Hey Dave there is a "10" and a "73" Stamped On the bottom of the Ballast....and i'll Add there is a Suspicious Looking Tar Stain on the Wires Entering one Side of the Ballast....as Well as a Tar Stain on top of the Ballast.
You ARE right Devonte, only the capacitor contains PCBs, at least in toxic enough amounts. I've heard tar may contain a small amount of PCBs, but nothing really dangerous. The cap is the nastiest part.
Why is Tar so Popular for Potting Fluorescent Ballasts?....why not use Epoxy Resin?.....also..why do our fluorescent Ballasts use Hardwired connections verses the Terminal Blocks of European Ballasts?.....and finally....is Thermal Protection useful at all cause sometimes it doesnt seen to Function very well.
- I guess tar used to seal batteries was also good to pot ballasts, makes the whole thing cheaper, both for batteries and ballasts.
- I think it is important to wire ballasts correctly. Europe mostly uses chokes, so you can wire any of both wire to hot. That doesn't apply to North America which uses autotransformers that must be wired in a certain way. Our chokes have spade connectors many times.
- Thermal protection is definitely not a reliable protection. It works 99% of the time, but sometimes the ballasts may run just below the tripping temperature, which is still as nasty.
My friend had an F40 Rapid start fixture in his garage with a thermal switch. I was there one night when that fixture started turning off & on due to overheating. We shut it off and pulled the cover but tar had already leaked all over the inside of the fixture. Maybe those thermal switches should trip at a lower temp?
I have a couple of fixtures where the ballast failed and spilled tar all over the ballast cover too.
As for protection I usually wire a inline fuse inline fuse rated close to what the ballast draws in series with the ballast on some of my older ballasts and on some ballasts that I frequently use even if they have a thermal switch.
I read that the tar potting is used to help dissipate heat better and to suppress ballast noise. I wonder if epoxy can be used as a potting compound like on some of those canned HPS ignitors.
This is a High Power Factor Ballast...do those Run Warmer than Low Power Factor Ones?.....afterall they do run the lamps at higher Current....also the Tar leak from the Ballast Smells Funny....
as long as the tar in hardened and not stickey it shouldn't contain a dangerous amount of PCBs. I wouldn't touch it without gloves on to see if it's stickey though. If it is stickey throw the fixture out as well as the gloves you used to touch to tar.
Will this run 34w lamps without overheating? Both my .8A ballasts (a GE BonusLine and a 1979 Advance Kool-Koil) are rated for them...
My GE BonusLine ballast in my rescued shoplight has lost some of it's tar (but contained in the ballast compartment) but it's solid and it's still pretty quiet, even on modified-sine-wave inverter electricity.
It was running 34w lamps when I got it but I didn't even try them on that ballast as I didn't want to risk it... running 34w lamps for the past fifteen years (oh did I mention I found out it was purchased like 15 years ago at a True Value store which explains the post-1995, pre-2003 GE Watt-Misers but the light itself likely sat on the shelf for a long time NOS). Seems okay running a pair of MainLighters and upside down uplighting the ceiling until I mount it...but is there a hazard that ballast will fail violently/should I remove it and replace it with something else to preserve it)?
Wouldn't use 34W lamps, note the label will usually say not certified for use with 34W
Probably not bad, if it really concerned you install an in-line fuse and make sure its suspended off anything if the ballast decided to go smokey/fireworks
Yeah, that works for me too! My rule of thumb is, when in doubt don't use 34w lamps. I have some and I'd use them in fixtures at room temperature and use them up, but only on a ballast that is certain to work with them...
even then i don't use them. I've never installed a 34W lamp. The only case i'd use them is if nothing else is available of if the ballast is electronic RS. And that's if it's not mine. If it's my fixture it's 40W lamps and that's final.
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- I think it is important to wire ballasts correctly. Europe mostly uses chokes, so you can wire any of both wire to hot. That doesn't apply to North America which uses autotransformers that must be wired in a certain way. Our chokes have spade connectors many times.
- Thermal protection is definitely not a reliable protection. It works 99% of the time, but sometimes the ballasts may run just below the tripping temperature, which is still as nasty.
As for protection I usually wire a inline fuse inline fuse rated close to what the ballast draws in series with the ballast on some of my older ballasts and on some ballasts that I frequently use even if they have a thermal switch.
I read that the tar potting is used to help dissipate heat better and to suppress ballast noise. I wonder if epoxy can be used as a potting compound like on some of those canned HPS ignitors.
My GE BonusLine ballast in my rescued shoplight has lost some of it's tar (but contained in the ballast compartment) but it's solid and it's still pretty quiet, even on modified-sine-wave inverter electricity.
It was running 34w lamps when I got it but I didn't even try them on that ballast as I didn't want to risk it... running 34w lamps for the past fifteen years (oh did I mention I found out it was purchased like 15 years ago at a True Value store which explains the post-1995, pre-2003 GE Watt-Misers but the light itself likely sat on the shelf for a long time NOS). Seems okay running a pair of MainLighters and upside down uplighting the ceiling until I mount it...but is there a hazard that ballast will fail violently/should I remove it and replace it with something else to preserve it)?
Probably not bad, if it really concerned you install an in-line fuse and make sure its suspended off anything if the ballast decided to go smokey/fireworks