Ok fella's, here's the skinny

Bought this Hamilton Technology 1000w Metal Halide setup from my sister, complete with a spare bulb. Both bulbs (GE 1000 and Sunlux Ultra Ace 940) were succesfuly tested prior to my purchase. The ballast looks a bit old, there are some small rust spots on the case. She had used it for about 4 weeks and then had it stored in her garage(not sure how long).

I set it up here and it worked great for an hour, but now won't fire either bulb. When I pop in the Sunlux the ballast makes a loud clicking noise.

The nice folks at Hamilton tell me it might be the capacitor, which only costs $33 from them. Any thoughts? Can I fit the ballast with a different brand capacitor of the same wattage?

I'm long winded, I know. The ganj gets me paranoid.

-Opera

If the capacitor has gone south that could very well be the issue. Stop trying to fire lamps with it before you damage the lamps!

On several sites you can find ballast rebuild kits, and that would be the way to go. IMO use the best materials you can find, as you depend on this ballast to do it's job, day after day.

ISO

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I would go with with ISO said. Good advice friend.

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What I freely have been given let me freely share

So I should rebuild the entire ballast and not just get a new capacitor? The poor man weeps!

You know, with it "popping" as you said, it could also very well be the igniter.

What brand of ballast is it? Model #?

There are several good sources for parts...replacing them in the ballast is not rocket science, but must be done correctly...there's a LOT of that damn juice running through those wires..

Try HERE for parts.

ISO

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It's a Hamilton Technology Corp. ballast. Seen here

-Opera

Can't believe I didn't mention this before. The Sunlux is an HPS conversion lamp.

-Opera

Looks like a good basic magnetic ballast...easy to work on, too. My money is still on the igniter...but without expensive test gear you'll have to change it out to find out. It's also the lower cost of the items that could be the issue.

ISO

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Well, since it's Metal Halide, there is no igniter. The only parts to a MH ballast are the capacitor and core, igniters are for HPS and pulse start MH. I'm not sure if a core will even go bad, its a big electromagnet. We will see, I'm going to give the company another call tomorrow.

-Opera

Interesting...I've seen many a digital igniter in my HPS ballasts...never thought about a MH that didn't use one.

ISO

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Indeed, here is a picture of the ballast.

As you can see, there is surface rust on the core, but I'm not sure if that matters with a big 'ol hunk of iron.

Attached Images

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Change the capacitor...and if there are no burn spots on the magnetic coils you should be good to go.

I've always run HPS ballasts (or switchable) and never considerd there was not an igniter for 1000w MH.

If you can afford it, change the whole package. Those coils look nasty to me...but then again I'm a picky bastard with a "well-managed" obsession to keep equipment clean and tidy.

ISO

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I will be ordering the new capacitor on monday. We'll see what happens!

-Opera

Well, the capacitor is due to get in on Thursday.

Some advice, NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM KALYX.COM!!! The guy that runs the site is a total jerk. He was very rude to me over the phone and in emails (I was having a problem with his billing system). After 4 days of my item not being shipped, I asked for a refund. Not 2 hours after my refund email (which never got a reply) , I got a shipping confirmation. This guy is a scammer, I hope I get the correct item.

-Opera

The new capacitor didn't fix the problem with the ballast. I'm going to break out the electrical tester tonight and track diwn the source of the problem. I'll probably end up buying a replacement kit from htgsupply.com (should have done that in the first place).

-Opera