Burned Electrical Cord On Ballast

[Black Lab]

I noticed a ballast was running a little hot. It's a 1000 watt Phantom dimmable digital ballast. I couldn't hold my hand against the side of the ballast and the electric cord plug at the ballast end was too hot to hold. I checked at the other end where cord is plugged into wall receptacle and it was cool to the touch. I could smell a little of the burnt acrid smell of electric running too hot at the ballast. I turned ballast down to 600 watt and that seemed to cool it down. I put it back up to 1000 watts after it cooled. This morning I came down to check garden and light was out. The electric cord at the ballast melted and shorted out. Ballast is about 4-5 years old. It's a 20 amp circuit with a 1000 watt light and three 6" can fans running off that circuit. I don't want to burn the place down. Any ideas about what happened to cause cord to burn out?

 

[Toaster79]

A faulty ballast obviously :banghead:

 

[Black Lab]

A faulty ballast obviously :banghead:

I suppose. I've never had one fail before and didn't know if this is just a normal occurrence. I admit I'm a little paranoid about causing an electric fire.

 

[Hookup]

5 years is a pretty good run,get a new one.When i was running normal ballasts i had pretty good luck with solis teks and quantums before that,never ran a phantom.

 

[Toaster79]

I suppose. I've never had one fail before and didn't know if this is just a normal occurrence. I admit I'm a little paranoid about causing an electric fire.

If you're running more of those I'd swap them all before they crap on you. Looks like they've seen their days and one of the components falied and the same will fail with others. Most likely a dried out capacitor rated for 85°C instead of 105°C. I'd open up the broken one and take some shots of the failed part section.

 

[Savage Henry]

I'd open up the broken one and take some shots of the failed part section.

Unless the sucker is still under warranty.

 

[Black Lab]

Thanks, for your advice. It's been a few years, I'll replace them both. I don't imagine they're under warranty at this point. Anybody ever see one catch fire?

 

[Black Lab]

Maybe I will reconfigure and switch over to the 750 Gavita instead of 1000 watt HPS. I've been thinking about it. I have a back up 600 watt digital I can use to finish up what I have for now. It's time to replace a lot of what I've been using.

 

[Cali clouds]

I have had a few quantum's take a shit over the years I have been in the room twice when they have popped and those things are loud like something explodes in there. The quantum's are completely sealed in some kind of electrical mud/putty crap and you really can't rip them apart. I also had one that had a shitty connection where the cord plugs in and it started melting the cord plug. I replaced the cord and the ballast has continued to work so far. I have been raplacing everything with d/e's as they go out now. Grow safe don't burn no shit down