Help! Ballast started smoking all the sudden!

[OregonMeds]

Wow! Scary story. Thank god you were home bro. How old is too old for ballasts?!!

Magnetic ballasts can last 20-30 years or even longer. Depends completely on how hot it was run. Put a good fan on a magnetic ballast (even a cheap one) and always run bulbs that are within reason age wise and it can potentially outlast your lifetime.

Electronic ballasts still can't match that longevity yet, 10 years is still good for those, but they have gotten a lot better than the early days and will catch up eventually.

 

[scragelynugz]

Magnetic ballasts can last 20-30 years or even longer. Depends completely on how hot it was run. Put a good fan on a magnetic ballast (even a cheap one) and always run bulbs that are within reason age wise and it can potentially outlast your lifetime.

Electronic ballasts still can't match that longevity yet, 10 years is still good for those, but they have gotten a lot better than the early days and will catch up eventually.

Great to know. I don't feel so bad now that I bought a magnetic one instead of an electric one because of the price different. I still am going to go and blow all the dust out them because they definitely are dusty.

 

[Kush28]

Thanks for all the replies! The ballast is a hydrofarm that I bought used. The ballast and reflector were in like new condition. It was working fine for a couple weeks, and then it let the smoke out! I am glad I was in the room, as I spend a lot of time in there, lol. I unplugged the ballast immediately after it started making noise and smoking. Obviously, I will not attempt to ever use this ballast again.

 

[tusseltussel]

Thanks for all the replies! The ballast is a hydrofarm that I bought used. The ballast and reflector were in like new condition. It was working fine for a couple weeks, and then it let the smoke out! I am glad I was in the room, as I spend a lot of time in there, lol. I unplugged the ballast immediately after it started making noise and smoking. Obviously, I will not attempt to ever use this ballast again.

did you learn anything about used equipment???

 

[UserFriendly]

Thanks for all the replies! The ballast is a hydrofarm that I bought used. The ballast and reflector were in like new condition. It was working fine for a couple weeks, and then it let the smoke out! I am glad I was in the room, as I spend a lot of time in there, lol. I unplugged the ballast immediately after it started making noise and smoking. Obviously, I will not attempt to ever use this ballast again.

It's probably just a loose wire. Did you at least open it up and have a look? If you can post up some pics I'll show you what went wrong..... I'd hate to think you wasted a perfectly good ballast because of a wirenut or bad connection.

 

[KP2]

It's probably just a loose wire. Did you at least open it up and have a look? If you can post up some pics I'll show you what went wrong..... I'd hate to think you wasted a perfectly good ballast because of a wirenut or bad connection.

when they smoke like that, they're dead for ever, no fixing . it's a burn in the copper coil...

 

[OregonMeds]

It's not that it was used equipment, it's that he didn't know to check the insides to see if the insulation was flaking or not and he (or the previous owner or both) didn't keep it cool enough during operation.

A loose wire nut can cause the connection to heat up and smoke the wire insulation where it woudn't be unrepairable but that's not likely. You just have to look to see if that's the case. Most likely it is the transformer though. And you could probably order a new transformer still from the manufacturer and have it good as new. (Replace the bulb if it's old and run a fan on it from now on.) Or you can just order a generic ballast kit when you see a good deal on the web or ebay...

 

[KP2]

It's not that it was used equipment, it's that he didn't know to check the insides to see if the insulation was flaking or not and he (or the previous owner or both) didn't keep it cool enough during operation.

A loose wire nut can cause the connection to heat up and smoke the wire insulation where it woudn't be unrepairable but that's not likely. You just have to look to see if that's the case. Most likely it is the transformer though. And you could probably order a new transformer still from the manufacturer and have it good as new. (Replace the bulb if it's old and run a fan on it from now on.)

sure, you could replace the ballast, raw ballasts are cheap......

but that still means replacing the ballast . i don't use cases, i run magnetrons raw (much fewer problems like that). yes, you can purchase a ballast kit and use the case to put it in. check www.1000bulbs.com, 400's used to be about 25-40$, 1kw ballasts were about 55$.

 

[UserFriendly]

when they smoke like that, they're dead for ever, no fixing . it's a burn in the copper coil...

You don't even know if it is a copper coil bro. Anyway... copper doesn't burn and it sure as hell isn't going to smoke.

Let's stop jumping to conclusions and have a look inside the ballast, shall we?