Quote:
Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer
Yesterday the maintenance guy for a women's clothes store came by with an old fluorescent tube. He needed a new one because this one had been flickering for a while and now was really broken; it had started leaking and it started stinking  . He was already grumbling, that had told the girls in the store numerous times that when a fluorescent tube started flickering they should switch it off and let him know so he could exchange it for a new one asap.
He got even more annoyed when I told him that when a tube stops working it doesn't start leaking and doesn't stink. And that since he told me it has been flickering for a while he should check the wiring and ballast. The flickering heats up not only the tube's ends but also the ballast. So if something was smelling that it would be either or both the wiring or ballast.
He came back fifteen minutes later with the ballast, the starter and bit of wiring, which had not only turned nearly black of the heat, the paint had already started to peel off. That is heat resistant paint. Even my father had never seen such damage. The wiring was mostly blank copper with some charred bits of plastic and the starter didn't have much of the plastic casing left.
We got him a newer type of ballast, an electronic one that doesn't need a started. They are more expensive and break when you leave a flickering tube on too long (which isn't long). But that's better than having things overheat. It could have easily set something on fire if it got so hot that the paint came off!
He was very very annoyed because of the fire hazard and because he had warned the girls before. IMHO those are the type of women that give other women a bad name when it comes to technology. Just like our neighbour, the owner of the lingerie store, who believes that women can't replace light bulbs. When one needs replacing she always calls my father. I've starting doing the replacing for her, when I'm working when she calls. It annoys her that I do it. |
Rumpelteazer, please message me a link to this ballast.
I dislike those kind of women too.