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Philips Abistar electronic ballasts

Has anyone had any bad experiences with the Philips RELB-2S40-N ballasts as replacements?

I bought four the other day; two were bad out of the wrapper, and one failed within an hour. The fourth has four days on it with no apparent issues. I have scoured the internet to the extent of my abilities, and not found ONE complaint about the reliability of these units.

(and it doesn't make much sense that _even_Philips_ would put out something that bad in large quantities)

I'm figuring, I must've gotten some from a bad batch...

Anyone else seen this?

Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh
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"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" fired this volley in news:XnsA2105AF698BB4lloydspmindspringcom@216.168.3.70:

Sorry... that's "Ambistar" tradename, not 'Abistar'.

Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

I've seen it with other products.

I'd also wonder if you got some counterfeits, thanks to some enterprising Chinese entrepreneur.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

Tim Wescott fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Could be; but if so, Ace Hardware has a _real_problem_, because they're listed as sourced directly from Philips.

I have searched more, and still cannot find any negatives on that particular ballast. It's made in Mehiko. The ones I got are probably just a bad batch. Probably something stupid like the one worker who's supposed to solder in the one fuse was out sick that day, so they just skipped his/her station. It's probably just flopping loose in the pcb holes, waiting to arc the copper off the pads 'til it can't make contact anymore. The fourth of them is still performing to spec.

They took them back (of course), and I know the store manager. He's going to contact Philips directly (Ace lets their managers go around distribution when there's a problem). All the failed ones are the same manufacturing code, so there ought to be some info available.

Lloyd

Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Counterfeits are certainly a possibility. I recall the Square D site having an alert about counterfeit QO circuit breakers along with pictures noting the differences between the real and counterfeits, both external and internal.

Reply to
Pete C.

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