[Poppinthekap]

Today when my halides came on, the 14k on the far right of my Aqua-Medic began to make a sparking or sizzling noise every 5 to 10 seconds for about 1 second each time. When I turned off the lights, and took out the bulb, the end of it had several grains of black crumb-like material fall out off the right side of the bulb on the metal strip (see pic below). This has happened on a bulb in the same slot in my light. My LFS owner seemed to think it had something to do with my powerful German magnetic ballasts on the first bulb, so he gave me a better quality German bulb rather than the initial Korean bulb. I have not talked to him since this bulb has had the black burning residue.



Can anyone tell me what is causing this? Thank you.

Peace, Poppinthekap

[Poppinthekap]

Any advice? I am still running on 2 halides at the moment instead of all 3

[BLKBRDTA]

Sometimes the problem could be caused by the oil on your hands getting onto the connection tabs between the bulb and the ballast.. Much like when changing a bulb on your car, they always say try not to touch the bulb with your bare hands because they could fry out easier..

Just a possible idea though, I don't own a MH so I haven't ran into this problem before. Though I will say it usually is true that when you excessively handle a car bulb, it really does lessen its life expectancy..

Try grabbing a soft, lint-free cloth and remove each bulb then wipe them down and clean the connections.. Put'em back into their sockets and listen for any noise.. If it stops, then it was a bad connection.. If it doesn't, then it may be that your ballast's are overdriving your current MH bulbs and causing them to fry out..

Just my $0.02

[pogodzib]

I'd inspect the ballast and bulb socket. If they both look to be in good shape, swap the ballasts around so the ballast is connected to a different socket. If the problem still exists, you'll know if it has something to do with the wiring/socket or ballast. BTW - How old is the unit and how many different bulbs have you used in the past without issues?