My customer bought about 60 track light heads about 2 years
ago. They are Lightolier 851WH, 12V 50W for MR16 lamps. Not
exactly the cheapos either. The ballasts inside are made by
BplusL industries in quebec.
There have been an unusual number of ballast failures, a 10%
failure rate in 24 months. The fixtures are in a retail
store mixed with many other different makes of track
lighting, some are the cheap made in china types.
It is only the Lightolier fixtures that are failing.
I phoned the ballast manufacturer because I wanted
to buy replacements direct. They wont sell to me because
they are not UL or CSA approved for sale separately.
They suggested that the ballasts fail because the customer
must be using "cheap lamps". They are saying that the cheap
lamps have inconsistent temperatures in the lamp filaments
and this causes the resistance of the lamp to rise. This in
turn causes the ballast to run at a higher output voltage
that will ruin it. Looking at the ballast circuitry there
pair of transistors (motorola BUH 50 specifically designed
for 50W 12 lamps) to create an oscillator that drives a
small toroidal transformer. I have not examined the
circuitry to determine whether the story the ballast people
told me would be realistic. I am not an expert at
electronics either.
Does this sound like a snow job? I know the customer well
and they say that they do not use the so called cheap lamps.
Is there any validity to this story?
Is there anywhere that I can buy some inexpensive
replacement ballasts?
This sounds like poor engineering to me. Shouldnt a ballast
be designed to operate any quality of lamp?
Len Morrents
Canada
To e-mail me, remove all of the sevens from my address.
Chris
ago. They are Lightolier 851WH, 12V 50W for MR16 lamps. Not
exactly the cheapos either. The ballasts inside are made by
BplusL industries in quebec.
There have been an unusual number of ballast failures, a 10%
failure rate in 24 months. The fixtures are in a retail
store mixed with many other different makes of track
lighting, some are the cheap made in china types.
It is only the Lightolier fixtures that are failing.
I phoned the ballast manufacturer because I wanted
to buy replacements direct. They wont sell to me because
they are not UL or CSA approved for sale separately.
They suggested that the ballasts fail because the customer
must be using "cheap lamps". They are saying that the cheap
lamps have inconsistent temperatures in the lamp filaments
and this causes the resistance of the lamp to rise. This in
turn causes the ballast to run at a higher output voltage
that will ruin it. Looking at the ballast circuitry there
pair of transistors (motorola BUH 50 specifically designed
for 50W 12 lamps) to create an oscillator that drives a
small toroidal transformer. I have not examined the
circuitry to determine whether the story the ballast people
told me would be realistic. I am not an expert at
electronics either.
Does this sound like a snow job? I know the customer well
and they say that they do not use the so called cheap lamps.
Is there any validity to this story?
Is there anywhere that I can buy some inexpensive
replacement ballasts?
This sounds like poor engineering to me. Shouldnt a ballast
be designed to operate any quality of lamp?
Len Morrents
Canada
To e-mail me, remove all of the sevens from my address.
Chris