My wife has a fluorescent light she uses to start seedlings for her vegetable garden. This spring, it stopped working, so I replaced the blown capacitor with a new one, same voltage and capacitance rating. Score one for helpful husbandry.
After a few days, the light stopped working, again. I assumed it was the other capacitor, since they are (I presume) similar in age. Imagine my surprise when I took a peek and found that the brand-new capacitor I had just put in place was blown.
Now I could simply have soldered the capacitor backwards. But I was pretty careful about that, and I think I put it in the with the same polarity as the one I took out--opposite to the one on the other side. This is my first foray into ballasts, and I'm wondering which of the following might be the failure's cause: (1) some rating other than voltage and capacitance is relevant here; (2) I simply had a bad capacitor; (3) some other component is bad and causing the capacitor to fail; (4) I put it in backwards after all; (5) localized quantum effects caused my circuit board to temporarily cease to exist, then resume existence with a blown capacitor.
I bought four capacitors from digi-key, so I can try again, but I don't want to just throw components at the problem. If it's any help, the twin T-8 fixture is branded "Lights of America," and probably originated at Wal-Mart (although she acquired it at second hand.
I also may have switched the wires to the pins at the near (to the ballast) end of the bulb, but I wouldn't think that would make a difference.
After a few days, the light stopped working, again. I assumed it was the other capacitor, since they are (I presume) similar in age. Imagine my surprise when I took a peek and found that the brand-new capacitor I had just put in place was blown.
Now I could simply have soldered the capacitor backwards. But I was pretty careful about that, and I think I put it in the with the same polarity as the one I took out--opposite to the one on the other side. This is my first foray into ballasts, and I'm wondering which of the following might be the failure's cause: (1) some rating other than voltage and capacitance is relevant here; (2) I simply had a bad capacitor; (3) some other component is bad and causing the capacitor to fail; (4) I put it in backwards after all; (5) localized quantum effects caused my circuit board to temporarily cease to exist, then resume existence with a blown capacitor.
I bought four capacitors from digi-key, so I can try again, but I don't want to just throw components at the problem. If it's any help, the twin T-8 fixture is branded "Lights of America," and probably originated at Wal-Mart (although she acquired it at second hand.
I also may have switched the wires to the pins at the near (to the ballast) end of the bulb, but I wouldn't think that would make a difference.