Metal halide light issue

[Sequoia]

I have a 250W metal halide light that is acting weird. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. It often "tries" to light up but then goes dark again. I've changed the bulb-- no change.

Is this a ballast or capacitor issue?

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I don't know how to diagnose which part you may need, but a ballast/capacitor kit is just over $40. I wouldn't waste much time trying to figure it out if it were my time.

 

[wendy's wash]

i tryed to figure out witch was going bad. the cap or transformer. replaced transformer and checked to see if it worked. well it did so i kept the cap for spare. 3 days later the light was not coming on again. took apart and low and behold the transformer was fried. the cap fried the transformer. will not try to just put one part in the light from a kit. i then had to replace both parts again and that was a pain. the lens is now stained from the smoke. just install a new light kit and move on as their will be something else you can spend your time on. watching super bowl or a good movie or if you are unlucky another repair at wash. good luck.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

About a third of the time it's just the capacitor($15-20), I just replaced a cap and transformer a couple of days ago. Sometimes they smell and it's obvious. This one overheated and had melted itself some and didn't smell. A $40 kit from 1000bulbs solved it now for probably 10 years.
I think if you catch it before it cycles too many times and overheats, you might get by with a cap. That cycling will take out the bulb fairly quick.

 

[Twodose]

Invest in a tester such as this

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1YBT7

that will check microfarads, the first thing I do is check the capacitor

this is usually the case if the light won't come on, or is turning off and on.

The transformers usually last a long time. If the light is not working, fix it asap or turn it off because this may affect the life of the transformer.

 

[mjc3333]

Did you also know that the metal halide bulbs need to be changed at certain intervals of burn time? As the bulb goes through cycle after cycle of on off on off the lumens decrease at a particular rate. Not only is the lumens or brightness of the light diminished, it subsequently takes more and more energy to light the bulb. Each bulb has a lumens chart with the output after so many hours of operation. The pulse start MH lights have a much better rating than the old ballast / capacitor setup. I did not believe that the MH bulbs would actually take more and more energy to start and be kept lit until my electrician showed me just how much a fixture with a brand new bulb uses compared to a fixture with a bulb let say was 3 years old. I would wait until the bulb would actually burn out or blow up before I would change them. Even though the bulbs can be expensive, changing them at certain intervals and not waiting for them to burn out saved me a considerable amount of money in the long run. This also helps the longevity of the ballast / capacitor. Oh, one more thing, if you have a fixture that has a bad bulb and you continue to feed power to it, the ballast will continue to try and start the bad bulb and waste even more energy.

 

[vinh]

I would change the ignitor and capacitor. Each are about $10. Transformer seldom go bad. If you want to save money. Take one from a working fixture and swap until you diagnose problem. If I have to guess, it is the capacitor.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

What part is the ignitor? My lights have only the bulb, socket, capacitor, transformer, and 10 times more wire than needed.

 

[MEP001]

Yeah, what's with all that extra wire? You should see the inside of a Scottsdale - when you take the reflector down to work on it, about 10 feet of wires hang out.

The pulse-start metal halides have a starter as well as a capacitor.

I agree with I.B. - what's your time worth? Replace the ballast kit and be done with it. Maybe even remove the ballast kit altogether and put a fluorescent adaptor in. It's less light, but it's much cheaper to operate and if something doesn't work, it's always the bulb.

 

[Eric H]

Yeah, what's with all that extra wire? You should see the inside of a Scottsdale - when you take the reflector down to work on it, about 10 feet of wires hang out.

I'm glad to have the extra wire. So many times I've replaced a component on some piece if equipment and come up 1/4" short on wire and had to splice in another piece.

Maybe even remove the ballast kit altogether and put a fluorescent adaptor in.

Aren't you the one who is always going on about lumens when comparing MH, LED, and fluorescents?

 

[MEP001]

The worst of the extra wire is due to the multi-tap ballasts - when I install a new one I cut and cap all the unused wires, trim the rest to a decent length where I can tie them up neatly and out of the way so they're not resting on the reflector and getting hot and brittle. The electricians who installed them didn't use wire rated to 115°C like they were supposed to. It's really ridiculous when you can't even get to the capacitor because of all the wire stuffed in there.

Aren't you the one who is always going on about lumens when comparing MH, LED, and fluorescents?

Yes, but that doesn't mean I'm not able to see both sides of the coin. I can have an opinion without being narrow-minded. You might look back and see that I never told anyone not to switch to fluorescent adaptors, I just give the info that's it's lesser light per watt, so depending on how you look at it, CFL can be seen as less efficient than MH.