Any MH electrical experts out there?

[PaulCom]

Did I do something stoooopid?

I bought a CoralView Aqualight - 2 x 250 MH, 4 x 96 Actinics.

I wanted to upgrade a bit, so I purchased two 250W IceCap ballasts and two Phoenix 250W DE 14K bulbs.

I installed the bulbs and plugged the fixture into one of the ballasts. I plugged the ballast into the wall.

After a few seconds, I heard some small popping, like a water pipe heating up. Then one of the bulbs flickered and came on.

Then there was smoke and even a bit of flame. The bulb went out. I non-chalantly unplugged the ballast.

I disassembled the fixture a bit to find the source of the flame. I got down to the igniter and noticed the end of it was wet with a film of this dark colored fluid. There is an LED right next to the igniter, and the bracket had a black hot spot on the underside where it would have been closest to the igniter.

Without laughing too loud, what did I do?

[PaulCom]

I definately cooked the igniter. Anyone know what would cause this to happen?

[PaulCom]

^

[manderx]

pics? what exactly are you calling the igniter? igniter is a component of a magnetic HQI (and Pulse start) ballast, so you should not need to use it at all with the icecap.

[PaulCom]

here are some pics

[PaulCom]

The upper pic above show the cooked ignitor (you can see the hole where it burnt through the casing) and the lower pic shows where the other ignitor is located in the circuit.

I wrote IceCap and Dave told me:
"The Icecap 250MH ballast does not use an ignitor. It is wired directly to the lamps. If you have it wired differently there is an error in wiring. There are 2 wires from the ballast to the lamp. Each goes to the lamp socket. If an ignitor is inline it will not work and will damage it."

Damage? You betcha - smoke, flame and a ****ed off wife. Even the dog looks at me in disgust.

So, I've taken the ignitor out of the circuit by splicing the red wire to the white wire and keeping the two neutral wires connected. I'm gonna take the whole set up outside and hook it up just in case things go *boom*

or *fizzle*

or *fizzle, fizzle........arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!*

[manderx]

you need to pull all the existing MH ballast components out, since you are replacing them entirely with the icecaps. it should go straight from the icecap to the socket.

[PaulCom]

Thanks! That's what I'm gonna do...

I hate electricity, so if I don't post back you can assume the worst.......

[PaulCom]

Yup - removing the ignitor did the trick. Lights came on and the new Phoenix bulbs glowed blue, blue, blue.

Then I connected the compact fluorescents and popped the breaker...*L*

I hate electricity - but thanks to everyone for their help.