suckage

[andywe]

I woke this morning and found one of my actinics was not on. I thought I blew a bulb becasue the ballasts were replaced 3 weeks ago. Well, I went and got a bulb, installed it, and when I tested it was still out. Boy was I in for a surprise when I checked the ballast. this sucks!

So off to Oceanic (Corlalife) I go since I bought this and took delivery in December. I get the feeling something is amiss with the wiring as the actininc plug was popping my GFI from day 1. The new ballasts were an attempt to fix that, as it is an issue but not necessarily from the light. I now think different. Will keep you posted as to how support does for me. This willd efine the companies commitment to customer service, or break it. Thus far they ahve been helpful and given me whatever I needed.

 

[NeveSSL]

Wow... that is not cool.

What light fixture was this from?

Brandon

 

[cee]

Looks like the ballast is undersized to me. That's a burn from trying to push too much current through an inadequately-sized connection.

 

[MVlk]

Needless to say, that sucks... I the customer service resolves it quickly for you.

 

[andywe]

Service hasd been really good thus far. I did take a close look and it appears a problem in the connector..the poditive barrel was loose and not seated all the way so it could ahve been arcng for awhile and finally burnt.

The ballast is rated above the bulb. Jsut a single 96w PC actinic.

 

[ZachB]

Dang, that sucks man. Hopefully they get you back in business soon!

 

[DMBillies]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14761839#post14761839 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by andywe
Service hasd been really good thus far. I did take a close look and it appears a problem in the connector..the poditive barrel was loose and not seated all the way so it could ahve been arcng for awhile and finally burnt.

If your GFI was popping, this is very well possible. Although GFCI's are not specifically designed to detect arcs, it does measure the current at a millisecond level and often times an arc will trigger a GFCI (e.g., I've had GFCI's pop when plugging something into an outlet).

It is worth saying to the general audience here that you should never assume that repeated trips are due to a faulty GFCI.

My father is an electrician and a guy he worked with (also an electrician) by-passed a GFCI because his circular saw kept tripping it. It was a simple enough of a mistake and he should have known better, but it cost him his life because his hand locked around the handle/trigger of the shorted saw and he couldn't drop it...

It may be an inconvenience that the part burned up, but just be glad it didn't light up your house or you... and good luck getting it replaced.

 

[andywe]

The only thing I will say is that flourescent ballasts can trip the plug in GFCI units simply because their frequency is too close to the gfi trip point. The fixture has been plugged into a grounded wall outlet without issue until now and no indication of a problem. We did chang eout the ballasts just in case their was an issue there.

I at that point assumed no issue with the gfi.

 

[andywe]

I jsut spoke to tech support. It was a short covnersation, and they are sending me out a brand new unit overnight. Very good customer service from Coralife!

 

[poolkeeper1]

That Works!! Good Deal. Did they say what the Issue might be?

 

[andywe]

They did not say what the issue may be, but upon inspection of the connector, I see the pin that fried was not seated all the way down into the connector housing. That probably caused a poor connection and led to the demise.

 

[andywe]

Ok,

The new light shipped in today, and there was a problem with the hood. A screw had come out and would not grab and come back into place, so the unit is going back.

Since the new unit had good electronis, I did take a looka t the harness assembly that burnt on mine, and found it was the cap wire, so removed my burnt one and replaced it with a good one. While I had my ballast exposed, I found the ground wire for the PC power feed just floating, not hooked up anywhere!!. Well, combine that with the harness that had a lead 1/2 way out, and you have a pretty good idea as to why the thing finally burnt.

So I fixed that problem as well, and walla..a functinal light! Plus I got 3 new MH power supplies in the box I get to keep, as well as a full set of 3 mh bulbs abd 2 actininc bulbs. I guess it was worth my time in repairs to keep them from shipping another unit out.

 

[NeveSSL]

Wow... nice! Good to know their customer support is good. I love their salt, too, but I can't beat the price of IO... heh.

Brandon

 

[DMBillies]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14762860#post14762860 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by andywe
flourescent ballasts can trip the plug in GFCI units simply because their frequency is too close to the gfi trip point.

yup... this is why, if you can't install a wall unit, I would recommend anyone buy a GFCI (or a package of them) and put a few of the in-wall type in a box with a pig tail. They false trip much less often and really the price is pretty comparable (the in walls are not usually cheap, just convenient).

And I was not saying you necessarily did the wrong thing, I just wanted to be clear to anyone that might read why you should not assume a GFI is busted... since any number of things can cause them to trip for legitimate reasons, and checking every little connection (or replacing an entire ballast ) is not always easy/plausible.

 

[CeeGee]

sounds to me like they have some quality control issues. I have had a couple of their PC units and haven't been too impressed with the build quality.

Glad you got it going again. Now get back to reefin'!