How many of you cool your ballast(s)?

[eddi]

I have 4 250W Cooltouch ballasts, over the weekend a capacitor in two of them has failed.  At least I think it is the capacitor; back in January I had another fail and that is what it was.  If that is truly the case, three out of four have now failed.  Today I called them to order replacements and Kim informed me that all ballasts should be cooled by a fan to avoid the capacitors from failing.  

 

Never mind that my ballasts are in the open with several inches in between each of them.  Never mond that the capacitor has a label on it that says it can stand up to 100 degreed celsius.

 

Am I the only one that does not have a fan cooling my ballasts?

[Lee Stearns]

Eddi,

I have blueline E-ballasts running 250 HQIs and they are only barely warm to the touch- I do not recall any requirement to cool them further- If the cases are barely warm I would not think that you could get much cooling effieciency from running a fan on them.

I wonder whether you can replace just the capacitors- if that is what burned out on them. But I am not that much of an electronics guy- Xeon seems pretty competent at this stuff, you might PM him.

Regards,

Lee

[michaelg]

I don't have a fan on any of mine.  Never had a capacitor blow either.

Michael

[eddi]

Lee,

 

You can replace just the capacitors, that is what I did last time.  The ballasts themselves are fairly hot to the touch but that should not explain why three out of four capacitors have now failed.  I guess the ones they use are just plain cheap.

 

The problem is that I have not been able to find them locally so I am stuck ordering them.  Since it is me and we all know my luck, Cooltouch lighting is moving today and they can't ship them until tomorrow which means it will be Wednesday evening before I will be able to replace them.

[krish]

Eddi,

I cool my home made dual 250W probe start ones.

I have a fan that runs and has air compressed inside the chamber.

 

At the very least, i would get some holes drilled on the top of the enclosure.

-krish

[xeon]

Eddi,

Try e-mailing this guy, he may be able to sell you a cap.  goofinof@aol.com  I believe he works for or used to work for a wholesale lighting supply company... just tell him you are a reefer and give him the specs off of your cap.  He is in Florida though.  Local suppliers generally won't sell them for whatever reason, especially if you don't know exactly what you are in need of.    

 

I find that kind of funny if Cool Touch said the 400W needs a fan or *all need a fan... I thought their claim to fame was their better heat disipation and higher heat sink fin height than *wink wink* "the other guy".  In all honesty the caps may very well be the same as the other guy, since they probably use the same ballast manufacturer to begin with.  I'm not sure where I'm going with this point... its Monday.    Maybe Kim made a mistake with an on the spot Customer Service move to give you an answer... even if it was wrong.  

 

Caps can be damaged by high heat (the dielectrics specifically), I think the two general specs in this range are 85C and 105C.  I honestly do not know what temps one would expect inside of the ballast box with one ballast encased.  You might do a little science experiment if you get three more caps.  Fan cool two of them and leave the other two in their nifty heat sinked boxes on their own.  

 

Either way I'm not sure I'd let Cool Touch off of the hook easily.  Either they are using sub-par components or they need some redesign of thier 400W boxes to dissipate heat more efficiently.  I think I read your sarcasm loud and clear, I do not cool my ballasts with fans and have had zero failures.  I doubt my temps approach or exceed 220F or whatever my caps are spec'd for.

[eddi]

Dave, thanks for the e-mail address but I went ahead and ordered 5 through Cooltouch.  I have a feeling I will eventually need them all.  I actually found a local shop that sells capacitors, but not for MH ballasts.

 

Replacing a capacitor in a proble start ballast was easy, there was plenty of room.  Doing the same in a pulse start one is a whole another story, everything is crammed together very tightly.

 

 

Krish, you cool yours?  There is always one!   I guess I am going to have start doing the same.