Anyone know how to repair a Hamilton MH 250 ballast?

[Ken2001]

The subject line says it all. I've got a 2X 250 MH Hamilton ballast. Yesterday, it appears that one of the ballasts went, so only one of the lights comes on. I replaced the bulb, but it still doesn't work. It appears the ballast has stopped working. The system is about 3.5 years old.

Any idea on how to repair this? Can I do this myself? Does anyone do this locally, or do I need to send it back to Hamilton?

Ken

[Sea Serpent]

Hi Ken,
Hamilton sells replacement ballasts, and I think you can do this yourself. Of course, they would want you to send it back to them to repair, but the shipping would cost a fortune - and if it is 3 1/2 years old then it is out of warranty.
The unassembled replacement ballast for the 250 MH comes with transformer and capacitor. The wiring doesn't look all that hard to do . .. and for $68.95 maybe it would be worth a try.

Hamilton replacement ballasts (http://www.hamiltontechnology.com/shop/index.php?shop=1&cart=34602&cat=6&keywords=&match_criteria=&rec=10&gonext=Next+Page)

Good luck - let us know how it turns out for you.

Paula

[tstone]

Ken open the box that holds the ballast and check all the connections to make sure they are good.

Check the connection at the socket also.

Is each ballast on a seperate switch? If so it could be a bad switch also.

Be sure to unplug the unit from the wall first.

Good luck

[Ken2001]

Thanks Paula/Marvin -- I guess I'll open it up tonight, and if I can't fix it, then I'll order the replacement ballast -- $70 sounds a lot better then the couple hundred I figured to buy a used system somewhere.

TStone, I remember a couple years ago when I had to open the ballast up to replace a switch that had gone bad -- I was fairly unimpressed with the wiring I saw inside the box -- not up to marine quality wiring by any means. However, on the flip side, as Paula points out, the wiring isn't that difficult to figure out, so if I just have to replace the ballast, it hopefully won't be too difficult.

I'll let you know how it works out.

Ken

[Ken2001]

OK, I just opened up the box that the ballasts are in -- not a pretty sight. I've said before that I'm not impressed with Hamilton's wiring job -- I'm much less so now!

The first thing I noticed when I took the housing off the ballast was that the underside was scorched. I looked at the wiring and found where the wiring had actually melted THROUGH THE WIRE! That's some kind of hot! Of course, the other wires and wire nuts surrounding this one were scorched as well. I guess the first thing I'll have to do is remove the damaged wire and rewire the entire thing to marine grade. Once that's done, and I hook it back together, I can find out whether the ballast itself is toast.

I'd say this baby is/was some kind of fire hazzard. Anyway, a question I have now is how long the entire reef can go without light. When will the corals start to suffer? It will likely be a couple of days before this is up and running again, assuming that only wiring needs to be done. If it turns out the ballast is bad, I could be down for a week or longer.

Ken

[Scott Merrill]

I have an ice cap you could use if you really need it. i have to send it in to get re-tuned for an HQI bulb. still haven't sent it in. i could wait a week if you need it.

[tstone]

Ken
If you want to borrow my 250 watt pendant your more than welcome. It has a 10K ushio that is about 4 months old.

I won't need it for a while, you would have to come and pick it up.

[Ken2001]

Scott & TStone,

Thanks very much for the offer! I'm going to attempt to rewire this in a couple of hours. If that's all it takes, then hopefully the lighting will be back up tonight. If this isn't successful, then I'll get in touch to borrow a light until the replacement ballast comes in.

I really appreciate both of your offers! This is what makes a reef club like ours great. Thanks a lot!

Ken

PS: Would you believe that I've got two 400 w MH plant lights in the basement, one of which is over a 29 gal tank. Unfortunately, they're too big to bring upstairs, because I can't stow them under the tank like my Hamilton, and I can't leave hot ballasts around where my two toddlers can get to them. I thought about moving the corals to the 29, but unfortunately, I can't keep the heat below the high 80s in that tank, and so can only keep Xenia (does nothing kill that stuff?) and zoos in there, since they seem to tolerate the heat fairly well.

[MrClean]

If you have to replace the ballast, may I suggest an electronic ballast from IceCap or HelloLights. Remove the coil and cap in your box and you should have plenty of room. Probably more than twice the cost but they run cooler/more efficiently, and the HelloLights one will run just about any lamp you throw at it.