Author Topic: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures?  (Read 3311 times)
bulb_tester2009
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #15 on: July 17, 2022, 10:27:23 PM » Author: bulb_tester2009
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.
A friend of mine also encountered an explosion of a magnetic ballast, causing the main switch of the whole residential building to trip.The reason is that the magnetic ballast exploded and caught fire because the ballast exceeded the rated voltage for a long time and the insulation layer was scraped open to check whether it was a copper coil.
« Last Edit: July 17, 2022, 10:29:37 PM by bulb_tester2009 » Logged

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由于我来自中国,所以英语不精通,大部分内容都是翻译的,所以可能不通顺,请大家谅解
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #16 on: July 17, 2022, 10:33:03 PM » Author: bulb_tester2009
A friend of mine also encountered an explosion of a magnetic ballast, causing the main switch of the whole residential building to trip.The reason is that the magnetic ballast exploded and caught fire because the ballast exceeded the rated voltage for a long time and the insulation layer was scraped open to check whether it was a copper coil.
Including, I also have a friend of my age. A inferior ballast emitted white smoke, causing the end cap to melt and crack the surface core due to high temperature.
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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:
由于我来自中国,所以英语不精通,大部分内容都是翻译的,所以可能不通顺,请大家谅解
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 #17 on: July 26, 2022, 12:32:44 AM » Author: 108CAM
I need to mention a street light fire that happened around 2003. A Sylvania Roadster about 2 KM's from my house had a faulty ignitor that caught fire. When I was going out with my mum to get KFC for dinner, my mum spotted a flame coming from the top of the light. At this point, the emergency services had already been called. Fast Forward to 2022 and a fellow lighting enthusiast not on LG told me that there was a recall on Sylvania Roadsters due to faulty ignitors and that the recall happened in the early 2000's. 
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #18 on: July 26, 2022, 02:29:14 PM » Author: AngryHorse
Mostly fluorescent choke’s I get called out to at work when they melt and trip all the lights out in our paint shop!
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #19 on: July 27, 2022, 03:59:36 PM » Author: Molly
Never
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #20 on: July 31, 2022, 07:10:51 PM » Author: xelareverse
Yep.
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #21 on: August 05, 2022, 10:46:28 PM » Author: joseph_125
I once blew up the discharge resistor on a capacitor I was using with a 1000w MH ballast. Made a rather loud arc sound. The capacitor was fine though. It turns out the resistor wasn't rated to take the ~480v coming from the ballast.
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #22 on: August 09, 2022, 04:34:54 AM » Author: 108CAM
The only other ballast failure I've encountered was with a 50w MV ballast that worked normally for about 3 seconds before making a pop sound and going open circuit.
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Fluro starter pings combined with a 50hz ballast hum and blinking tubes is music to my ears.

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Total incidents since joining LG: 17
Lamps accidently broken or smashed: 14
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #23 on: August 09, 2022, 01:02:35 PM » Author: Michael
No explosion from a ballast but from worn out capacitor which violently broke the lanterns frame and tripped the main fuse in the street lighting switch board. 
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #24 on: August 09, 2022, 09:49:01 PM » Author: icefoglights
Had a capacitor in a mercury vapor fixture blow.  Not a fan of oil filled caps after that  :lol:
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Re: Have you ever encountered a ballast explosion, smoke or other failures? « Reply #25 on: August 10, 2022, 02:09:41 AM » Author: Michael
I’m glad that those that fail in that way are filled with vegetable oils without PCBs.  - Just one time happened that a PCB filled cap exploded in a meat slicer. What a mess.

But back to the topic, the weakest ballasts which can fail and set the entire fixture on fire - if made of GRP - were the leak transformers for SOX lamps, those which did not have a thermal cutout installed.
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