Can a faulty ballast overheat a bulb?

[unclejack]

Hi,

I picked up a 150watt metal halide pendant a few weeks ago and it is giving some kind of burning smell from the pendant unit once a while. The bulb will be lighted and the smell will be coming out from the pendant unit, not from the remote ballast.

At the beginning I thought the smell is coming from the material of the lamp being heated up since the smell only comes after about 5-6 hrs of continue usage. Today I got the smell immediately the minute I turn on the lamp. Can a faulty ballast trigger the bulb to generate excessive heat to melt down some of the material within the pendant? I probably will try to take the pendant apart over the weekend to see what is going on but as of now, I am not going to use the pendant.

 

[Scooterman]

Might be the sockets getting old & overheating be careful with this, you don't want to come home to a fire!

 

[MC Lighting]

check the wiring at the base of the socket it is entirely possible you have a bad or corroded connection enough that you get the light to fire but also enough that it is getting hot, as stated check into this immediatly the kind of current and heat associated with these lamps can result in fire VERY easily....

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Bet you have wires or bad socket cooking.
Beware fire hazzard, fix immediately:exclaim::exclaim:

 

[unclejack]

Thanks guys. I will take it down from the ceiling tonight and check out what is going on in the socket + wire....I had my 70watt sunpod replacement going on in the meantime.

Does anyone have any idea on what is the typical lifespan of a socket + ballast? I know Icecaps had a 3 yr warranty so their ballast should last within 3 yrs with 6 hrs a day or so usage.

Is it fair to say any socket / ballast that had been used for like 3 yrs are probably on the edge of replacement on the safety side?

 

[MC Lighting]

unless improperly installed I don't see why a socket would go bad they are usually ceramic what can go bad is the wires going into it due to heat but most sockets allow you to replace the wiring pretty easily while you have it apart check for cracks in the ceramic and any corrosion on the metal parts...