this is the one i got at the same restore where rick shield and i got the nos philips bulbs. the ballasts are dated 1958. i had to replace the dry rotten cord and one starter and now this old guy is back in business! the ballasts only got slightly warm.
awesome! What brand are the ballasts? are all preheat ballasts lead-lag? when the lead lamp dies does that mean the lag one goes out too like in slimlines? i know some preheater have both starters totally isolated from the ballast and one style has one starter isolated and one in between the lamp and ballast?
guys i put in random modern tubes to test the ballasts. don't wanna blow out good stuff lol. the 4 tubes here are philips alto cool white supreme, cool white, ge ecolux SP35, and philips alto neutral deluxe. will put in good stuff when i hang this up.
the ballasts are advance ad-lites which look to be in good health. no leaks and quiet operation. just dusty thats all. i didn't look at all the starters so i don't know the make, but the one i replaced was a GE FS-4.
as for ballast type, all high power 2 lamp preheat ballasts i know of are lead-lag. the lamps operate in parallel, so if one burns out or is removed the other stays lit. series preheat ballasts seem to be more of an european thing.
Cool, I guess you could even use cheap, modern lamps in here and save the old stuff like Westy blackenders, GE Mainlighters, Sylvania Lifelines, and Norelco tubes. IMO having Altos and Ecoluxes in here is sorta realistic since a light like this "in the wild" would probably have stuff like Altos by now...
Awesome fixture though! Can we have an "off" pic?
@mike, the first link is the standard connection for a high power factor tulamp style ballast. the second link shows a 2 lamp normal power factor ballast, which really is two chokes inside a common casing. so it is wired the same way as a single lamp system, just instead its a 2 lamp system.
@gesoftwhite, i will be hanging it up prolly tonite. so i will have an off pic then.
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the ballasts are advance ad-lites which look to be in good health. no leaks and quiet operation. just dusty thats all. i didn't look at all the starters so i don't know the make, but the one i replaced was a GE FS-4.
as for ballast type, all high power 2 lamp preheat ballasts i know of are lead-lag. the lamps operate in parallel, so if one burns out or is removed the other stays lit. series preheat ballasts seem to be more of an european thing.
Awesome fixture though! Can we have an "off" pic?
@gesoftwhite, i will be hanging it up prolly tonite. so i will have an off pic then.