saving a light fixture

sapphiredonna · 08/12/2008, 05:47 AM

I've got a Coralife double t5 Aqualight fixture that I bought used. It's a great fixture and I love it. The only problem is that within the last week I've started having issues with its safety. About 4 days ago I turned it on in the morning only to see it start mildly smoking on one end and smell the classic electrical fire smell. I turned it off and examined it; turns out one of the contacts on one end is scaled over. I took q-tips and paper towels, cleaned it out as best I could with water, then dried it and let it air-dry for a day. The next day I plugged it in and everything went swimmingly. Yesterday I turned it on and the actinic bulb (the one with the problem contact) didn't turn on. I was annoyed, but hoped that it was an issue with the bulb rather than an issue with the fixture. This morning I turned it on and the actinic bulb lit up -- but immediately started smoking and smelling bad. So I once again unplugged the fixture, cleaned it and it's currently air-drying. My question is this: is there anything I can do to fix this (I was thinking about trying a de-scaler, like Jungle Lab's Lime-Off) or should I just suck it up and buy a new fixture in the interest of safety?

One Dumm Hikk · 08/12/2008, 07:27 AM

The safest is to replace the fixture. When you say its a contact though, is it a contact on the endcaps or on the ballast? If its on the endcaps, its a lot cheaper to simply replace the endcaps.

08/12/2008, 05:47 AM	#1
sapphiredonna Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Urbana, IL Posts: 75	saving a light fixture I've got a Coralife double t5 Aqualight fixture that I bought used. It's a great fixture and I love it. The only problem is that within the last week I've started having issues with its safety. About 4 days ago I turned it on in the morning only to see it start mildly smoking on one end and smell the classic electrical fire smell. I turned it off and examined it; turns out one of the contacts on one end is scaled over. I took q-tips and paper towels, cleaned it out as best I could with water, then dried it and let it air-dry for a day. The next day I plugged it in and everything went swimmingly. Yesterday I turned it on and the actinic bulb (the one with the problem contact) didn't turn on. I was annoyed, but hoped that it was an issue with the bulb rather than an issue with the fixture. This morning I turned it on and the actinic bulb lit up -- but immediately started smoking and smelling bad. So I once again unplugged the fixture, cleaned it and it's currently air-drying. My question is this: is there anything I can do to fix this (I was thinking about trying a de-scaler, like Jungle Lab's Lime-Off) or should I just suck it up and buy a new fixture in the interest of safety?

08/12/2008, 07:27 AM	#2
One Dumm Hikk Moved On Join Date: May 2008 Location: Phenix City Alabama Posts: 739	The safest is to replace the fixture. When you say its a contact though, is it a contact on the endcaps or on the ballast? If its on the endcaps, its a lot cheaper to simply replace the endcaps.