Flurescent Tube and Electronic Ballast Compatability

[flyingsparks]

I fitted some 6ft Philips TL-D Super 80 tubes to some fittings, which had Osram Quiktronic QT-Fit8 electronic ballasts. On fitting the tube the ballast popped and that was the end of it. Tried putting the old tubes back in (which were working before removing) and they were also dead. I tried three fittings and 9 tubes. None worked. I spoke to Phillips about compatability, but they were useless and couldn't tell me anything. Anyone had issues like this?

 

[333rocky333]

I fitted some 6ft Philips TL-D Super 80 tubes to some fittings, which had Osram Quiktronic QT-Fit8 electronic ballasts. On fitting the tube the ballast popped and that was the end of it. Tried putting the old tubes back in (which were working before removing) and they were also dead. I tried three fittings and 9 tubes. None worked. I spoke to Phillips about compatability, but they were useless and couldn't tell me anything. Anyone had issues like this?

At a quess, maybe the ballasts were on there last legs and the new tubes pushed them over the edge, was they powered up when you fitted the lamps, that could have adverse effects.
Maybe more so with multi watt lamp ballasts.

A few ballasts do shut down themselves and only reset if you power them off for a while.
6 foot tubes for some reason have always been temperamental, even in switch start days
Super 80 i'm sure are T8 lamps, so assuming the ballast is for a 70 w, then all should be good.
Always check the ballast though I have found incorrect ballasts inside fitted by other dubious engineers.

 

[flyingsparks]

Cheers Rocky. The fittings were live when changing the tubes, but I also powered off and tried re-starting to no avail. The fittings don't look that old, possibly 5 years or so, but they are on all day 6 days a week, so could just be the ballast are at the end of their life. Just frustrating when a simple re-lamping job could now become all new fittings job. Good for me, not so good for my customer!! The ballasts are also definitely original 70W.

 

[winston1]

I'd be pretty miffed if I was the customer.

But if the old tubes were working why were you changing them anyway.

 

[flyingsparks]

I'd be pretty miffed if I was the customer.

But if the old tubes were working why were you changing them anyway.

Only some tubes were still working - I was going to relamp the whole building at the same time.

 

[Deleted member 18243]

Replace the lot with LED batten fittings.

 

[flyingsparks]

UPDATE - today one of the fittings had both old tubes lit. I removed one tube, and as I did I heard a pop, and the fitting died. It was live at the time of removing. I have never had a ballast die on removal of a tube, let alone 6 fittings in total (differnet ages too) all do this. Seems very strange?! Any ideas?