CF Light Blow Up...

sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
So I woke up this morning to a weird smell when I went downstairs. I took a look at my tank and noticed my actinics weren't on. One of the bulbs looked like it had caught fire or over heated. Has this happened to anyone before? The last thing I want to do is burn my house down. Thankfully it didn't really go anywhere but where the base of the bulb was, but again, it's a dark brown/black on part of the base. I know this isn't normal, but is this semi not out of the ordinary to happen?
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
splash guard installed? Could it have gotten wet while on and hot causing the glass to shatter?
What kind of lights do you have again?
 
sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
Ok, so I have a splash guard installed on the tank. It doesn't allow for ANY water to hit the lights what so ever. The lights didn't shatter... if I didn't lift my canopy up I wouldn't have seen any issue with the light. It was until I picked the canopy up I noticed the base has black/brown on it.
Yes, I bought the tank used with the ballasts... the only thing I bought new were the lights for them. The lights were purchased about 2 months ago and this is the only one that has blown up on me so far. *knock on wood*
GFCI outlets?
 
sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
Oh, so I looked up some information on google regarding a GFCI outlet. No, I do not have them hooked up to one of those. I have a "Tripp-Lite" box that I plug everything in... I'm assuming this might be good for it?
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparty059 http:///forum/thread/381182/cf-light-blow-up#post_3319084
Ok, so I have a splash guard installed on the tank. It doesn't allow for ANY water to hit the lights what so ever. The lights didn't shatter... if I didn't lift my canopy up I wouldn't have seen any issue with the light. It was until I picked the canopy up I noticed the base has black/brown on it.
Good to hear that there is not water getting on them. does it smell where the marks are? Have you smelled burnt electronics before?
Yes, I bought the tank used with the ballasts... the only thing I bought new were the lights for them. The lights were purchased about 2 months ago and this is the only one that has blown up on me so far. *knock on wood*
GFCI outlets?
Ground Fault Circut Interrupt I think is what it stands for. Have a hair dryer? Those test and reset buttons on the plug is where the GFCI is incorperated into the plug. On the outlet, the test and reset buttons are inbetween the 2 outlets.
edit: whatever outlet you have the surge protector plugged into, you need to swap it out with one of these:

edit2 : and this is my opinion here so take it for what its worth. Those tripp lite surge protectors are not really "protectors" at all. They seem to function more as a power strip of extra outlets and not protect anything at all. I worked with these things for over 2 years on one of my IT jobs and we had to replace more PCs plugged into these things than what seemed to be normal.
 
sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
Why would I need to do that if my Surge Protector already does that for me? Also, how exactly would I ground the lights? I have a green wire that runs from the lights to currently the floor... it has a metel ring on the bottom of it that looks like it should be put somewhere, but I have no clue where.
 
slice

slice

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparty059 http:///forum/thread/381182/cf-light-blow-up#post_3319092
Why would I need to do that if my Surge Protector already does that for me? Also, how exactly would I ground the lights? I have a green wire that runs from the lights to currently the floor... it has a metel ring on the bottom of it that looks like it should be put somewhere, but I have no clue where.
Green wires are generally your ground. I think you should study up on your basic electric wiring. While at it, search this forum for "GFCI" and read of it's importance.
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Monsinour http:///forum/thread/381182/cf-light-blow-up#post_3319088
edit2 : and this is my opinion here so take it for what its worth. Those tripp lite surge protectors are not really "protectors" at all. They seem to function more as a power strip of extra outlets and not protect anything at all. I worked with these things for over 2 years on one of my IT jobs and we had to replace more PCs plugged into these things than what seemed to be normal.
As I posted above, they are more power strips than surge protectors. You also need a GFCI to prevent against a fire. The outlets are like $15 at homerdepot and take a regular and phillips to install. Time invested to make the change, ~10 minutes, peace of mind after installation, priceless.
 
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