Electronic Ballast

[PassnThru]

So I had an electronic ballast fail in one of my garage lights last week. Bought a new one and installed it this week. Tonight I was cleaning up a little and decided that I should probably cut the wires off and save them. Could come in handy some day. Then I noticed how easy it would be to take the cover off. So I did. I didn't look before because I figured there was no way I could fix it. And I still can't - but at least I think I now know why it quit.
Here's a pic:
View media item 4823To line things up - the part on the right is the cover. The part in the middle is an apparent insulator that goes under the cover. To put the insulator in the correct position on the cover just imagine picking it up and moving it to the right and setting it down.
The ballast is on the left. To fit the cover on the ballast you would pick it up and rotate it 180 degrees to the left and place it down.
Here is a little bit of a close up of the affected area:
View media item 4824As you can see, they filled the ballast with a compound that hardens to supposedly prevent it from grounding out against the cover. In this pic, you can see where there is a piece of plastic missing from the insulator (middle in the pic) layer. You can also see that exact piece stuck to the outer casing. And you can also see some bare wiring on the ballast itself. Also, there is a small circle on the outer cover on the outside where part of the label stuck when I peeled it off.
In this particular case, it wasn't a matter of if the ballast would fail but when.
I'm certainly not an electrical engineer but that's what it looks like to me.

 

[Cuda]

Typical made in mexico gar-bage!

 

[PassnThru]

BTW - it was a Lithonia fixture sourced at CED - a local electrical distributor. I have the label from the ballast - I'll scan it later and post. Just pointing out that it was not a big box cheapie. Incidentally, this is the second ballast that I have replaced in the 8 years that I have owned the lights.

 

[PassnThru]

Ballast was a Triad - model number B432I120RH-A.
Universal Lighting Technologies.
Assembled in Mexico
Contact info:
Universal™ Lighting Technologies
26 Century Blvd., Suite 500
Nashville, TN 37214-3683
I'm not trying to turn this into a COO debate - just responding to the previous poster. Yes - it was assembled in Mexico. Should I have known that? No - bought it far away from the cheap big box stores. I have learned that for this type of light you get what you pay for.
But, then again, maybe not.
The ballast I replaced it with was a Sylvania purchased at the same place. Don't know the specifics - and I'm not going to tear into the light again to figure it out.

 

[malibu101]

The Sylvania ballast is as good as anything out there. Were I work they have extensively renovated lighting to T8 and T5 using all fixtures containing Sylvania ballasts and tubes. Sylvania gives a "Quick 60" warranty to someone like us doing a large retrofit. Sylvania tubes have different warranty periods.
This is a recent (couple of months) retrofit so we'll see if we have to cash in any ballast failures. But, that's a big company putting their money where their mouth is at.
EDIT- Link to the registration http://assets.sylvania.com/assets/d...ion .7f804566-e2fe-403b-966f-2fb0d541ad34.pdf

 

[Norcal]

The black stuff is a potting compound to assist in heat transfer, the older magnetic ballasts also were potted.

 

[Cuda]

I removed a bunch of 400 watt MH fixtures and changed over to a 6 bulb four foot T8 fixtures over a year ago. These fixtures were bought at an electrical contractor supply house. The ballasts are G.E. all assembled in Mexico. Although I have not had a failure like the one your picture shows (although perhaps I have, I just have not dismantled the ballast like you did) I have had close to a 10% ballast failure on these. In fact of the nearly 100 fixtures I installed on this job, 6 ballasts were bad right out of the box. I can't really say if it is cheap manufacturing in Mexico or what, but I have seen a higher and higher failure rate of most electrical devices since most manufacturing has gone to Mexico. Everything from ballasts to photo cell controls to electronic time switches.... It's a joke!

 

[malibu101]

The black stuff is a potting compound to assist in heat transfer, the older magnetic ballasts also were potted.

Completly correct. BTW, the potting compound in "older" magnetic ballasts contains PCB's.
At my work, the rule for any "old" ballasts that are replaced is- if the ballast label specifically says 'contains no PCB's' it can go in the landfill. If that term is not on the ballast it goes out to a hazardous recycling company.

 

[Torque1st]

I would dig into the hot spot to find the component that failed.

 

[Norcal]

Completly correct. BTW, the potting compound in "older" magnetic ballasts contains PCB's.
At my work, the rule for any "old" ballasts that are replaced is- if the ballast label specifically says 'contains no PCB's' it can go in the landfill. If that term is not on the ballast it goes out to a hazardous recycling company.

The potting compound did not contain PCB's, the capacitor did.....

 

[PassnThru]

Further examination today revealed that the failure was probably component or heat related - not a short. The copper color you see peeking through the compound is actually the paper that is wrapped around the windings on the, uhh, thingamabob that has windings. Transformer maybe? Anyhow, the copper colored part does not appear to be conductive.

 

[malibu101]

The potting compound did not contain PCB's, the capacitor did.....

Yes. Older capacitors used in HID ballasts did indeed contain PCB's.
Just the same, flourescent ballasts too contained PCB's.
They are both ballasts. Just different with different components.

 

[Norcal]

Yes. Older capacitors used in HID ballasts did indeed contain PCB's.
Just the same, flourescent ballasts too contained PCB's.
They are both ballasts. Just different with different components.

The capacitor contained in the ballast case was the PCB laden component, which would have also been w/ potted HID ballasts, the more common core & coil HID ballasts the cap was a external component, so the ballast itself was not contain PCB's.