Fluorescent ballast repair wires don’t match (old) magnetic to (new) electronic.Color wire different
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- I AM NOT MONETIZED! Any commercials you see have nothing to do with me and they have increased since this video broke 100,000 views.
How to replace ballast when wires DO NOT MATCH what you had. No yellow wires on new ballast.
New electronic ballast use red wires for common rather than yellow. They don't have yellow wires which can be confusing to homeowners attempting DIY replacements of ballast.
Before you thumbs down, please consider the following:
My sound doesn't echo so it's pretty good considering.
I only say the non-verbal "uh" enough times to get a decent buzz if playing a drinking game to the video.
This wasn't scripted and I made it in one take.
The videography was handheld using a smartphone.
I used my 8 year old's markers, not some professional art studio pigments.
I warn people 3 times not to shock themselves into oblivion, so safety has been addressed.
I'm clear about not being an electrician. I realize 40 electricians have down thumbed me....lol
Have an awesome 2021 everyone. This little video keeps plugging away, helping one person at a time.
This was an awesome video.. you're the only who explained the "new" wiring pattern. I did it today in like 20 mins.. admittedly, not a handy guy but hero now!! Thx again!!
Great to hear it helped you out. Thanks for the comment.
Thank you for not taking 45 minutes to explain this. Short, sweet and simple. Thank you. This is exactly what i needed. Thanks!
Appreciate that. I too can't handle these 10 minute videos to get to the meat of the issue. Even my short little video could have been chopped.
@@Chinookman everyone explains the history of each wire. I don’t need that. I just want my lights to work again haha
Thanks for the explanation!
@@CarlosGarcia-wo3xf yeah or its 3 minutes of fancy graphics / hey look how slick i am / subscriibe!!
You are the only guy on the Internet who actually described the situation I have and offered a solution (the yellow wires in my fixture threw me off!). Thanks!
Juan DePascuale ...right? When I couldn’t find the solution and then had to read and teach myself I figured somebody should fix the situation. That somebody: me with my kid’s markers.
@@Chinookman Nicely done.
Same same!
5 year old video helping me out today, good job my guy.
Shocking to me as well. Thanks for the comment.
Me too, just a few weeks later! Thank you!
Straight to the point!!! YES!YES!YES! Thank you for not taking hours to explain this. Short, DIRECT, and simple. Thank you. This is exactly what I needed. Thanks! 01/07/2024
I was about to bring my ballast back to the store thinking I bought the wrong one, but decided to do a quick search to see if anyone else had the same issue. This is exactly what I needed to get the job done. Thank you!
You are totally welcome! .....saving gas money and hassle one person at a time since last year. And 33 people still don't like it. lol!
This is EXACTLY what we're looking for!! Thank you for your direct, simple, complete, and brief explanation.
Glad this still had legs to help you! Thanks for the comment.
Like many other comments here, you saved me a trip to Home Depot thinking I had bought the wrong replacement ballast!!! I can confirm that these instructions ARE ACCURATE; the light does come on after following David's instructions! Thanks for the clear drawing and explanation!
Glad I could help! I've contributed at least 17 lbs of savings to carbon emissions with all these saved trips back to Lowe's and Hone Depot.
Ditto here! Saved me a trip and a headache. 😊 Worked perfectly (and confirmed with a similar vid, but yours is better!) Thank you, thank you!
Perfect information that saved me a trip back to Home Depot for no reason. Thanks!
Awesome to hear. Thanks for the feedback.
This is exactly the confirmation I needed to finish my project. Thank you so much.
So glad it helped you out. Thanks for the comment.
“Down and dirty”…😂 the perfect video. Project completed (2 ballast 4 bulb fixture). Thanks so much Professor!
Glad I could help.
Looked at 8 videos before I found yours. Yours exactly fit my situation of an old magnetic ballast replaced by a new electronic, rapid start ballast. Yours was the perfect tutorial.
