Repairing Ballast?

[racer69]

Hey, has anyone heard of repairing a mh ballast? My HQI ballast just died yesterday, and I either need it fixed or a new one. My problem is that I leave for Texas Friday to go rock climbing. I have tried Trey, and Mr Aqua, but they would both have to order one.

I am going to try an electronics specialist and see if mine can be repaired.

[CastleRock]

unfortunately I think MH PFO ballasts are sealed units and are not repairable :(
BUT if its a magnetic ballast its probably the capacitor

[CastleRock]

I meant PFO electric ballasts I think are sealed but not sure.
Icaps are fixable by Icecap
And don't zap yourself with the capacitor if you have one and want to try to replace it they hold a GOOD charge and can knock you on your butt or worse

[racer69]

Well, I went and ordered the Blue Wave III HQI Ballast for $129 from customaquatics.com. The problem is Next Day Air costs another $130:eek1:, so that makes $250:( .

As far as getting knocked on my but, I already did that with the super coil on the corvette 2 weeks ago while working on it. Talk about curling your hair er..... wait I'm bald!!:D

[CastleRock]

Ouch!
Yea I have had my lights put out a few times by capacitors
NO FUN!!!! :D

Have fun rock climbing!\

Doug

[racer69]

Hey Doug, I still have the bad one and can bring it to the meeting if you would like to look at it and show me how to replace the capacitor (if thats the problem). Does this sound ok with you?

[CastleRock]

You bet
Wait you just wanna see me knocked on my butt!!!!! :D
LOL yea bring it along lets see if we can get er going:)

[racer69]

Thanks man, the new one will be here tomorrow. They knocked the shipping down to $85 (yesh), but it would be nice to have a back-up with the old one.

[Crit21]

Contact Deuce 67. He's an electrician. There should be only two things that fail on a ballast--the transformer and the ignitor (capacitor). Both are common parts. You can even get kits for them on eBay.

[Crit21]

Oh, a MH ballast kit is about $30-40.