Another lighting scare

[phishcrazee]

I have today off, and thank God I did, otherwise I don't know if we'd have a house to come home too! I smelled a wierd sort of burning this morning....... went into the fish room where it was strongest and looked at the lights. The fans inside the lights were not going........... I went to the ballast, which houses the stuff for the metal halides and moonlights and fans and flipped the switch for the moonlights, as I couldn't remember if it was for the fans or moonlights.......... FLAMES came out of the ballast when I did that, no kidding, actual flames! Of course the halides shut off after that and I used my plastic tank reacher thing to shut off the buttons. So now all I have are the 2 96w flourescent lights running, they are on a separate ballast that seems to be ok, but who really knows. The lights are Odyssea, 2 175w 10,000k halides with the moonlights and the actinics....... they weren't cheap, I'm mad they are crap now after 6 months and worried the flourescent's ballast will go up in flames as well.

What lights do you guys suggest? Mind you, it's right before Xmas, and I don't have a ton of dough Maybe Santa will bring me some new lights?! :lol:

 

[Double-J]

Glad nothing serious happened. You could always try to make a retrofit light hood, that way you can do all the wiring yourself instead of some dude overseas that gets paid a couple bucks an hours.

 

[glaspie69]

If there only 6 months old you should be screaming to the company, I would think they would stand behind there products.

 

[jbrunken]

Those Odyssea lights are infamous for catching on fire. Just do a search for "odyssea fire" here on RC and you will see what I mean.

-JB

 

[phishcrazee]

Eh, bought it from an ebay store probably 6 months before I ever used them, but I will see what the company can do.

 

[Covey]

Those lights are going to kill someone. I spend an average of 15-20 minutes a week trying to talk random people out of buying them.

Our clubs is not huge but this is like the second fire with those crap lights.

If no one has any used stuff I would try Hellolights.com if your trying to not break the bank.

 

[leeweber85]

3rd

 

[waverz]

Odyssea lights are gonna kill someone, my ballast started on fire too. Theres a reason they are cheap.....

 

[cabenn]

Go to the manufacturer. I had one of my advantage ballasts go out on me after 3 months when I first installed my MH. It just stopped firing.

With all these lighting scares cropping up on the forums lately it has me scared.

 

[jbrunken]

I wonder if electronic ballasts are safer than the (cheaper) magnetic kind or if these type of problems are common in electronic ballasts too.

-JB

 

[lllosingit]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8792501#post8792501 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jbrunken
I wonder if electronic ballasts are safer than the (cheaper) magnetic kind or if these type of problems are common in electronic ballasts too.

-JB

Both are very safe. The problem probably isn't the ballast but how it was wired and materials used.
Just think about how many ballasts are in one high rise building, I'm sure it would easily number in the thousands and you don't here about problems with them at all.

 

[DSMpunk]

I had my aquamedic 250W ballast go out on me a couple of months ago. It got so hot the plug actually MELTED. Thank god I had it hooked up to a GFCI. Scary stuff man.

 

[phishcrazee]

Found some used 250w metal halides to replace the Odyssea's........ ouch, wasn't expecting to buy those right before Christmas

 

[beashay]

Im guessing that your ebay store was probably by hommby which I heard was also affliated with aquatraders.com. Odyssea lights just seem to be a hazard, had my own expericence with those and had it less that a month. Finally got the ballast in to replace but was too scared to even use them so turned around and ordered coralife, would of saved time and money getting the better ones in the first place. Odyssea one scary product..

 

[Covey]

Hey phish what style of ballast is the one that caught on fire. Is it the newer style ballast with the seperate power cord?

I've got someone asking me on another forum what style of ballast your is because they have an Odyssea too.

 

[phishcrazee]

It has one power cord and that's it. It has the on/off buttons, one for the halides, one for the moonlights.

 

[FLricordia]

Sorry to hear that that happened. I myself have the newest version with the electronic ballast and 4 separate power cords, one for PC, one for moonlights, one for MH and one for fans. I love mine. Unit is only slightly warm after hours of operation and remote ballast is also only warm to the touch. It's a shame that people are still buying the magnetic ballast units. Guess they don't know about the electronic.
I also own several Odyssea PC outfits and have never had any problems with any of them. I have had more trouble with Coralife units and bulbs than any.