That’s awesome. Glad you found it….eventually. 😂
Finally, a RUclips video that simply tells you how without an elaborate production. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.. Worked great !!
My pleasure.
Thanks for the video! Your video was the first hit on google when I searched for ballasts with the dual yellow, red, and blue wires. I followed your instructions exactly and had my new ballast working in about 5 minutes.
Now that’s efficiency. Thanks Google!
Lit! Loads of ‘wire to wire’ show & tells on RUclips, but nothing like your excellent drawing. My situation was opposite, my new ballast had many wires & fixture just the 3, obviously applied your teaching in reverse. Thank you, saved me a lot of head scratching.
I also keep searching for explanations when people post other scenarios and it's a mess. Glad mine was concise enough to help!
Would someone explain this in reverse please lol i have the same exact problem as Mr. Mike but I am so confused I can not make out the reverse solution. Thank you
Dude. I was sooo lost before I found this video. Even Home Depot couldn’t explain as well as you did. Thank you so much. You made my day.
So glad to hear. I hope the video shot to the top of your search for a quick answer.
4 years after this video was made and it’s still very useful. Finally had to replace the ballast and we were confused as to why we’re were missing so many wires. Thank you for making this video and making it so easy to understand
This simple drawing saved me hours of trying to compare the wiring diagrams of U shaped fluorescent fixtures to install a new ballast to use LED tubes! Spot on!
Right! I don't know why it's so difficult to get answers in normal English on this stuff. When I research some of these posted questions it's just as difficult each time. This isn't rocket science. Maybe there's just no industry standardization and it's all coming out of China with whatever colors they feel like wiring the tombstones inside a fixture. I don't know, will have to ask an electrician buddy at some point.
Thanks you were a life saver. When your old ballast has 3 wires and your new one has 6 wires and the colors don't even match up it is just a LITTLE baffling. Your instructions worked like a champ.
Glad this little video keeps plugging along helping people. Thanks for the comment. It helps to give people confidence that the advice is relevant. I've only had one electrician in all of this time criticize the video and he appears to have removed his own comment. I did not remove it.
You sir, deserve a medal for this video. Thank you so much. I had a hunch about how to configure this when I opened the new ballast, but having it confirmed with your video just made my day. Thank you! 🙏🏽
Thank you sooo much for this video! My dilemma was the opposite - I had a new magnetic ballast and an electronic fixture wiring...your video allowed me to reverse your steps and my light now works again!
Thank you so much for posting this. I thought I’d ordered the wrong replacement ballast until I found your video which was the exact solution I needed. Took about 10 minutes.
Glad to hear it worked for you. Thank you for the comment. It helps give others the confidence to give it a whirl.
After reading more about ballasts than any layman should have to - Thank you so much for the video. When I called the store to say the "spaghetti" didn't match what the original had I was blown off with "read the directions. I did. They were utterly usless. I googled 2 red, 2 blue, 2 yellow, one white and one black ballast and TaDa! I found my solution! And yes it did work precisely as you said! THANK YOU!
Love it Dawn. I count myself as a reasonably intelligent member of Mensa and I still cannot figure out some of these online explanations. Okay the Mensa part isn’t true. But I do have a technical bachelor’s degree, amd read extensively in physics, quantum physics, cosmology and astronomy. It’s OVERLY complicating what should be a simple subject. I need to brush up on non Euclidean geometry and knot theory as well as topology mathematics to grasp ballast wiring. Lol!
I just bought one yesterday and followed your steps. It worked great for this DIY guy. I appreciate the simple steps.
Great video. I was just about to return my ballast because I thought I bought the wrong one. Really helped me out.
Exactly...glad it helped!
Spot on David! Worked flawlessly on two installations in one day…. I knew the new ballasts would work but couldn’t figure it out… So I was thinking about buying new fixtures but you came to the rescue!
Cheers!
Glad it saved you some loot.
