Any electricians on it there? Halide ballast issues.

[Velcro]

hi all. I’ve had this icecap 400 watt electronic ballast about two months. It was working perfectly until last week. The ballast’s circuit breaker started tripping randomly last week. It only trips when being used on the circuit that the rest of the tank is on. If I run an extension cord to a different circuit in the home it never trips.

What would be going on with the circuit most of my tank is in that would cause the ballast to trip it’s internal breaker? I don’t consider the circuit that the tank is on to be high load... it has about 5amps of draw showing in my apex when the heaters are on. Plus another 160 watts of t5, 55 watts of uv also on that circuit but not plugged into the breaker.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

hi all. I’ve had this icecap 400 watt electronic ballast about two months. It was working perfectly until last week. The ballast’s circuit breaker started tripping randomly last week. It only trips when being used on the circuit that the rest of the tank is on. If I run an extension cord to a different circuit in the home it never trips.

What would be going on with the circuit most of my tank is in that would cause the ballast to trip it’s internal breaker? I don’t consider the circuit that the tank is on to be high load... it has about 5amps of draw showing in my apex when the heaters are on. Plus another 160 watts of t5, 55 watts of uv also on that circuit but not plugged into the breaker.

Possibly high amp draw on start up. I have a strip outlet, the light on the on/off switch stays dim when exhaust fan on container 30' comes on, exhaust fan when running is 3.5amps. At start up a lot more amps. Hate to say plug halide on seperate outlet off apex.

 

[Velcro]

Possibly high amp draw on start up. I have a strip outlet, the light on the on/off switch stays dim when exhaust fan on container 30' comes on, exhaust fan when running is 3.5amps. At start up a lot more amps. Hate to say plug halide on seperate outlet off apex.

It typically trips when the bulb is fairly warmed up. Not right at startup. Forgot to include that.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

It typically trips when the bulb is fairly warmed up. Not right at startup. Forgot to include that.

But if on different circuit it's ok?

 

[Velcro]

But if on different outlet it's ok?

Yup. And jus let to restate this, it’s the breaker on the ballast not on the circuit panel that is tripping.

 

[khushtram]

You are overloading the breaker

 

[Velcro]

You are overloading the breaker

Overloading the circuit breaker of my home? And that is causing the halide ballast internal breaker to pop?

 

[khushtram]

Oh.. the internal ballast is tripping. Sorry didn’t realize that is what you meant. Your ballast is shot. You will need to replace it. That happened to mine not so long ago.

 

[Velcro]

Oh.. the internal ballast is tripping. Sorry didn’t realize that is what you meant. Your ballast is shot. You will need to replace it. That happened to mine not so long ago.

Yep, having a hard time getting it very clear that it’s the ballasts internal breaker . It only happens on the circuit that all my other equipment on. If I run it off a different home circuit it’s just fine.

 

[JoshH]

@Brew12 thoughts on Velcros issue?

Your circuit that your plugging the ballast into might be close to over loading and when the lights ramp up the incoming power might not be enough and the internal breaker senses the lack of power and trips, Just a wild guess though

 

[DCR]

My guess is that all of the loads on that circuit are creating low voltage at the ballast, which results in higher amperage through the ballast, and apparently enough to trip the breaker. Could still be a problem with the ballast as well, but that is why it does not happen on the unloaded circuit.

 

[Velcro]

My guess is that all of the loads on that circuit are creating low voltage at the ballast, which results in higher amperage through the ballast, and apparently enough to trip the breaker. Could still be a problem with the ballast as well, but that is why it does not happen on the unloaded circuit.

Is this something I might be able to measure with a kill a watt meter while my halide is plugged into it on the higher load circuit?

 

[DCR]

You could, although most electricians would probably prefer a quality multimeter. It may be difficult to measure the voltage at the ballast with a kill a watt meter.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Metal halide ballast only last for so long. Was this ballast new when bought , and how old is it?

 

[Velcro]

Metal halide ballast only last for so long. Was this ballast new when bought , and how old is it?

It’s two months old.

 

[TMB]

@Velcro,did you ever figure this out? I have a 2 month old Ice Cap 250/400w watt ballast (running on 250 HQI) that has recently started tripping the internal breaker when warm. I have a hard time believing that the it is being overloaded on the 250 watt setting, but who knows. Wondering if you replaced yours? Or did you move it permanently to another outlet? I might try moving mine today.

 

[Velcro]

@Velcro,did you ever figure this out? I have a 2 month old Ice Cap 250/400w watt ballast (running on 250 HQI) that has recently started tripping the internal breaker when warm. I have a hard time believing that the it is being overloaded on the 250 watt setting, but who knows. Wondering if you replaced yours? Or did you move it permanently to another outlet? I might try moving mine today.

They sent a replacement, which did the same thing. I put a fan on it which seemed to fix the issue. This ballast gets super hot.

I replaced the radium with a 1000w 14,000k bulb with a dimmable 1000w ballast set to 600w. Runs smooth as can be with great color and about 50% more par.