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New IceCap 660 Ballast Broke

Olivier

Olivier

I bought a icecap 660 ballast at OG-II about 6-7 months ago in planning to setup at 5 Retrofit. I plugged in last Mite and light flick on and off. I thought it must be connection. I did all continuity checked and all wired are fine. i switch to second hand ballast and light up fine.

My question to everyone, can I still send to Icecap for fix? or I am done at this point? brand new ballast and it just like that out the box really put a bad taste in my mouth. I dont know if OGII would exchnage anything for me. I doubt this would happen.

i am thinking of either attempt to fix it since nothing to loose now or just ignore it and buy the coral vue which is just like icecap 660
 
radiata

radiata

NJRC Member
Olivier,

I keep hearing that Ice Cap is out of business, but I have no personal knowledge to back up this assertion.

I recently took an older 660 off-line (replaced VHOs with LEDs). You can have it for $40 - doesn't hurt to have a back-up while one is in the shop.

PM me with any interest...
Bob
 
Olivier

Olivier

Edwardw771 said:
coral vue now services 660s but it will cost you $60. I'd speak to ogII about it.
Click to expand...
i will see when i talk to brian tomorrow on phone tomorrow morning at work. hope thing work out
 
Olivier

Olivier

Re: New IceCap 660 Ballast Broke AND ICECAP IS GONE

Just let everyone know, that ICECAP IS GONE FOR GOOD. NO MORE WARRANTY FROM THEM REGARDLESS OF WHEN OR WHERE YOU BUY FROM. I am totally done with my brand new ICECAP 660. I need to send it to CoralVUE for repair and $60 out of my pocket.
 
Edwardw771

Edwardw771

NJRC Member
Another thing you probably do not know. At the end when IceCap was going under the people putting the ballests together were not doing the Job the way it needed to be done. And couldn't use the parts that they should have been using because the company had no money.

Since Coralvue is now selling the ballests they put in money to fix the issues that IceCap couldn't afford to fix. If I was in the market for a 660 I'd buy one from Coralvue because of the parts that are now used in them are better and there are not as many issues.
 
Olivier

Olivier

redfishbluefish said:
Hawkeye said:
you could probably spend $60 on a used 660 ballast. just saying.

sent you a pm with a link.
Click to expand...


+1....OR LESS. Above, Bob offered his used one for $40!
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the ballast I just bought from Bob just went south yesterday. I am now back to square 0 again.

I am thinking of buying the coralvue new 660 ballast. really MAD. I AM GOING TO DESTROY EVERYTHING TODAY :)
 
R

Rbu1

Is it possible you have something wired wrong that is causing a problem when you connect the ballast? I have had plenty of Icecap products and never had an issue. Just seems odd you have 2 - 660's crap out on you.
 
Olivier

Olivier

thanks for your reply but you guys are under mind my expertese.
no wrong wiring that is a sure thing.

first ballast die as take it out of the box.
second ballast die after 15min of usage.

other two ballasts in the fixture running fine.

I currently replace the Icecap (broken) with FULHAM ballast right now and will find out what wrong with icecap when I have time.
 
malulu

malulu

NJRC Member
Olivier said:
thanks for your reply but you guys are under mind my expertese.
no wrong wiring that is a sure thing.
Click to expand...

+100 !!!

Olivier KNOW how to wired for sure! being bad luck? that could be true...
;D
 
Olivier

Olivier

malulu said:
Olivier said:
thanks for your reply but you guys are under mind my expertese.
no wrong wiring that is a sure thing.
Click to expand...

+100 !!!

Olivier KNOW how to wired for sure! being bad luck? that could be true...
;D
Click to expand...
i remembered the last lesson learn that nearly taking down my grandma house was when I steal electricity from electric pole back in the the country 1982. bring the wire down the forget about 3 phase motor. kaboommmmm,, big cap blow up.
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I will tell you that with my 660, the plug unit was the problem. Lights weren’t working, so I put a “contact enhancer” (we call it red juice…it improves contact on metal connectors) and the lights worked. To really make sure I maintained good contact in the plug portion, I used an ice pick to open the prongs a little, which would definitely cause for the two pieces to make good contact. That was about three or so years ago, and everything is working just fine. I agree, it’s sort of hard to believe that a ballast is bad right out of the box.

I will also state that the only reason I’m using IceCap over any other ballast out there is that they overdrive the bulbs. Only having 17 inches of tank, I wanted to make sure I could put in sufficient light….six bulbs. It’s a guess at this point, but not sure if six bulbs running at “normal” wattage would give me the light to grow everything.
 
Olivier

Olivier

redfishbluefish said:
I will tell you that with my 660, the plug unit was the problem. Lights weren’t working, so I put a “contact enhancer” (we call it red juice…it improves contact on metal connectors) and the lights worked. To really make sure I maintained good contact in the plug portion, I used an ice pick to open the prongs a little, which would definitely cause for the two pieces to make good contact. That was about three or so years ago, and everything is working just fine. I agree, it’s sort of hard to believe that a ballast is bad right out of the box.

I will also state that the only reason I’m using IceCap over any other ballast out there is that they overdrive the bulbs. Only having 17 inches of tank, I wanted to make sure I could put in sufficient light….six bulbs. It’s a guess at this point, but not sure if six bulbs running at “normal” wattage would give me the light to grow everything.
Click to expand...

if you want to bet with me on the bad ballast right out the box, I am completely game with you. :)
 
Olivier

Olivier

I found sometime 2 days ago and be able to open up the ballast that I bought from Bob aka Radiata. I fixed it ..yesh and lucky i think. I try to reverse the engineer and be able to fix the starter circuit (i think) of the ballast. the up voltage converter with firing pulse.

anyway, I still have one more to go. I will see if it is the same problem. :)vish me luck
 
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