🙌. Clear, concise and to the point. Replacing a neighbors ballast and bulbs. Opened up the fixture and found yellow wires. I ain’t got no yellow wires on the replacement ballast. This problem leaves me perplexed. Thanks to you and your down and dirty explanation, to my little old sweet lady neighbor, I look like I know what the hell I’m doing!!
Score! Now comes the brownie tray.
I read your instructions in reverse to fix my problem.....kings to you sir.
Simple and to the point - We had the new ballast on and working in a few minutes. Thanks
Thank you so much for the feedback. Guess this still comes up early in searches for this particular cluster*#%}.
I was confused about the yellow wires from my old ballast and you explained things perfectly! It worked, thanks a bunch.
Another satisfied customer! Be sure to hit that thumbs up, subscribe and hit the bell for notifications. TOTALLY KIDDING. Glad it helped you out!
Just came on here to say thank you. As others have said, you were the only one that showed the wires that matched mine (the 2 yellow)
Thanks for letting me know. You’re welcome!
Thank you very much for this video. I watched numerous videos and none of them were to the point and simple to understand. Danke Schön👍
Thanks for posting this. It helped me install a new ballast which didn't match my old one. I would have assumed I bought the wrong one if it hadn't been for this video. In my case, the new ballast was the one that had the yellow wires, but the same wiring applied.
So bizarre how these ballasts seem to be color coded as whatever the manufacturer feels like doing. That’s definitely why they have diagrams that are often confusing to non electricians.
Thank you for this! Exactly what I needed to convert my T12 light fixture to T8.
FYI to others: I accidentally bought a ballast with three blue wires and one red wire. However, the label on the ballast says it is good to use for 2-bulb or 3-bulb light fixtures. So, I just capped the one "extra" blue wire with a wire nut and carefully folded it aside.
You rock! This is exactly what I needed to confirm. Nice and clear explanation. Thank you.
Man I just had to let you know how much you helped me today. Your video was simple, clear, and concise. Thanks you so much for uploading this. 🙏
Glad it helped!
Thank you, sir. My old ballast also had a red and blue wire coming out the left side with yellow. Right side looked exactly as your diagram. I ignored the red and blue on the left side, connecting as your video showed. Works perfectly.
I Will be honest I was skeptical of this vid at first, but I have lights after using it! Thanks dude!!!
Haha! Me too when “engineering” it based on reading. It wasn’t a fast process for me so figured I would pass along the solution. (I’ll add that nobody has ever come back to report any issues!)
Excellent! I followed step by step and had the new ballast wired in no time - thanks for walking me through this. Exactly what I needed.
The lights in my garage went out a while back and I didn't know what to do with the yellow wires and the extra red wire. After watching your video I just changed out my ballast this morning. Thanks for your clear and concise explanation on the wiring. 👍🏻
Thanks for the clear tutorial on the wiring. I almost went back to HD thinking I got the wrong type of ballast!
David, I wanted to say "Thank you so much!". Your video saved me when I didn't have a clue what to do. You saved me so much hassle. Thanks so much for your video.
Ken Lapp it shouldn’t be hard to find this answer...so I made a cheesy video, one that actually has helped some people. Score! Thanks for reaching out.
Thanks for your great video! I actually went to the store and bought a new fixture ("cheaper than an electrician"). When I got home and found your video, I hadn't opened the box yet and became intrigued when I saw the old ballast in your video was the EXACT one I encountered in my fixture. After looking at your video at least 20 times (I don't know if they count multiple views by the same person or not 🙂, I had enough confidence to proceed. When I actually got around to installing it (today). It worked PERFECTLY. Thanks again, SO much. there's one or two more around the house that need new ballasts, and now I can get them all fixed!!
Very nice. We’re all proud of you for taking on the challenge. And probably saving a few bucks. Eventually it may make sense to go LED but in the meantime a swap to electronic ballast is pretty inexpensive.
Thank you so much for this video. We are in a mobile home and things always seem different than normal homes. As said by others below you were short, to the point and the repair was successful.
