Ballast life?

gnikoli · 08/20/2006, 09:30 PM

Thought I had a light go bad so I changed out all three 250W XM 10,000K with three more of the same. That revealed the fact that it was the ballast that went bad, not the bulb. When I disassembled the PFO standard M58 ballast, I found that the capacitor had melted through with a glob of gray metallic-looking stuff on the side. The core also looked like it was delaminating a bit. PFO uses a Howard Industries ballast, but I replaced it with the Advance equivalent from Grainger that came as a kit with a new capacitor.

Okay, so now I have three new XM 10,000K bulbs and one new ballast. The two bulbs on old ballasts are burning a bit yellow while the one on the new ballast is white like it should be. Old ballasts are 14 months old. Swap bulbs around and whichever ones are on the old ballasts are still too yellow.

How long should ballasts last? I expected bulbs to shift color as they age but does the same thing happen with ballasts? Seems like 14 months on a ballast is not long.

08/20/2006, 09:30 PM	#1
gnikoli Premium Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Fresno, CA Posts: 98	Ballast life? Thought I had a light go bad so I changed out all three 250W XM 10,000K with three more of the same. That revealed the fact that it was the ballast that went bad, not the bulb. When I disassembled the PFO standard M58 ballast, I found that the capacitor had melted through with a glob of gray metallic-looking stuff on the side. The core also looked like it was delaminating a bit. PFO uses a Howard Industries ballast, but I replaced it with the Advance equivalent from Grainger that came as a kit with a new capacitor. Okay, so now I have three new XM 10,000K bulbs and one new ballast. The two bulbs on old ballasts are burning a bit yellow while the one on the new ballast is white like it should be. Old ballasts are 14 months old. Swap bulbs around and whichever ones are on the old ballasts are still too yellow. How long should ballasts last? I expected bulbs to shift color as they age but does the same thing happen with ballasts? Seems like 14 months on a ballast is not long.