Beautiful full power ballast here! i have to identical ballasts (two identical fixtures at that too). so i have three full-power universal thermomatic ballasts altogether. these two are rated for energy saving lamps though and work well with them, considering one of them has a pair of red etched 34W GEs, which i'm guessing are the original lamps to the fixtures.
yep! I'll have to settle for a clear picture though since the ballast is too large for the scanner cover to close enough to allow the label to be scanned.
Nice, is your 1973 Universal rated for the energy saver tubes? If not, it'll help me date mine as after 1973...
This is identical to mine (which is lit as I type)
nope, on my 1973 ballast the yellow strip at the bottom says "REPLACEMENT BALLAST SHALL BE ONLY OF THE...". why not just check the back of your ballast? the letter is the month (i is dropped jsut like with the philips lamps) and the two digit number is the last two digits of the year. These were K77 so Oct. '77.
It's saying to replace it with only a Class P (thermally protected) ballast. I don't have a nut driver to remove my ballast and honestly I'm worried about screwing it up without the right tools...but mine is from the same era/label design as the one pictured above...
i always use either that or i get lazy and use pliers as an adjustable wrench lol. either one works. my restored 1973 shoplite has a quicknut to hold the ballast but the two 1977 fixtures use a philips head screw. i was glad the electronic ballasts are the same length as magnetic ones since i really didn't want to tap a new hole in the fixture.
Yeah, T8 ballasts being different sizes than the magnetic RS bricks we think of when we hear "Ballast" can be tricky...I want to find some T8 ballasts with the same length myself for a project...
BTW I can't stress enough how much I love Universal ballasts and Norelco F40s...along with Advance Kool-Koil and GE Bonusline ballasts and GE, Westy, and sylvania vintage tubes...
Most decent quality T8 ballasts (Advance, Universal, GE, Sylvania) are the same length as a traditional HPF RS ballast. The newer T8 ballasts have a smaller cross section but I have a older T8 ballast that's the same size as a T12 ballast.
Yeah the commercial grade GE ballasts at HD were skinny but the residential grade ones (like the one i bought) were a bit wider, though not quiteas large as the hefty RS ballast it replaced. I was thinking... wouldn't it be cool if they made electronic preheat ballasts? still with external starters, obviously, but with electronic internals? i know it'd be poorer quality than a good old magnetic one but at least it'd give PH a new life...
I don't think they would make that but some preheat ballasts had built in electronic starters and Advance also had a line of rapid start ballasts under the Powr-Kut name which had a electronic circuit to cut out the cathode heaters after starting to save energy.
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This is identical to mine (which is lit as I type)
BTW I can't stress enough how much I love Universal ballasts and Norelco F40s...along with Advance Kool-Koil and GE Bonusline ballasts and GE, Westy, and sylvania vintage tubes...