Im guessing the ballast is sealed to prevent electrocution or water damage.
usually you can just unscrew them and they pop off. but that one melted it self shut
Im guessing the ballast is sealed to prevent electrocution or water damage.
usually you can just unscrew them and they pop off. but that one melted it self shut
Well i have no clue what a ballast is, and hopefull i never have to find out. Can i buy you a coke. Do you want to borrow a light?
Smile it can only go up, or not
Michelle
haha wow man, im glad it wasnt worse. I would not use that ballast again, for the cost of another single light eballast it isnt worth the risk.
On the bright side, we had the same kind of thing happen on a submarine recently, except the power cable on the sub was a hull penetrator, carries 290V at 60AMPS and when saltwater invades that, electolysis splits it into hydrogen and oxygen, that is until the hydrogen pocket grows big enough, then it arcs, detonates the hydrogen, blows the connector apart, and the pressure hull is compromised.
anyway. THAT was a bad day. and a lot of forensic engineering to find the culprit. I am glad your house will be ok and you caught the problem in time. Also, I like your idea of a smoke detector wired like a "water on the floor" detector. interesting...
That really sucks Jenn. At least you were home. A fire would've been the last thing you need around the holidays.
I've got a couple 175w Hamilton magnetic ballasts you can have if you want.
Sorry about the ballast, the upside is that you were there before it could do damage to something other than itself.
My grrr moment yesterday was while feeding I could not find one of my clowns and my 3 yr old was looking for it also. Later on I looked behind the tank and there it was, so had to run out and get a replacement for it so my son can stop looking for it.
Gee, that's too bad. Remember, look on the sunny side... In all reality this is something fixable and small and could have been a lot worse.
You should be out drinking and celebrating. I'll get started for you.
I'm surprised your surge protector didn't trip.
did you have that ballast on a gfi, and it didn't trip?
Hi Jennifer
I am really glad you were home and not out on errands.
We were leaving for Aruba last year at 4:30 AM and smelt smoke at 3:30 AM it was a power strip melting, thank goodness we were home and not away.
PS 250W blue wave brand new in box if your looking.
Barry
Sorry to hear about the hassle but glad you were home to catch it. Hope your starting to feel warm & fuzzy!
I had a T5 ballast get corroded on the inside and it ended up frying. Thankfully I had one of those plugin GFI's and it tripped that before it it could do any damage to anything else. Glad everything is ok for you!
Jason
Glad everything is ok Jenn.....Great spirit in going to do other DIY projects.
wow i have never seen the melt them selves shut before.. thats crazy. its a damn good thing you were home... now that its broken we need to figure out how to prevent this from happening again. how did the salt water get to it to corrode it?