No more $5 ballasts from Lowes?

[KenLayton]

Considering most games are 25 to 30 years old, it's long overdue to have a bunch of ballast failures in most machines. Temperature, humidity, and general game storage conditions can all affect ballast life.

You can never have too many extra ballasts on hand!

 

[mattosborn]

do you guys have a lot of ballast failing? I can't remember replacing more than 2 or 3.

I've only found a couple bad ones. I also replaced one that was noisy.

 

[cadillacman]

time to check thier clearence shelves mod...


i wanted a binch of outlet strips but they were like $25 a piece..

got real lucky one day and they had a bunch of the 10 outlet strips on clearence for like $8 each... needless to say i took em all heh..

 

[mdrago]

Looks like I will be going to the store tomorrow...

 

[modessitt]

do you guys have a lot of ballast failing? I can't remember replacing more than 2 or 3. Is it a weather related problem?

The typical collector may only need to replace a ballast on a new game they just picked up - perhaps once a month?

I work in a retail shop and see about 20 different games a month (sometimes more), and I'd say about half with dead bulbs also have dead ballasts. I keep old barely-working bulbs around just to test for that, although I remember Ken once mentioning a way to test the ballast with a meter....

 

[modessitt]

time to check thier clearence shelves mod...

Where do they have those? In the back someplace?

 

[KenLayton]

The ballast most often used in commercial arcade games should measure 20 to 25 ohms resistance on a multimeter.

 

[FrizzleFried]

do you guys have a lot of ballast failing? I can't remember replacing more than 2 or 3. Is it a weather related problem?

As for using light bulbs, it bugs me to see the uneven lighting in the marquee. I would pull them if any of my games had them..

Of the lot of 14 games I purchased recently 4 of them had bad ballasts. Strange as those were the first machines I've come across with bad ballasts.

Sucks I went through 3 bulbs as well.

 

[mnrocketry]

About 5 years ago, I made it part of my SOP to replace ballasts in all my restorations BEFORE they go into my game room.

I had recently restored a Galaga and had the whole game room powered up one evening. Before long, there was this horrid, acrid, overpowering "burnt oil" smell. How to figure out which game was emitting it? Well, the top of the Galaga was almost too hot to touch! The ballast had gone nuclear; lucky nothing started on fire. It took days to get that smell out of my house.

Since then, essentially every game that I work on gets a new ballast, starter, and bulb. I've always picked up the ballasts at Home Depot, but I shall have to check out the local Lowes to see if they have them on clearance.

Alan

 

[KenLayton]

Holy Crap!

I just stopped by one of the two Lowe's in the Olympia area. They had the ballasts on a clearance shelf near the light bulbs section. On the shelf it said the clearance price was 61 cents each (so I decided to get three ballasts). When I got to the register they ring up at 31 cents each! They had like a dozen more ballasts on that clearance shelf.

 

[Riptor]

Holy Crap!

I just stopped by one of the two Lowe's in the Olympia area. They had the ballasts on a clearance shelf near the light bulbs section. On the shelf it said the clearance price was 61 cents each (so I decided to get three ballasts). When I got to the register they ring up at 31 cents each! They had like a dozen more ballasts on that clearance shelf.

Thats cool, I need to hit the lowes and see if we have any here.

 

[dahnz]

If anyone's going to be buying some of these close-out ballasts and wants to help out an overseas collector, please PM me. I need to get some ballasts for my Williams games and I can't get them here. I emailed a number of US electrical stores a few weeks back wanting to buy some ballasts and not one replied. I'd cover all costs, of course, and give you something for your time.

Dominic

 

[gamefixer]

Looks like Happ Controls has 109 of these left. At least I think this is the right one.

http://www.happ.com/wp/item_search.p?ITEM-NO=91-1228-00

Matt

 

[dahnz]

Note that they have a minimum order of $100 for new customers and $75/50 for existing customers.

Edit: Except that it then goes on to talk about $25 minimum for web orders.

 

[gamefixer]

Note that they have a minimum order of $100 for new customers and $75/50 for existing customers.

Edit: Except that it then goes on to talk about $25 minimum for web orders.

Edit confirmed. My minimum order is $25.00.

Matt

 

[Peale]

If the nearest Lowes to me wasn't 83 miles away I might jump on this.

 

[cueball]

dumb question.. since i havent replaced one in a while (and since my wife will check the lowes for me while i am at work).. which ballast size is it?

 

[KenLayton]

14 through 20 watt ballast, preheat, clamped core.

 

[mattosborn]

Sorry about going on a bit of a tangent, but this is related....
Does anyone know if it is OK to use an FS-12 starter (made for the 32W circline bulbs) in place of an FS-2? I know the FS-U universal starters can replace the FS-2, and they handle a large wattage range (4-30W)....
The reason I ask is because the FS-12 starters are also on clearance at Lowes. 2-pack for 10 cents.

 

[Peale]

I would think as long as the wattage is compatible, yes. Try it and see!