Fixture Build Quality

[Mike]

I thought all ignitors did have the same receptacle.

[joe_347V]

They don't and plus ignitors aren't even electrically compatible between ballast brands. 

[Mike]

Don't all ignitors of the same lamp wattage deliver the same voltage to the lamp though? (Except 100V vs 55v)

[joe_347V]

No the three wire ignitors are designed for use on their specified ballasts only since they use part of ballast to step up the pulse. Since they are designed as a matched pair ignitor strengths may vary and you'll risk putting a weak ignitor with a weak ballast....etc. It's usually not good for the ballast or ignitor to mismatch them.

Two wire ignitors are a different story though, as long as you disable the original ignitor two wire ignitors can be mixed.

[Mike]

what's more common: 2 or 3 wire?

[joe_347V]

3 Wire by a lot very few ignitors are two wire.

[Mike]

The Cooper HPS light Niall is getting has a red wire, white, and blue wire ignitor...

[joe_347V]

All of my HPS ballasts use three wire ignitors.

[Mike]

That light was my only HPS light. However, my PSMH wall mount light has a 3 wire ignitor as well.

[joe_347V]

My PSMH ballasts use three wire ignitors too.

[Mike]

My ignitor fixtures are off brand ignitors. (They're enclosed in a tubular plastic case and have the wires popping out the top.

[joe_347V]

My ignitors generally match the brand of the ballast in this case: Advance, Venture, Sola, and the ever popular Caster cube ignitors.

[Mike]

Cooper uses the cube style too. o_O

[joe_347V]

The Caster ones are sorta infamous here for the quality (or lack of).

[Mike]

I've heard some bad things about Caster's quality......