense that _even_Philips_ would put out
something that bad in large quantities)

I'm figuring, I must've gotten some from a bad batch...

Anyone else seen this?

Lloyd

I've seen it with other products.

I'd also wonder if you got some counterfeits, thanks to some enterprising
Chinese entrepreneur.

Counterfeits are certainly a possibility. I recall the Square D site
having an alert about counterfeit QO circuit breakers along with
pictures noting the differences between the real and counterfeits, both
external and internal.