BlueLine ballast flickering

[myreef]

I have a 400 watt blue line ballast that is flickering on/off about every 20-30 minutes....as soon as the bulb gets hot, it shuts off. The ballast is about 8 months old and the bulb is new. I have swapped out the bulb with other known working ones and they are fine. FYI, I have another blueline that is working fine....this one was working fine until I swapped out bulbs recently from 20k radium to 10k Ushio....any suggestions?

I do have the ballast plugged into a timer and a surge protector...we have had bad weather here lately....could it have fried the ballast?

[myreef]

^ bump for the night crowd

[geshields]

Andy,

If I understand correctly, it is happening with only this one particular bulb, the others test fine and don't flicker?

If so, it may be normal as the bulb breaks in. This happened to me and my radium for the first 1/2 day. Took a while to get over the hump I guess, then it worked flawlessly til the end.

Greg

[myreef]

Hey Greg....nope when I changed bulbs, it stays with the ballast....it was working fine for with my radiums for 6 months or so and was working fine for this bulb for about 3-4 weeks, then all of a sudden started flickering. I am perplexed!

[geshields]

I believe your ballast is shot. Sounds like it is a good thing the eBallast should be back in stock soon. As you know, these things are non-repairable, they just replace them.

Greg

[SawCJack00]

Hi Guys, I had the same thing happen to one of my older Bluelines. It was shot. Fortunately David Grigor had an extra one for me to borrow while they are on backorder. Hope they get in soon.

[myreef]

Bill did you determine what was wrong with yours? I think mine must have been caused by bad weather....power spike or surge....

[SawCJack00]

It could've been a power surge. I'm not sure. It has been disposed of however. Overall they are still my favorite ballasts. Does anybody know if the Icecap issues with their 400W ballasts have been resolved? I tried one about 6 months back, but it made my Radium squeel like a piggy.

[moonpod]

There's a bunch of posts at the IC forum about their 400w ballast. The 220v version works like a "top" (verbatim). So if you've got a 220 jack nearby, this is a good solution. Otherwise, there's no answer on when, how, or if on the 110v, they are still trying to fix their original design, and apparently are trying two other designs as well.

[kelhuffman]

Late to this thread but I have a similar issue. I run 2 400W bluelines with Radiums. After 2 months one would no longer run the bulb and would only drive it for about half an hour. I received TWO replacements under warranty, both used, and the same thing occured, driving the bulb for 45 minutes at the most before crapping out. The confusing part is that my other blueline drives either bulb/wiring setup with no problem at all. So there's nothing that I can point to in the wiring that causes those other ballasts to not to fire the bulb. I have been waiting for a new replacement ballast since March, having to manually change the wiring every day so that both sides of the tank get light. A major PIA. I haven't heard of this occuring elsewhere and I'm dumfounded about the issue...and as you can imagine, very tired of waiting for a replacement ballast from Champion's next shipment and worried that the new one may have the same issue.

[rdelong]

I hope you have resolved your problem but if not, here's my $.02.

The off cycle you experience with a lit HID bulb is happening because you are losing sufficient voltage to maintain the arc burning. The bulb must then cool down before restriking. This loss of voltage can be caused by many things. The most common cause would be a high resistance connection somewhere between the bulb and the ballast. This could be at the socket or in one of the wire nut connections in the ballast. Check all connections and the socket for cleanness and tightness. If the problem persists swap ballasts from one socket to the other and confirm the problem follows the ballast or stays with the socket/wiring. If the problem follows the ballast then you may have an internal connection problem or a Capacitor or winding that's acting up.

[kelhuffman]

rdelong, thanks for that info. Sounds quite plausible. The problem most definitely follows the ballast. I've been using the same ballast (the working one) and simply changing the bnc connections daily to give each side of the tank coverage. That ballast fires either side all day long. Strangely my other original and the two replacements won't fire either wiring setup. Maybe a bad batch the distributor got in?

[rdelong]

OK so much for the easy stuff. I wonder if those radium bulbs striking and running voltages are drifting up with age? That might explain the other ballasts not striking the bulbs. The one working one may be the anomaly. Is your blueline electronic or magnetic?

[kelhuffman]

They're electronic.

[rdelong]

The Blueline folks may be having voltage regulator problems. If it was a magnetic ballast, I'd tell you to measure the open circuit voltage of the ballast. I'm not sure if the Electronic will continue to provide an output if it senses an open circuit. It would be worth a comparison (good to bad) if you have a voltmeter. Do you know if the 20K radium will still strike using the "bad" Ballast?

[kelhuffman]

rdelong, the bad ballast will fire the radium but cuts out half an hour later. Turns out that I'm not the only one with this issue. Other threads are surfacing. Seems like they might have received a bad batch of ballasts. Thanks for your input.