Not the main electrolytic, though it was really close to blowing it's rubber seal, but one of the smaller green ( yes they were green although now very brown) mylar capacitors which blew out a hole in its side, and tripped the 10A mains breaker driving them.
Replaced with another Phillips Tornado, 23W this time
This was at work, breakers are mandatory for the last 40 years, the only places you find fuses are street poles, substations and houses that have had the same owner for more than 40 years and still have rewireable fuses in them. Earth leakage is also mandatory on all standard socket outlets too.
This one lasted over a year, so it did at least 3000 hours before death. Much better than the other Chr@p lamps. The tube still lights well, at least on the NST it does, 6kV makes any lamp an instant start unit........
Are they used 10 hours a day 5 days a week 50 weeks a year? Not a bad life for Chr@p light IMHO, at least they last longer than the 60W R63 downlighters they replace in the cieling.
It might well be failed tube => overloaded both electrolytic and film capacitors
overloaded capacitors => they blew up (electrolytic trigger it's vent - pushed the rubber seal out, the film capacitor overheated)
Capacitors blew up => shorted the DC bus behind the rectifier
Shored bus behind the rectifier => fusing tripped (in 120V versions with doubler this would not cause high enough current to trip fusing, but enough power dissipation to start fire)
The tube is working, tested on the NST and worked perfectly.......
I would guess ( havent checked fully) that one of the mtlar units went short circuit and blew the input bridge, before that the main reservoir was going open and increased ripple in the circuit which caused the extra heating.
"The tube is working, tested on the NST and worked perfectly......."
This showed only, then the tube has it's gaseous content, but not the health of electrodes, what is way more important here. If the emission mix is out, cathodes have large voltage drop and this is the cause of the inverter overload.
The tube got a new life in a 12V CFL lamp, as the old 3U lamp there would not start unless it was touched. Put this one in and it worked, instant start with just a small amount of red glow at the filaments for a second at start up. Run for a few minutes to test, and passed. Now have to get some water resistant & cheap inspection lights to put them in for camping with solar power.
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overloaded capacitors => they blew up (electrolytic trigger it's vent - pushed the rubber seal out, the film capacitor overheated)
Capacitors blew up => shorted the DC bus behind the rectifier
Shored bus behind the rectifier => fusing tripped (in 120V versions with doubler this would not cause high enough current to trip fusing, but enough power dissipation to start fire)
I would guess ( havent checked fully) that one of the mtlar units went short circuit and blew the input bridge, before that the main reservoir was going open and increased ripple in the circuit which caused the extra heating.
This showed only, then the tube has it's gaseous content, but not the health of electrodes, what is way more important here. If the emission mix is out, cathodes have large voltage drop and this is the cause of the inverter overload.