How Hosed Am I?

[colin779]

I have a icecap 175w electronic MH ballast that i purchased about a year ago that has started flickering. I do know its the ballast because i have plugged that ballast into the other light with the same result, i also tested the voltage from the outlet and it is 121v. For arguments sake i also plugged it into a different outlet as well and tried both lamps, same result.

 

[Somethings Fishy]

sorry to hear it man

 

[Krish]

Bummer...And I think I read here icecap went out of buisness. I'd talk to Mike (herefishyfishy). Something's telling me he mentioned he may have a ballast lying around or something. Could be wrong, but if you need one, won't hurt asking him.

 

[colin779]

Yea, that's what I heard as well. I did send an email since the company website is still up but we'll see what happens with that. I'll do some more research and see what I come up with. Thanks for the tip, maybe I'll drop him a pm. I wonder if there's anyone in the area that could repair it? I doubt it's some super secret technology inside that only icecap could fix?

 

[eww]

CoralVue hired the main guy from IceCap (Chris Conti) and they are repairing the 660 and 440 T5 drivers. I don't know if they are doing anything for the MH ballasts though. Here is a link the the repair section on their site. IceCap 660 & 440 Fluorescent Ballast Repair Service | CoralVue Email Chris at the email address on that page. He got right back to us when we had questions.

 

[colin779]

Thanks for the reply, I actually spoke with Chris on the phone today and he said because of the way the mh ballasts are constructed there isn't a way to repair it. He did suggest I try another lamp if I have one just to be absolutely sure it is a ballast issue. I have a xm 10k sitting in my garage that I will try once I get home, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[colin779]

So it seems the ballast is actually ok. I put an old xm 10k bulb I had in and it did not flicker, I put the ushio 14k back in and it started again. Anyone ever had an experience like this?

 

[sergebmw2]

Are u sure the 10 k and the 14 k are the same watts? 250 175 400 cause powering a higher wattage bulb with a smaller ballast could lead to flickering. Just an idea to test

 

[colin779]

Yes, they are both 175w bulbs. I left the xm 10k in and am sad to report that I can hardly tell the difference between it and the 14k ushio. Is there another 14k that may be a little bluer or should I just go with the xm's since the par value is much higher on them?

 

[ahuntnfool]

I recently had the same problem. I was running Hamilton lamps everything was fine. Changed to a ushio lamp and the bulb would fire but after a couple seconds would go out. I am an electrician so I had to figure out what was going on. Come to find out that ushio lamps take a Different ballast (m137 type). My fixture had a m57 ballast which are more common. So there are 2 ways to fix it. (1) change ballast to a m137 or (2)get a different brand of lamp. Good luck

 

[colin779]

I found out it was a lamp issue, my ballast's are ok to run them as they are electronic, also being an electrician i did all sorts of tests on everything as well. I couldnt find anything wrong so i have decided it was probably caused by the age of the lamps (they are both oficially 12 months old). The spare xm lamp i had as a spare works fine. I went down to The Shark Reef (my lfs) and ordered a couple xm 20k lamps. I was not overly impressed with the Ushio 14k's so i don't know that i will try any of their other lamps.