Electronic vs Magnetic Ballast

hammerandy

AC Members
Jan 23, 1999
35
0
0
Port Republic, VA, USA
I had two Hamilton Ballast for my MH 175 lights. These ballast were 2-3 years old magnetic, when one of the two blew. Talk about a stink in the whole house. Anyway, when I replaced it I put the big $35 more and got a Hamilton electronic ballast. Well the TV's in the house were getting interference in the lower channels, I called Hamilton and they said this is true and gave me no other way out of my problem. My question to the members is that does everyone who has a electronic ballast not watch TV? Is this true with all electronic ballast that they cause interference on all TV's.

Another chapter is that the electronic ballast went out after two months. I told them to replace it with a magnetic ballast. Am I going two steps backwards. Are we looking at a tube radio (for you old farts) vs a transitor radio?
 
Well, the audiophiles seem to be going back to tubes again, so maybe it's not so bad...

I haven't had a problem with interference from my IceCap or Blueline ballasts, but the TV is far away and the reception's already bad. The benefits of electronic ballasts are 1) they don't try to keep firing a hot lamp after an outage, which will help prolong the lamp's life, and 2) they run more efficiently, so they're cooler and use less energy. Local people here say that the electronic ballasts can burn out early, but I haven't seen real numbers.
 
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