Fixture Build Quality

[joe_347V]

I'm sure some clamshells have failed before.............................

[Mike]

When did I say the ballasts will never fail? Of course everything will stop working eventually...............

[joe_347V]

When did I say the ballasts will never fail? Of course everything will stop working eventually...............

You implied it over here......................

Those ballasts will keep running and running.....

[Mike]

i guess you could interperet it that way, but i was implying that the remote ballasts will last longer than internally ballast fixtures..... They will keep running and running a lot longer than the internally ballasted ones.

[joe_347V]

Depends on the fixture design too some integral ballasted lumes keep the ballast well coolled while others allow to ballast to overheat. Remember ballast life is often affected by heat.

[Mike]

Yep. Another example is that a 250w HPS medium fixture will LIKELY outlast a small 250w HPS fixture given that neither are defective.

[joe_347V]

Well 250w HPS was originally used in medium lumes first.

[Mike]

250w wasn't designed for small lumes liek you said. It's in a small sized lume to make it cheaper. I liek the older HPS fixtures. They seem to be far more reliable than themodern stuff. Same goes for the lamps.

[joe_347V]

The new low/no mercury HPS lamps also light in a more orange colour compared to the older lamps which were more golden yellow. Also the ignitors in older fixtures were arguably better built.

[Mike]

the newer ignitors have fewer pulses in them. The capacitors are also horrible in soem of the newer CWA ballasts.

[joe_347V]

Fewer Pulses?, I guess you mean the expected lifespan is shorter.

Caps in CWA ballasts seem to be hit or miss, I have a few that were decent but I've heard caps in newer ballasts that fail prematurely.

Also I split and moved the last few posts since it has NOTHING to do with rare earth elements.

[Mike]

yes. They're designed to give a lower number of pulses to start the lamp, meaning thet die sooner. the GE caps seem to be a problem since they stopped making them in their factories.

[joe_347V]

Lower no. pulses == lower expected lifespan.

GE caps I believe are outsourced now, but they should gotten a better company to make them but remember everything now is done based on cost and profit.  

[Mike]

yeah. The R2s seem to be the ones with the bad caps. NGrid doesn't change out <PLUG IN> ingitors, so GE still makes plenty ofprofits from them since NGrid buys GE fixtures and only GE fixtures.

[joe_347V]

A lot of places don't change ignitors nowadays....

It's too bad they didn't standardise ignitors like they did with fluorescent starters.