So glad it helped you out on this Super Bowl Sunday. People are shocked when they find out I’m not a very good electrician. 😅
OK I may have bitten off more then I should have chewed with trying to replace old ballasts with new ones in our garage (I spent 5 hours looking at the diagram the same way a child looks at an advanced math book) but this video.... This video did more then all my previous Google searches combined! Thank you!
I hope it all worked out! Those wiring diagrams on the ballasts are for shit.
@@Chinookman it did work! I went back, wired as shown, and viola! We have light. Thanks again sir, you rock!
Your video deserves more views than it has.
Simple and to the point information. Exactly what I needed.
Matthew Andraka Hey thanks. Stay safe. .
This little video still plugging away all these years later! You’re one of the early viewers.
I wish all help videos were this straight forward, worked great thank you
Thanks, David! This was the only video that solved my situation. Short, concise and informative.
Glad another to do list item check off!
Thank you a whole lot. I was about to return the ballast for the lack of yellow wires but decided to check RUclips. Your video was at the top as it should be. short, to the point and correct.
Great to hear I saved another few minutes of unnecessary hassle and effort!
Thank you, Mr. David W.! You are a GENIOUS! Your video was simple but quite effective. My problem was opposite of your drawing. The 4 wires were on the ballast instead of the fixture. I had my doubts, but in the video you said "trust me it will work". Indeed the light works. Thank you very much!
Those pesky electrons at it again with a rainbow of colorful wires.
This saved us from a return to the store. Thank you so much. Thumbs up.
Life saver, thank you for taking the time to show this wiring method on a video.
Glad it helped!
Thank you so much for this instructional video. The wiring diagram on the new ballast showed the red wire going to one end of the lights and a blue wire going to each light on the other end. So, I ran a blue wire from the ballast to each of the yellows and tied the 2 red and 2 blues from the other end of the light to the red wire on the new ballast. When I tested it, it didn't blow anything although it was wired incorrectly. Thank god! But only one of the 2 bulbs would light up. I could get either light to work, but never both at the same time. That's when I found your video and rewired it.
Excellent video saved me from returning the New balance I purchased. It worked for me no problems now I'm able to install LED fluorescent lighting
So glad! And I hope you found the video fast. It’s climbing in search.
Thanks David! This cleared up the confusion regarding the yellow wires that my old ballast had. My fixture with the replacement ballast works perfectly.
Glad it helped!
Thanks so much. Indeed the modern electronic ballasts often have slightly different wiring configuration than the antiquated magnetic ballast it replaced, a great example of this would be a ballast for (2) T12 instant start lamps aka slimline lamps, most commonly found with 72 and 96 inch fixtures and much less common with smaller sizes such as 48 inches. The magnetic ballast typically had the hot from the source ran to one of the stationary sockets, the neutral from the source ran to the other stationary socket, and the ballast input hot and neutral ran to the corresponding sockets, the plunger sockets got one lead each from the ballast, typically red and blue. For safety reasons due to the fact instant start ballasts use a significantly higher starting voltage than other fluorescent fixtures, the stationary sockets are composed of two contacts requiring that both lamps are securely in place to complete the circuit to the ballast; removing either lamp disconnects power from the ballast to prevent someone from receiving a high voltage electric shock and possibly falling off a ladder while changing a lamp with the fixture energized. Whereas with the electronic instant start T12 ballast, the hot and neutral from the source connect directly to the ballast, and typically one red and two blue leads are the output that goes to the lamps, the red being the common to both lamps and one blue going to each lamp. Most 2 lamp instant start electronic ballasts can also run one lamp, by wire nutting off one of the blue leads, whereas most two lamp magnetic ballasts require that both lamps be installed and not burned out in order for the fixture to function.
The bottom line is, since magnetic fluorescent ballasts are no longer manufactured due to federal minimum energy efficiency standards, electronic replacements are your only option unless you buy used or NOS off ebay or Craigslist, so pay attention to the label on the new electronic ballast. If it matches the type, size, length and number of lamps as the magnetic ballast you're replacing eg. F40T12, F96T8, F96T12/HO, etc. than you have the correct replacement and are good to go.
