Exploding Lumatek ballast

[Guest Zilla]

I have a misbehaving Lumatek 400w ballast {which represents 33% of my light source}...On Friday, 3 days ago, it was not lit.

I could not get any replacement ballast locally, and my other two are Maxibright.

I'm not sure how old it is, possibly 3 years[?] I should have made a note.... but then it switched itself on.

Perhaps my Guardian Angel was looking over me, as at 1am, /I had the urge to go downstairs and check.
Lamp was lit, and then, when my back was turned,  I heard 'Phut!'..... 'PHUTTT' and noticed the lamp start to fade and smoke come from the Ballast.

My goodness....never ever have had anything like this happen before...I unplugged it, and it was almost too hot to handle... I carried it out to back garden, and left it out under a bucket,.

It stinks. Horribly.

Hopefully replacement ballast will come later on today, but I am naturally concerned about why this happened?

Fire is my biggest dread, and it hasn't appeared to  have blown {touch wood} any fuses. 

Maybe the ''Phut'' I heard was the fuse in the plug blowing.

a few  years ago I had help from a wonderful site called ''Hennepdesk''... [2012]..but I am strictly smalltime.

Many thanks in advance, Zilla.

[Guest Zilla]

The Mystery of the smoking ballast is still just that...
However, a lovely new Maxibright 400w arrived this morning, so have light again in that 'corner'.
I was concerned that the bulb{ HPS son-t-plus may have been damaged}...but so far it appears ok. {only 8 weeks old}


The local shop I bought the Lumatek off say they will accept it back, and see if there is any warranty left on it...but as with so many things, receipts/boxes are not kept..

They too are curious as to what went wrong.







 

[bigun 6,518]

I can give u GooD advice.

Get a spare of everything u need.

Exhaust fans,bulbs,oscillating  fan, and ofcourse ballasts.if u grow in an outside room in cold climate a heater..