Author Topic: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures?  (Read 7915 times)
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Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « on: July 07, 2022, 11:14:57 PM » Author: bulb_tester2009
A friend of mine used a bad electronic ballast when the ballast suddenly made a loud noise and rolled black smoke. The tube was also EOL because of the abnormal output of the ballast.
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #1 on: July 09, 2022, 07:54:45 AM » Author: funkybulb
 There was a building that had F96 slimelines in use one of fixture would cycle on and off and I told them it need to be replace the ballast.  It was tripping on thermal .   So one day thermal protector
 Got stuck in a magnetic tar filled ballast. The ballast overheated to point it started smokng.  And it got very thick.  And the ballast capacitor popped and PCB oil went every where.  It wss great smoke out inside the building.  If light left on any longer it would catch on fire and set celing on fire.
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #2 on: July 09, 2022, 09:36:50 PM » Author: dor123
Zim building at Tel-Aviv, went on fire, as a result of a fluorescent fixture with a stuck starter: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%91%D7%99%D7%AA_%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%9D_(%D7%AA%D7%9C_%D7%90%D7%91%D7%99%D7%91)
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #3 on: July 09, 2022, 10:26:26 PM » Author: bulb_tester2009
There was a building that had F96 slimelines in use one of fixture would cycle on and off and I told them it need to be replace the ballast.  It was tripping on thermal .   So one day thermal protector
 Got stuck in a magnetic tar filled ballast. The ballast overheated to point it started smokng.  And it got very thick.  And the ballast capacitor popped and PCB oil went every where.  It wss great smoke out inside the building.  If light left on any longer it would catch on fire and set celing on fire.
Zim building at Tel-Aviv, went on fire, as a result of a fluorescent fixture with a stuck starter: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%91%D7%99%D7%AA_%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%9D_(%D7%AA%D7%9C_%D7%90%D7%91%D7%99%D7%91)
What are the types of ballasts?
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #4 on: July 10, 2022, 04:41:48 AM » Author: dor123
The ballast in the case of funkybulb is a two wires instant start tar filled magnetic autotransformer ballast, that its thermal protection got tripped because of overheating. In my case, it was a series choke that got overheated by a stuck starter, and because Zim building was built non-compliant to the electricity and bulding standards in Israel, it started a fire.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2022, 05:12:10 AM by dor123 » Logged

I"m don't speak English well, and rely on online translating to write in this site.
Please forgive me if my choice of my words looks like offensive, while that isn't my intention.

I only working with the international date format (dd.mm.yyyy).

I lives in Israel, which is a 220-240V, 50hz country.

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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #5 on: July 11, 2022, 09:37:04 PM » Author: bulb_tester2009
The ballast in the case of funkybulb is a two wires instant start tar filled magnetic autotransformer ballast, that its thermal protection got tripped because of overheating. In my case, it was a series choke that got overheated by a stuck starter, and because Zim building was built non-compliant to the electricity and bulding standards in Israel, it started a fire.
It sounds very sad. I didn't expect that just a stuck starter could cause a fire.
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #6 on: July 11, 2022, 10:33:29 PM » Author: joseph_125
It's not required by code, but it's a good idea to add supplementary protection to a magnetic ballast using a inline fuse rated slightly higher than the rated current of the ballast. This is especially if you have any older ballasts that aren't equipped with protection. I have fuses on my lights with older magnetic ballasts still in use. You can also add external non resetting thermal fuses that open upon the ballast reaching a certain temperature.

Auto resetting thermal protection is a good idea in theory but when you let the ballast cycle on and off without fixing the problem that caused it to overheat (EOL lamp, poor ventilation/bad fixture design, stuck starter) the contacts of the protector will eventually weld closed and render the ballast without any protection. When that happens, if it overheats again, it'll heat up to the point where the tar melts and can cause a fire.
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #7 on: July 12, 2022, 01:47:21 AM » Author: dor123
Despite Eltam made ballasts with a thermal protection, most of the ballasts sold here without thermal protection.
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I"m don't speak English well, and rely on online translating to write in this site.
Please forgive me if my choice of my words looks like offensive, while that isn't my intention.

I only working with the international date format (dd.mm.yyyy).

I lives in Israel, which is a 220-240V, 50hz country.

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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #8 on: July 14, 2022, 02:29:12 AM » Author: bulb_tester2009
My grandparents used to use fluorescent lamps with magnetic ballasts, but a few years ago, the lamp suddenly smoked, and then the tube went out, and it was found that the ballast was aging.
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I've been collecting light bulbs since I was 2 years old and I've been collecting them ever since.
 :hps::hps::hps:
One of the few Chinese users here
Note:
Bulb base in China:E12(CES) E14(SES) B22d(BC) E27(ES) E40(GES)

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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #9 on: July 14, 2022, 09:14:45 PM » Author: Foxtronix
Not a single time. I never ever ever went ahead with experiments that ended in a shower of sparks, scorch marks on the basement floor and a tripped breaker.  :mrg:

And ballasts smoking? Never heard of that.









...okay maybe there's been a little bit of all that. But hey, I was 15.  :lol:
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #10 on: July 14, 2022, 10:49:51 PM » Author: wide-lite 1000
Several !! In my younger days , I mis-wired a 50w HPS ballast and turned the arc-tube into confetti . I recently had the capacitor in my Norelco SOX streetlight go up in a giant cloud of PCB laden smoke . I've also had one of the 3 capacitors in my 700w MV Westy OV-50 suffer an internal short and get so hot you couldn't touch it .
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #11 on: July 15, 2022, 07:01:46 AM » Author: 108CAM
I had an 80w MV ballast short out with a spectacular display of fireworks and electrical arcing sounds. It was so intense that it fried the power strip it was plugged into yet somehow the lamp survived the carnage and still works.
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #12 on: July 16, 2022, 01:07:19 PM » Author: High Intensity
The only major ballast failure I've experienced was the PCB capacitor in a Universal slimline ballast exploding, we ended up replacing the whole fixture as a result from that.
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #13 on: July 16, 2022, 06:49:19 PM » Author: Foxtronix
Exploding? As in "pop" or as in "kaboom"?  ;D
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #14 on: July 17, 2022, 11:42:55 AM » Author: xmaslightguy
I've had a few of those little 14/15/20w preheat chokes get smoked
A 2xF40 RS went up in smoke in my bedroom (it had been thermal-cycling for months before that, but I thought nothing of it since I'd seen lights in school do the same)
Had a few of the little ballast/choke things in those LOA F40 shoplights go up in smoke.
A 2xF32 electronic RS ballast in a fishtank light was probably the most recent smoker..
(most electronic's I've found "just die" which is far better)
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