JD
Well-Known Member
My first life in the lighting business ended around 1990 when my back gave out and I had some health issues. (Happy to say I am ok now.) Anyway, before I sold the business the trend had been toward electronic ballasts on everything. I remember getting some Ultra-arcs and thinking how much lighter they were then Super Troupers. I remember thinking how in a few years, all these heavy transformer ballasts would be gone, and how ironic it was that my back went out before that..... Fast forward 15 years to when I got back in the business.... Imagine my surprise to find that many HMI and other arc units still used transformer ballasts! What happened? Granted, a transformer ballast has the life of a cinderblock, and you won't have to worry about some little drive transistors living their life 200 milliseconds away from death, but did ballast technology actually freeze after 1990?? I was shopping for some used equipment and kept seeing "Newly Rebuild Ballast" in the description line. Gezzzzz! So, here's the question to all of you who worked those years from 1990 to 2004; What has been your experience with electronic ballasts? Did manufacturers embrace them and then back off? There is very little talk about them now other than some products use them, and some don't.