Electronic Ballast

[Down Deep]

I have a 2 year old floressent light in the center of my kitchen. It has an electronic ballast. Earlier this week the light flickered a few times then came on and work fine for a couple of days. Last night it started flickering then I heard a sound that sounded like a snap or pop and the light went totally dead. I've never had an electronic ballast before. Is this typically of how they go out, or is there a circuit breaker??? Two years seem like a very short life for a ballast and the light tubes.

P S: It has a 5 year warranty, but I have to send it back to the factory.

[CAMAN]

Make sure the bulbs have good contact in the fixture by rotating them a few times. Some fixtures I have noticed also are wired that if one bulb goes out the rest go out. See if any of the bulbs have dark ends.

If nothing works then it is probably the ballast and they are generally a pretty cheap and easy fix. Just need to get the right one and swap it out.

[givetoget]

Down deep, As Caman stated check bulbs, but my guess is the ballast. Im not claiming to be an expert but I have learned a lot about the new flouresent lights the last couple years as I we have change over all the lighting (about 350 fixters of different sizes) in the facility here I work. These new ballasts do not hold up very well, some will last as short as a week or two while some will last a couple years.We change bad ballsts almost weekly. They are wired so if a bulb goes out the rest will stay lit, but the extra power that went to the burnt bulb does not get sent to the good bulbs which is supposed to save on bulb life. Also your right with 5 year warranty but you need to pay shipping, not sure what shipping would be on 1 ballast.

Hope this helps.

[CAMAN]

I agree the new electronic ballasts aren't all that great. We have about 50 fixtures where I work and I too have replaced all of them over the past year or two. I have already replaced a half dozen ballasts also. If we start having to replace them regularly my boss already said we will look into LED bulbs. With that you remove the ballasts and wire directly to the light mounts and replace the fluorescent bulbs with an LED tube. The cost right now is a little crazy but we know another company that bought a few hundred through Alibaba for less than $10 a bulb, most other places are about $40 a bulb, but you need to buy a bunch and have them shipped directly from China.

[JohnMickish]

My question in the kitchen is what kind of lamps does this fixture have? Circular, 4' T8s or what? How many lamps and how many balllasts?

I gotta say you guys have terrible luck with your commercial fixtures. The building(campus) I work in has maybe 10,000 fixtures (Msp airport, its a big building) and most of the ballast last 19 years or so and the lamps burn at least 5 years before going bad, but th7ngs there run pretty much 24-7.

[CAMAN]

I think you probably hit the nail on the head in your last sentence. I'm not all up on how a ballast works but don't they do a majority of their work at startup? Less startup cycles, less chance of things going bad. I'd also be willing to bet the fixtures msp buys are of considerable higher quality than the average business or homeowner would be willing to pay.

[JohnMickish]

There not that good of quality. There are specifications that have to be met but remember it's all done by lowest bidder.

[Down Deep]

Thanks for all the information. Circular bulbs were good. Ballast changed. $15.00.