The bathroom in my apartment takes fluorescent tubes. THe day before yesterday the tubes started to flicker when turned on, and eventually they went dim, I replaced them and after a couple of uses the tubes did the same thing. I called maintenance who came in, looked at it, and replaced them. He said that often times, the tubes simply go bad before they ever get a chance to install them. Sure enough, the damn cycle is repeating.
I’d try replacing the ballast. Normally, fluorescent tubes are highly reliable, and if you have repeated failures in a single fixture, the ballast is the most likely culprit.
QED is right. In my expierience one of the symptoms of a bad ballast is that it will make a brand new tube burn out in a matter of days or even hours. If your handy with home electrics, you can change it your self. It takes about 10 mins start to finish. (Not counting the part where you sit at the hardware store trying to figure out which one you need)
Nah, you don’t need a website. First, pull off tube(s) and remove the plate underneath. Depending on the type of fixture, this will either pry off, need a couple screws pulled or simply slide off. look for the ballast number on the label of the ballast, and take that to a lighting shop or a home improvement store, and get the new unit. Just follow the wiring of the old one, it’s very straightforward. Do be sure the power is off to the fixture prior to doing any wiring.
When you pull the fluro tube out you can see the ballast right there in the fitting. It’s an end-on cylinder, poking out a little from the fitting, handily fitted with knurling for easier grip. A quarter-turn and you can pull it right out with your fingers. Buy a new one from the hardware store, fit and you are done.
Here’s a trick my dad taught me that has always made changing ballasts easier. When your ready to start (ie lights off, ballast has been accessed, POWER HAS BEEN TURNED OFF) Cut the wires after the wire nut on the “wall side.” Hmm that doesn’t make sense. To expand. (This assumes that the ballast is wired in with wire nuts, they arn’t always like this). Anyways what I mean is that when you’re done you’ll have a bunch of wires hanging down. At the end of each one will be a wire nut and then a few inches of another wire (the one that went into the ballast). This way you can take the old ballast out, screw the new one in and it makes wiring easier. Grab one of the wires hanging down. Take off the wire nut, notice the color or wire that was attached to it, and attach a similar color wire from the new ballast to it. (Still not sure if that makes any sense.) Honestly though it’s not that hard. Just pay attention, label wires if you need to, be careful. And don’t be intimidated, there’s alot of wires up there. Also two more things. Either bring the old ballast with you to the hardware store to buy a new one or write down any info you need (ie FOR TWO T72 or FOUR T36 RAPID START BULBS or something to that nature.) Also sometimes it helps to know the color of the wires coming out of it. ie two white, one black, two blue and a yellow or something to that extent. One more thing. Either leave the switch off for a couple of hours or were a glove, the ballast will be hot (and heavy for that matter). Probably not hot enough to burn you, but it very uncomfortably hot.
No, sir. That is the starter, which is used to switch the heating filaments on to vaporize the mercuyry, then turns them off when the lamp starts. The ballast is inside the fixture, and is a long, rectangular boxlike assembly with four or five wires running from it (four for a single-tube fixture, five for a double-tube fixture).