Thanks for making it so easy even a senior could understand, I have light!!!
Glad it helped!
Brah.... THANK YOU!!! It took me a few days to get back to my light fixture after removing the old ballast and I thought I'd lost my damn mind. Never would have put the reds to the blue, thank you for making this short, sweet, and to the point. Two thumbs way up. And bonus points for color coding the diagram & not just writing the colors. Big help for those of us with the ADD. I was able to say I did it, and didn't blow anything up!
Sarah Click love that it helped you. Comments like this definitely make up for any thumbs down. Lol And glad nobody has gotten zapped.
Thank You Thank You Thank you , you are a life saver especially this close to Christmas with house guests on the way
Got ‘done’ replacing my ballast and only one of the two lamps lit. Spent too long researching how to resolve it - until I found your video. Less than four minutes in, paused it and went and rewired things. Perfect. Thanks!
I had a similar experience so I tried to cut through the BS for people.
Perfect! THANK YOU! Wasn’t getting anywhere until I came across your video
Thanks for the comment. I hope you found this early in your searches. It's a mess in Google search for mismatched ballast wires.
Saved me a trip back to Lowe’s as I was sure I purchased the wrong thing! 👍🏾
Score! Like and follow for Part 2. “How to Diffuse a Nuclear Warhead”.
Thank you for this! Saved me another trip to the store. Going to install these today.
Excellent. Good luck with repairs.
Very helpful. I don't think I would have gotten it done without this instruction.
Glad it worked.
Worked perfect!!! Thank you so much for this lol I went into this project not having a clue. The sense of accomplishment rofl!!!!
Just one word - AWESOME! The only problem I had was reattaching the reflector, used ratchet straps to hold in place while screwing the bolts back. Thanks for the video.
Awesome! Back at you.
Just wanted to say thank you! Worked great for me!
This is a great video and you cannot find this info anywhere. Saved me a lot of headaches and trips to the hardware store. Thanks!!
I hope you found the video quickly!
Great video! This is what I needed to know. On one end, I had a red wire attached to one socket that jumped to the other socket. On the other end, I had one blue wire going into each socket. I replaced the old T12 ballast with a new T8 ballast, but it had 2 reds, 2 blues, and 2 yellows. I could not for the life of me get the lights working properly, but I didn't wire them like you did in this video. I'll try it. Thanks!!
Excellent, update if it worked as your scenario is slightly different it sounds like based on a seemingly random (or duplicative) wires.
Thank you so much worked perfectly replacing the 25+ year old ballast in my wife's bathroom with a new electronic one. So easy there is no reason for me not to do my bath, where the lights have been slow to turn on for several years, and hum.
Glad it helped
Short and to the point. Great stuff.
Thanks man!
Thank you so much! I love that you made it clear with the picture and you were straight to the point.
Thank you for the kind words. Did you try becoming inebriated with my non-verbal "umms" as a drinking game? I'll do better next repair, using a script. lol!
I bought a brand new 2 lamp F40T12 fluorescent rapid start ballast for my new house, and I wired it up the old way like how the old ballast was wired up and it worked 100% for me and the new ballast I wired up how it was on the old one has absolutely no problems at all a few days later.
Thank you, I couldn't find any other videos with this exact detail.
only time explanation matched my fixture-- you're right it is counterintuitive: 1 BLUE+2 BLUE; 1BLUE +2 RED; 1(long) RED + 2 YELLOW; BLACK + BLACK; WHITE + WHITE. After wiring it thusly after many arguments, fights, nuts in the toilet, or caps down the drain, trying to put my 300lb 6'3 1/2 frame and associated hands designed for less fine work up on a ladder too big to fit between the sink cabinet and opposite wall(and still hold 300 lbs) , and lacking the contortionist ability to bend, stretch or otherwise reach from the floor to the ceiling where the new ballast attaches in a recessed rectangle that I think was designed as a sky light cavity originally, I tested it after 2 trips to HOME and one to electrical supply and when they didn't light up I immediately cursed from whence I came, throwing my tool satchel in disgust into the bathtub and stomped out. My helper/grandson yelled "You have to turn on the switch" Which he did, and they look and work perfect! Thanks!
