Why wont my range hood fluorescent tube stay on continuously?
The fairly new (few months in service) FEIT Electric 15 watt tube (F15T8) 18 inches long just started flashing in our 35+ year old 30-inch VentAHood. I changed the starter for a GE one in an opened package so I am not sure it is a new starter. The tube starts but then flashes off and back on repeatedly.
What about trying another new tube and a known new starter? Maybe this fairly new tube is defective.
Could I change to a drop-in replacement LED, if there is one? Presumably a drop in replacement would require a functioning ballast. How would I know if the problem is the ballast?
Have not opened it up to see what kind of ballast. What are the possibilities?
Question from user Jim Stewart at stackexchange
Answer:
If the bulb and starter are new-ish, that leaves the ballast as potentially up to 35 years old and thus long past due for replacement. Feit is not a particularly well-regarded brand, but the odds point to the ballast, still. But if you'd like to stay florescent and want to try a new tube, you'd have a spare if the new tube does not solve the problem and you replace the ballast.
Getting an LED replacement that needs a ballast to work would not be the best idea, IMHO. A ballast bypass (120VAC, or 220-250 elsewhere in the world) LED replacement would be a better bet if going that way.
A ballast from the 1980's is most likely a magnetic ballast; the fact that there's a separate starter makes that a virtual certainty. If replacing the ballast, an electronic ballast with no starter would be normal these days. That's some vary minor rewiring, though how easy it will be in your hood depends on the hood designers - generally those are more awkward to work in than a typical light fixture.
Answer from user Ecnerwal at stackexchange
The fairly new (few months in service) FEIT Electric 15 watt tube (F15T8) 18 inches long just started flashing in our 35+ year old 30-inch VentAHood. I changed the starter for a GE one in an opened package so I am not sure it is a new starter. The tube starts but then flashes off and back on repeatedly.
What about trying another new tube and a known new starter? Maybe this fairly new tube is defective.
Could I change to a drop-in replacement LED, if there is one? Presumably a drop in replacement would require a functioning ballast. How would I know if the problem is the ballast?
Have not opened it up to see what kind of ballast. What are the possibilities?
Question from user Jim Stewart at stackexchange
Answer:
If the bulb and starter are new-ish, that leaves the ballast as potentially up to 35 years old and thus long past due for replacement. Feit is not a particularly well-regarded brand, but the odds point to the ballast, still. But if you'd like to stay florescent and want to try a new tube, you'd have a spare if the new tube does not solve the problem and you replace the ballast.
Getting an LED replacement that needs a ballast to work would not be the best idea, IMHO. A ballast bypass (120VAC, or 220-250 elsewhere in the world) LED replacement would be a better bet if going that way.
A ballast from the 1980's is most likely a magnetic ballast; the fact that there's a separate starter makes that a virtual certainty. If replacing the ballast, an electronic ballast with no starter would be normal these days. That's some vary minor rewiring, though how easy it will be in your hood depends on the hood designers - generally those are more awkward to work in than a typical light fixture.
Answer from user Ecnerwal at stackexchange