Need help with HPS lighting problem

I bought a 400w hps cool tube with electronic from ebay, and a sylvania bulb. when i plug in the ballast the bulb starts to heat up, then it gets brighter, then it seems to shut off for a few seconds, then start again and get a bit brighter, then it will do it like 2 more times so a total of 4 times it starts and goes off. after the fourth time or so, it will ignite again, and this time it gets brighter and brighter until it comes to full power and stays on at full power.

Is this normal?

do i have the wrong bulb? it is a sylvania 67533

heating up is normal.but it sounds more like a ballast problem

i have tried it a few times and it eventually (within 2-3 minutes) starts the bulb, i asked the retailer of the ballast and they said that that bulb should work on that ballast. has anyone else ever seen this happen? could it be normal

I had a prob similar to that when first fired up my 400w HPS, I tightened up all the wire nuts and made sure all wiring was secure, and have had no probs since.

Dat would trip Me out unusal

No, thats not normal at all. Im not sure if its the bulb or ballast as im not sure what it causing it. You could try to take out the bulb and then put it back in and make sure the threads are matched and that its screwed in all the way. If that doesnt work i'd get another bulb and try it with the ballast, if it works its the bulb you have now that should be sent back, if it doesnt work then its the ballast and that is what needs to be sent back.

I tightened everything down, and it still did it, flickered for a couple minutes then full power. it did seem to start a little faster though. I am going to try cleaning the contacts on the bulb and then try a bulb from home depot if that doesnt work. ill update on here when i know.

the guy who sent me the light setup sent me the ballas with a cool tube, but didnt pack it right and the cooltube got smashed, i need to figure out if the ballast is still good or if i need to just send it back and get something else (more delays). could it get damaged from being jostled around in a bunch of packing peanuts with a broken cooltube maybe?

alright i got a phillips c400s51 bulb and it does the same thing, i tightened everything down, cleaned everything and it does the same thing. still gets the bulb hot eventually just like it did before. this it the ballast i have

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300615175398&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

should i be asking for a full refund?

when you buy used equipment...its used...and you don't really know for how long...so the ballast is probably weak...

it wasnt used it was new

Definitely not supposed to happen, and it aint the bulb. It should come on dimly, then come to full brightness over a few minutes. I'd return and exchange it if it was new.

yeah, send it back for sure. If the guy is cool about it i'd give him the chance to replace it. if not get a refund and go elsewhere.

Sounds like a bad bulb to me. Maybe it was damaged during shipping. I have experienced the same problem (bulb sort of lights, goes out, tries again) with a bulb I had been using for 8 months. Like you, I was quite concerned...I didn't want to try plugging in a new, expensive bulb into an electronic ballast that may or may not work. After I did a little research, I found that it's common for HPS bulbs to do this toward the end of their life.

More information can be found here:
http://donklipstein.com/ltrouble.html (this is about warehouse lighting, but your problem is described under the sodium section)

Good luck to you!


From the linked page:
"Troubleshooting mercury, metal halide and sodium lamp problems

High Pressure Sodium Lamp Repeatedly Goes Out for 1-3 Minutes After Warming Up:
The lamp warms up and as soon as it is warmed up, or maybe several minutes after warming up, it goes out. Maybe it takes about 3 minutes to relight, but in fixtures available from home centers it usually relights in closer to 1 minute with often a little dim orange-yellow glow at times before it relights:

This is usually "end of life cycling". That is a characteristic of the bulb. Replace the bulb and this common problem is fixed.

Less likely, the problem is a reflector that returns light to the arc tube in the bulb and overheats it."