I’ve read everything I can find on the ‘Net about ballasts and it’s honestly a clusterfart. There’s no comprehensive explanation that accounts for how these things are wired, color coded, or determined: by various manufacturers. I can’t even find an explanation of what happens inside a ballast with multiple leads. I’m not an electrician. Just a guy who appreciates understanding some things. Occasionally I’ll try to do a deep dive and just get frustrated because NONE of my questions are being answered by what I’m reading and searches similarly come up short. I don’t have a pile of ballasts or the the time to sit with a multimeter and figure out what’s going on in a ballast. Nobody has ever posted a decent link. Not yet anyways. Glad this seems to have worked for you!
Thank you this is the info l needed and to say l went to Lowes and the worker told most the customer who bought have no ideas how to do the connect the wiring the Ballast with fixture and it burnout and what l bought is the RS240P which is the same one you show in your video and the show old one is the same magnetic ballast that you show in your video
Awesome. Glad it helped you.
This was super helpful and explained everything! I was able to change mine with your help! Thank you!
I’m so glad it helped you out! Thanks for the comment.
I went through several videos and this is the only one that made sense. My shop lights work now, thanks!
It could even be shorter in length, but hopefully you found it quickly. Thanks for the comment.
Thanks, this worked. Very helpful and straightforward explanation.
This helped out so much and worked. Thank you!
Thanks for the comment!
Thanks so much - short and sweet and complete!!!
Thanks for taking the time to make the video. Spot in for my needs and straight forward. Thanks!!
So helpful, thanks for posting this!
Thank you. Clear, straight forward, and right on target! Good job!
Hope it helped, maybe even saved some gas money.
@@Chinookman Absolutely! Your diagram and step-through were easy. I would have taken me forever to figure it out.
Thank you! Worked perfectly. I was about to return my ballast to Lowe’s.
Glad I could help!
Thanks very much. Great video. I was able to replace my ballast following your instructions.
Very glad to have helped you out!
Thanks David.Your drawing is very clear to understand.
Perfect video. I had 4 yellow wires but hooked them up per the ballast diagram and your instructions. Worked like a charm!
Hey glad to hear it all worked out well given the small difference. It’s the Wild West in ballast land.
Thank you for this! Saved me another trip to store return!
Thank you. I wondered why the colors didn't match. Your video totally helped
So glad to hear!
Great information - used your diagram while wiring to make sure all my connections were right. Success and I can once again see in a cavernous walk in closet!
Janice Cavolt hopefully mine was the first instruction you found. My search was painful. So much crap out there that didn’t have only what I needed. Lol!
GREAT video man! Help me to fix my light.
Thanks a lot 👍👍👍
That's awesome!
Amazing video. Exactly the necessary information.
So glad it helped you.
Thanks so much for this video. Also, a tip for others: Don't be me. Mount the new ballast first, *then* cut the wires.
My red wire was way too short, so I had to wire nut in an extra run of wire to connect the yellow wires to the red. The blue ones were a bit too short for comfort, too.
This is exactly what I deal with at work! Old and new Ballast
Great video explaining what puzzled me when I opened it up.
Thanks for the kind words.
You my friend
Are a life saver.
Thank you !!!!!!!!
I found a new electronic ballast with yellow, red and blue wires just like my older ballast. The difference I see is it’s rated for more amps and is rated for larger 40T12 bulbs whereas my ballast like the one in this video is labeled for smaller T8 bulbs.
Thank you. That helped - couldn’t have done it without your direction
Thanks for the feedback! Glad it helped.
Your video really helped me out in a bind here. Thank you so much for this.
Always glad to hear!