smoked my lumatek ballast

[shahomy]

well, at least part of it...it will run on 120vac(is right now), but not on 240vac any longer. It`s a 1000w ballast with "ice pack " fan on it. I added a 2nd 1000w ballast, hood/hps lite to my flowering room and added a drying/harvesting room to my setup. I installed 240vac for the ballasts(was only running one on 240vac, because i only had one 240vac power cord) on a control panel i built. Some 120vac outlets,BET-1 Blueprint 120vac timer, 3 Blueprint fan speed controls, 240vac fused safety switch/box, and another box with a large Potter&Brumfield 120vac 30amp motor starter relay.(relay contacts carry the 220vac and the timer turns relay on/off...12 on 12 off.

This all worked great for the last week...till i grabbed a wire to staple it to the side of a 2x4, and i hear click click.. click click about 5 or 6 times...it`s the relay turning on and off...a bad crimp in a outlet supplying power to the timer was making intermittent contact as i moved the wire. So i shut the breaker off and repaired the connection and turned everything back on...waited and waited but lite never came back on...followed all the instructions for resetting the ballast, all to no avail...,even waited hours, in case it was a thermal issue, still no go....hooked up the 120vac cord and it works...tried the 220vac cord on my other ballast and it works(so it`s not my power cord).
There`s only one power cord input on these things so they apparently sense electronically whether there being fed 120 or 240vac.
So is it a bad ballast or are these things susceptible to voltage spikes(maybe from being turned on and off quickly and repeatedly?)
Anyway, moral of the story? ...don`t know...be careful? don`t buy lumatek?
Yeah, just thought i`d share this experience...Peace!

 

[fellowsped]

That is weird probably being turned on and off like that burned something out internally is it still under warranty, if not is there any reason you don't want to just run it off 120v from now on?

 

[7greeneyes]

that sucks man!

still lovin my ole school mag ballast...lol...

 

[Hushpuppy]

Well the Lumatek is not the problem here. The quick cycling of the 240v on and off created high voltage spikes on the sensing circuit in rapid succession which caused it to burn out. It wouldn't have mattered who the manufacturer was, on that type of circuit sensor, it can't handle the rapid and repeated spikes. It can handle 1-2 spikes but 3 or more is likely to kill it. Luckily for you in one sense and unlucky in another, the default setting for those is the 120v rather than 240v. The luckily part is that there is a hard-wired default switch position or you would have lost both sides.

I can't remember if that ballast is encased in resin or if it is open circuits for cooling. If it is open circuit then it can be repaired. I would contact Lumatek and ask them about it.

 

[lovbnstoned]

nice system,, hope to have something close to that some day

 

[shahomy]

nice system,, hope to have something close to that some day

Thanks! It`s getting bigger and better at the moment!