Icecap halide ballasts- 3 gone bad in 6 months?

[Llemonz]

Anyone else use these? I bought 3 back in November. The first one went bad in the first two months. Coralvue replaced it, but I had to ship back the one that went bad.. two months later, a second one went bad- would only stay on at 250/ 250sl mode, 400w’s and it would turn off within 5 minutes.

Now 2 months later.. and the third one has gone bad. Won’t even fire the halide. Tried to put another known to be working halide in the fixture, ballast would fire, so it’s definitely the ballast

Any ideas on what is the problem? Making me consider switching to another brand of ballast now. 3 ballasts going bad in 6 months is not acceptable at all. Only thing I can guess is since I bought them at the same time is that there may have been a defect in that bunch?

 

[NeedMoreReef]

similar thing happened to me with 2/3 lights going bad weeks apart (within warranty period) original plus replacements all doing fine years later.
Yes, issue during production.

 

[Llemonz]

similar thing happened to me with 2/3 lights going bad weeks apart (within warranty period) original plus replacements all doing fine years later.
Yes, issue during production.

That’s some relief. Waiting to give coralvue a call in a bit to get the (hopefully) last one replaced of the original 3

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Man the old Icecap ballasts lasted forever. Really wish I still had them.

 

[Llemonz]

Man the old Icecap ballasts lasted forever. Really wish I still had them.

That’s why I went with icecap in the first place.. remembering how good they used to be. Obviously not the case anymore

 

[Llemonz]

Man the old Icecap ballasts lasted forever. Really wish I still had them.

Any recommendation on a good new ballast?

Have replaced all 3 icecap ballasts now. And now one of the replacements has gone bad...

 

[A. grandis]

First time I've heard about the new IceCap failing like that!
Thanks for sharing! Sorry for your trouble.
I would try Hamilton then!
https://hamiltontechnology.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=25_108

 

[Tennsquire]

Man the old Icecap ballasts lasted forever. Really wish I still had them.

I have a pair of IceCap ballasts that I've had for years, and they've had no issues whatsoever.

 

[Bpb]

I seem to be reading this a lot about Icecaps. I haven’t used them personally. I run hamilton m58’s. Big giant heavy blocks.

 

[eyecandyaddict]

Use an ansi code m59 magnetic ballast mine have been running without Skipping a beat for 20 years...can't beat that plus you get more light and run the bulbs at the correct wattage which is not the case for most electronic ballast.

 

[Bpb]

Use an ansi code m59 magnetic ballast mine have been running without Skipping a beat for 20 years...can't beat that plus you get more light and run the bulbs at the correct wattage which is not the case for most electronic ballast.

And from what I understand par actually increases as bulbs age, rather than the inverse