How to repair burned out fluorescent tubes

[crazycharleydALA]

DO NOT do this. First, you will cause a fire. Second the arcing will burn out the ballast. Third, it is just plain dumb.

[HappyDiscoDeath]

well, I could try this, but I don't want to ruin my vintage fluorescent lamps by frying them or starting a fire. I'd just as soon unplug 'em and buy new tubes.

[9020powrmax]

I'm waiting for the smoke to "leak" out of the fixture. Be careful there as you might be homeless or worse??

[scaleop4]

this does work but its a pain waiting for the light to start.......but it does work after about 20 seconds of flicking on one end.

[suzukir122]

yeah this does not work for every bulb at EOL. Mine did

not work, and the electrode was already off of it's supporters.

I get just as much flash with the copper wire on the pins.

This maybe a lot more successful with low power factor

rapid start. Not high power factor... although with some

HPF ballasts, it may work. I don't recommend anybody

try this, however. Just my opinion. With my rapid start,

when it manages to start up, it is pretty intense...

[mrcrtking]

It will kill the poor starter as well, once struck the tube will last untill it is no longer able to ionise the gas / mercury inside to emit UV which then causes phosphor to light up, the reason you need the 2 heater / filiments inside the tube is to warm the gas / mercury mixture up a bit to help ionise then when the starter contact open you get a huge back EMF out of the Ballals at a few K v this kick starts the gas, once struck the starter isn't used, pretty much all current flows though tube

[sethbower11]

I had a 4 watt 15 tube that is burned out and wraped wire around it but it glow purpleish blue but didnt start its broken now

[seansy59]

1 word. FIre Hazard

[form109]

This is not really a repair....and the shorted pins could actually be bad for the Ballast.

if you do get the Tube to light for any signifigant amount of time it wont be for long,as its pretty much Spent.

[jonathanmlang]

@form109 This is just supposed to be a temporary fix so that you're not plunged into darkness while you wait to get a replacement lamp.

[Nivicoman]

For a broken filament yes, for a filament that is also depleted of thermionic coating no go. Another way to fix burned out tubes is power them with an instant start ballast or inverter. Again if the thermionic coating is gone it won't work or else it will puncture and lose vacuum as described below. I've used back to back power supply transformers to light burned out tubes. 25 volts into the 6 volts side of another transformer yields 800 volts at the 220 volt side at low current-instant start..

[medabrundibar]

Never ever do this on electronic ballast - the filament serve there as a fuse, that protect the ballast when the electrode die. Doing this you bypass the protecting mechanism and ultimately risk fire from dying ballast...

[DjResR]

it wont work long after the repair.

[jonathanmlang]

Mine just went not too long ago so the first signs to look for are it looking like there is a snake inside it, then the burned end may start to flicker yellow/orange and the light output may fluctuate rapidly and flicker and in the end it will just lose vacuum.

[eyecanthelpit]

wat do you mean the end will lose vacuum

[jonathanmlang]

Inside there is no air. It just means that the air leaks in and stops it working.

[form109]

@eyecanthelpit at the end of the Fluorescent Lamps Useful life,the electrodes often have lost all or most of their emitter which will cause the electrode as well as the glass tubing surround the electrode to run very hot,ofter causing cracking of the glass,at that point the tube has lost vaccum,air leaks in and the low pressure argon gas filling leaks out

[clairesreelymovin]

gotta watch tho because it will only work for a while - you may lose vacuum after a bit and the tube will be useless after that.

[jonathanmlang]

It actually did but I didn't record it (couldn't find my camera) but the end did glow bright yellow for a while then the tube just got dimmer and dimmer and eventually it made a loud popping sound and it never worked again.

[matthewtchernev123]

@jonathanmlang THAT POPPING SOUND U HEARD WAS THE FUCKING BALLAST YOU SHORTED OUT U BRAINLESS BITCH!

[jonathanmlang]

@matthewtchernev123 Actually that pop was the wood because the weather was warm and that ballast still works fine to date! And no, the ballast was not shorted out because the other filament was still working.

[clairesreelymovin]

basically what that does is bypass the starter - the tube fires up through a breakdown in internal resistance.

[P42STUFF]

I used to use the exact same method to make the lamps flash endlessly!