hooking up a 660 to existing Icecap hood

[Fishwife]

Hi Andy, I have an Icecap hood wired for 2 MHs and 2 either VHO or NO bulbs (4'), made by PFO. The endcaps are VHO. The NO bulbs are currently running on a standard fluorescent ballast. I was told I could just cut the wires from the Molex connector, splice them to the appropriate Icecap wires, add a plug, and have a working unit. Will this work? Any suggestions for a non-electrician? I know to use electrical tape and those little screw on things but is there anything else I need to do?

Also, is a digital timer necessary or will an Icecap ballast start from a regular timer?

Thanks - Laurie

[IceCap Service]

This will work as long as the wiring diagrams are followed exactly. For the appropriate wiring diagram go to http://www.icecapinc.com. May I suggest that you invest in a new 430 wiring harness. This will avoid having to splice wires. You can wire the new harness directly to your end caps. This procedure will eliminate splices which can work loose and will be much neater without having to use wire nuts etc. I believe you will have fewer problems by doing it this way.

[ASH]

From IceCap:
"Also, is a digital timer necessary or will an IceCap ballast start from a regular timer?"

You can use a heavy duty, grounded (3 prong plug) 10 Amp or higher rated timer without a problem.
Our timer has features you can live without but are nice to have like a back-up battery for you timing program, posts to wire our harness wires onto and its own insulated cord with a 3 prong plug.
Andy