can someone help me with my icecap 250 ballast

leftcoastreefer

New member
I have an icecap 250 ballast that's not firing at all. Its only about 5 months old, I bought it new. Could anyone help me determine if its went bad? I've already sent chris at icecap an email. I'm using the male/femal connectors, its not hard wired if that helps. Hopefully its just a defective ballast, and not something wrong with my pendant, that's what I'm trying to determine. Tia
 
if it is a newer icecap it should have a little round cover near the main power switch.the cover should have a slot for a flathead screwdriver to open it.
 
if it is a newer icecap it should have a little round cover near the main power switch.the cover should have a slot for a flathead screwdriver to open it.

I think you are thinking of the 430 and 660's. They have fuses. None of my 250w have them..
 
I have an icecap 250 ballast that's not firing at all. Its only about 5 months old, I bought it new. Could anyone help me determine if its went bad? I've already sent chris at icecap an email. I'm using the male/femal connectors, its not hard wired if that helps. Hopefully its just a defective ballast, and not something wrong with my pendant, that's what I'm trying to determine. Tia

So I assume it was working up until now? Do you have a spare bulb to try in the pendant? If not, do you need a Single end or double end bulb?
 
I think you are thinking of the 430 and 660's. They have fuses. None of my 250w have them..

i think the one i just sold had a fuse,although mine was one of the very first "new style" ballast.mine wasnt even anodized blue it was just like clear coated aluminum.maybe im wrong but i could of swore mine had a fuse.
 
So I assume it was working up until now? Do you have a spare bulb to try in the pendant? If not, do you need a Single end or double end bulb?

Yes, it has been working. it has been shutting off throughout the day though, periodically. I thought I might have a problem with my controlers powerstrip, but maybe its a ballast issue. I do have an extra bulb to try, but I figured it would atleast make my phoenix flicker or something.
 
I just checked my ballast and there isn't any slot for a fuse. Just the plates that hold the housing on. It is a new generation ballast. Someone pm'd me about an on/off switch, but my ballast doesn't have one.
 
This morning I was able to take my fixture down. It turns out my bulb is burnt out, but its only 4 mos old. Its a phoenix 14k de, and I only run it 4 hours a day. This seems a little pre-mature for bulb failure. I have had another problem for the past few months I forgot to mention though. Every so often, I will notice my light will just shut off in the middle of its cycle. I run it off a reefkeeper, so it has a 15 min delay before it allows the ballast to refire. Is it possible I'm overloading the outlet I'm using? I always assumed if I overloaded the outlet, everything would shut off and trip the breaker, but this has never happened. Only the light shuts off and comes back on in 15 mins. I'm only using about 600watts to power my whole system, and 200watts of that is my heater, and that doesn't come on often. I wouldn't think that is enough to overload a single outlet.
 
This morning I was able to take my fixture down. It turns out my bulb is burnt out, but its only 4 mos old. Its a phoenix 14k de, and I only run it 4 hours a day. This seems a little pre-mature for bulb failure. I have had another problem for the past few months I forgot to mention though. Every so often, I will notice my light will just shut off in the middle of its cycle. I run it off a reefkeeper, so it has a 15 min delay before it allows the ballast to refire. Is it possible I'm overloading the outlet I'm using? I always assumed if I overloaded the outlet, everything would shut off and trip the breaker, but this has never happened. Only the light shuts off and comes back on in 15 mins. I'm only using about 600watts to power my whole system, and 200watts of that is my heater, and that doesn't come on often. I wouldn't think that is enough to overload a single outlet.

Not sure on how the Reefkeeper works, but anytime you turn a Halide bulb off it takes a while to re-fire. The bulb needs to cool down before it can be restarted.

It sounds like the bulb has been going bad for a while and finally kicked the bucket in your case.

4 months is WAY premature for a bulb failure. They should actually last years. They just lose their PAR value over time. I have a MH bulb lighting an area in my shop that burns 10 hrs a day, 5 days a week. Been in there for at least 7 years now.
 
Not sure on how the Reefkeeper works, but anytime you turn a Halide bulb off it takes a while to re-fire. The bulb needs to cool down before it can be restarted.

It sounds like the bulb has been going bad for a while and finally kicked the bucket in your case.

4 months is WAY premature for a bulb failure. They should actually last years. They just lose their PAR value over time. I have a MH bulb lighting an area in my shop that burns 10 hrs a day, 5 days a week. Been in there for at least 7 years now.

I agree with you. Halides run for years. The reefkeeper has a feature called "sure fire" when you dedicate a specific channel to run a metal halide lamp. In the event the power ever goes out, and comes back on, the controller will delay the ballast to re-fire for 15 minutes so the bulb can cool down and fire back up correctly. I'm going to install my other bulb and see if it still has the same issue, turning off in the middle of the photo-period. I'm also going to run an extension chord so my halide has its own outlet, in case its some kind of power issue. It sucks to lose a 60 dollar bulb after 4 mos of use.
 
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