Is my ballast toast?

[phage]

I have a dual 250W PFO HQI ballast, probably 4 years old. Last week one of my bulbs burned out, no big deal... they needed replacing anyway. Yesterday, my 2nd bulb quit working... wow I have great luck! But the wierd thing was the 2nd bulb wouldn't even hum, or try to fire. So I go get a new bulb today at aquatek, and it doesn't even attempt to fire either on either output on the ballast.

So I'm assuming somehow both of them fried, but that seems pretty odd. The first bulb that burned out would hum when you turned the switch on but doesnt even do that anymore. I opened up the enclosure to see if something looked melted, destroyed, on fire but all seemed well.

I figure it can't hurt to see if anyone has any ideas on what could have caused this, what I could do to verify it, or really anything at all. I'm not looking forward to buying a new ballast and 2 new bulbs, but I guess it won't kill me. :blink

[phage]

pulled it out and have played with it some,and noticed that it will trip the GFCI when i try and fire a bulb in it every time with both ballasts. any good ideas on a fix for this?

[witecap4u]

If you decide to replace it, I'll trade ya a frag for the old one(I just want the box)...

cs

[GaryP]

Also check for any shorts or loose wires.

[Jeff]

is there anyone around who can fix ballast?

[phage]

I opened it up and don't see any obvious corrosion or frayed wires. I'm going to do a more thorough exam of it today and see what I can find. The sockets both look good, I replaced them about a year ago because the original ones had corroded.

I woudl assume since it is tripping the GFCI it would be a short, but what are the odds of a short showing up on both ballasts separately within a week of each other?

[GaryP]

is there anyone around who can fix ballast?

I have sent several Ice Cap ballasts back to them. They rebuild them and send them back to you. The cost is a lot lower then buying a new one.

[phage]

thanks for the help guys, but I think I have it taken care of. One of the pendants had a wire that the insulation had cracked and it was shorting out on the metal (good thing I wasn't touching the pendant!), so I replaced that wire. I think it was a combination of one bulb burned out, one pendant shorting out, and it tripping the GFCI that made me think both of them were bad. Right now I have both lit up (one new bulb, one still the old one) and all seems to be fine. Again, thanks for your help.