Humidity screwing up my CF light?

[7Enigma]

Hi all,

I have a 65w Corallife PC hood light and have been very pleased with it. 2 days ago, however, the light went on at its normal time (its on a digital timer specifically made for quick-on appliances such as CF bulbs so I know its not the timers fault), but as I'm in the process of feeding the fish the light goes off.

I've had this happen one other time and normally I come back from work and the next time the timer is meant to turn on the light comes back on. This time however the light never came back on. I disconnected the light from the timer and tried it on a separate socket using the normal on/off switch. Nothing....

I've only had this 50/50 bulb in for maybe 2months at the most. I gently rotated it and can hear something inside, but I heard that in my new bulb as well which works so I assume its find. When I took the old bulb out to replace it with my older bulb (original 6700K bulb that I took out to lower overall light levels) the prongs on the ballast? that go into the bulb seemed slightly brown like they had oxidized.

I keep the plastic cover over the bulb and have a glass canopy top, so I cannot imagine much if any moisture could get in there, but the light does go off at 10:30am and back on at 1:30pm so I'm wondering if it cooling down is condensing what little water vapor might get inside of there and cause this rust?

I also thought it might be overheating but there is nothing over the top of the light, and frankly, its a LOT cooler than it was during the summer so I doubt that's the issue.

I'll have to check at a later time whether the 50/50 bulb is actually blown, or whether the contacts just need to be cleaned off, but it was 6am and the last thing I wanted to do was change out a hood light!!!

Anybody's anecdotal stories would be greatly appreciated if they had similar issues...

Thanks,

justin

 

[malkore]

bad bulb. i had the exact same issue. intermittent 'bulb just won't turn on, turns off for no reason'.

replaced the bulb, and no problems in the 12 months since that time.

and the original bulb had a rattle to it too, like a bit of glass inside rolling around, which I think disrupts the current enough to kill the bulb, since glass is an insulator.

*edit* to clarify, mine was a 1x65w Coralife fixture.

 

[7Enigma]

Bummer. I think when I purchased the light fixture HelloLights was running the 50% off another bulb deal (but the extra bulbs were not Coralife). I got the 1X65w 6700k bulb which came with the fixture (this was a Corallife), and then got the extra 50/50 bulb for like $8. Can't remember the brand, but seems like I got jipped. It's a shame too, since I preferred the slower growth and look of the 50/50 bulb. Kept my maintainence a LOT lower....

Going back to the 6700k might just make me pull out the stargrass for good. I love it but it just grows too quickly requiring way too much trimming and replanting (getting very tired of the stem plants requiring replanting the clipped tops!).