No luck with Universal fluorescent ballasts?

[Vince]

Today I've got two Universal Therm-O-Matic rapid start ballasts and as usual when I got back home I tested them. One of them literally turned into fireworks xD. It read 130 ohm on the primary coil, was pretty weird (average is 15-16) but I still decided to give it a try. Well a large yellow flame blew out of the casing and sparks flew everywhere as well.

The second one started properly, but it has a ground fault...

So I was wondering, is it me or Universal ballasts (especially the 446 series) are prone to failure after 30 to 40 years of use? I've got a bunch of WAY older CGE ballasts that still work! Even Philips ballasts seem to be more durable... Maybe I'm just unlucky with Universals too LOL.

[Mike]

Hmm. You're scareing me now Vince! I have a thermomatic in my reflector strip light here! Please tell me that's not the style you're talking about!

[A_lights]

Well any magnetic ballast can fail this way, even if its thermal protected, so yeah i don't understand the CFLbballast scare
Never had one do anything like what Vince descried but i did have an LOA ballast i modified go up in smoke, i videod whole thing and left it to completely smoke out outside while plugged in

[Jace the Gull]

Well any magnetic ballast can fail this way, even if its thermal protected, so yeah i don't understand the CFLbballast scare
Never had one do anything like what Vince descried but i did have an LOA ballast i modified go up in smoke, i videod whole thing and left it to completely smoke out outside while plugged in

show us the video!

[A_lights]

Its on YouTube under Alights7

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

I have a .8 amp Therm-O-Matic in one of my two "Old School" (since they came from the original 1970s wing of my school) fixtures.  It buzzes loudly for about ten minutes till it warms up, sometimes sounding like an old mercury vapor yard light at first! :shock:. Then it suddenly dies down to a quiet hum.
But mine works fine...