Nothing like watching bugs fry in the bug zapper! That's my fourth of July cellebration. Not noisy fireworks, and a whole bunch of noisy people, and annoying children. I just sit on my porch, and watch the bugs fry. The Stingers are the best ones! The BK500 ones have a small green LED as well as the UV Black light. THUS MORE BUGS!!!!!
Very helpful video. I have a 2 bulb flat panel bug zapper, I started it up for the year, and both bulbs did not light. It seems odd that both bulbs would die at the same, especially since they were working last year. I will check this before I get 2 new bulbs.
Just had this happen with my single lamp flowtron. An easy 60seconds with a voltmeter, and sure enough the starter is out. My socket is also failing, but Good video! 👍
Dude, you never explain anything. Flowtron wants to charge me $20 shipping for a little ballast, that should only be about 5-7 shipping and the ballast is $37, but so small that 21 for shipping gets me right to the cost of a new unit that will die in 2 years as they predict. You only assume that the starter is the problem tell people here's what you do.... then you proceed to simply say buy one for flowtron.
Video is pointless... mines well just order a new one off Amazon. The one i had only lasted two summers. Thought this would have been a simple 5min fix, turns out to but be damn project... gzzz...
Replacing the starter on my vintage Flintrol 25 watt 3/4 acre zapper didn't help at all. The new bulb still barely glows (orange), but never fully lights or looks like a black light bulb should (blue). Bulb I ordered is supposed to be a black (blue) light, and the starter is a FS-25 25 watt just like it came with. What else could be the problem?
i hear so.... i hear if not rated right, can still get bulb to start, i mean the electricity to jump across/through the tube making a arc through the gases... lighting up whole tube... getting it "started"
the ballast, which is actually a large inductor, limits the current that can flow through the fluorescent tube once it has started up. The tube requires a high voltage to ionise the gas in the tube and initiate the flow of current. However, once “struck”, the ionised gas in the tube would carry a very high current if it was exposed to the full mains voltage. The tube would get very hot, very quickly and fail. Indeed it’s likely it would explode. The ballast controls the current such that it never reaches the level where it will damage the tube. In effect, it acts as a type of resistor, but using inductive reactance and that has the great advantage that, unlike a resistor, it doesn’t dissipate heat. Instead, during the part of the AC cycle where the voltage increases, energy is stored in the form of a magnetic field which is then returned as the voltage across the component reduces. The other function of the ballast is to act in conjunction with the starter to give a very large voltage “kick” to get the gas in the tube to ionise so it can pass current. Note, that this all refers to old-fashioned “tube” fluorescents with a “real” ballast. Compact fluorescent lamps have a so-called electronic ballast that does the same sort of function but without a large inductor. Low voltage fluorescent lamps also use a lot of electronics to produce the required effects. www.quora.com/What-is-the-use-of-ballast-and-starter-in-the-fluorescent-lamp
i had my bug zapper now for almost 6-7 months, and today for some reason the bulbs/lights in it wouldn't turn on and they are 1/4 black sort of like its burnt. does the mean i have to replace the lights?
Maybe someone has a little more information on this; however, I am curious to know if the starter for the bulb has anything to do with powering the electrical grid for the zapper? My Flowtron light has had trouble illuminating and when initially powering the unit, the zapper grid has random electrical charges coming from it from bugs stuck on the grid. In other words, is it possible that bugs on the grid can continue to pull power from the starter when the light tries to illuminate and would scraping bugs off the grid work to fix the problem?! Anyone?!
thanks man i waas riding my bike on the side of the road and found a flowtron bug zapper and now it works because of u
Nothing like watching bugs fry in the bug zapper! That's my fourth of July cellebration. Not noisy fireworks, and a whole bunch of noisy people, and annoying children. I just sit on my porch, and watch the bugs fry. The Stingers are the best ones! The BK500 ones have a small green LED as well as the UV Black light. THUS MORE BUGS!!!!!
Great tip on getting the new starter at Hardware store (typical fluorescent starter) $2.99 at hardware store..... Thanks
Brand new out of the box and the starter bulb was black and not working. Gonna try for a replacement and see how she does. Thanks for the video
Very helpful video. I have a 2 bulb flat panel bug zapper, I started it up for the year, and both bulbs did not light. It seems odd that both bulbs would die at the same, especially since they were working last year. I will check this before I get 2 new bulbs.
Just had this happen with my single lamp flowtron. An easy 60seconds with a voltmeter, and sure enough the starter is out. My socket is also failing, but Good video! 👍
You never showed how you replaced the starter.
just pull it out and stick the new one in?
Dude, you never explain anything. Flowtron wants to charge me $20 shipping for a little ballast, that should only be about 5-7 shipping and the ballast is $37, but so small that 21 for shipping gets me right to the cost of a new unit that will die in 2 years as they predict. You only assume that the starter is the problem tell people here's what you do.... then you proceed to simply say buy one for flowtron.
Video is pointless... mines well just order a new one off Amazon. The one i had only lasted two summers. Thought this would have been a simple 5min fix, turns out to but be damn project... gzzz...
Replacing the starter on my vintage Flintrol 25 watt 3/4 acre zapper didn't help at all. The new bulb still barely glows (orange), but never fully lights or looks like a black light bulb should (blue). Bulb I ordered is supposed to be a black (blue) light, and the starter is a FS-25 25 watt just like it came with. What else could be the problem?
Won't any ballast for that power of bulb work as a substitute? I don't live in an area Flowtron ships to.
i hear so.... i hear if not rated right, can still get bulb to start, i mean the electricity to jump across/through the tube making a arc through the gases... lighting up whole tube... getting it "started"
hence a "starter" as it is called...
the ballast, which is actually a large inductor, limits the current that can flow through the fluorescent tube once it has started up. The tube requires a high voltage to ionise the gas in the tube and initiate the flow of current. However, once “struck”, the ionised gas in the tube would carry a very high current if it was exposed to the full mains voltage. The tube would get very hot, very quickly and fail. Indeed it’s likely it would explode.
The ballast controls the current such that it never reaches the level where it will damage the tube. In effect, it acts as a type of resistor, but using inductive reactance and that has the great advantage that, unlike a resistor, it doesn’t dissipate heat. Instead, during the part of the AC cycle where the voltage increases, energy is stored in the form of a magnetic field which is then returned as the voltage across the component reduces.
The other function of the ballast is to act in conjunction with the starter to give a very large voltage “kick” to get the gas in the tube to ionise so it can pass current.
Note, that this all refers to old-fashioned “tube” fluorescents with a “real” ballast. Compact fluorescent lamps have a so-called electronic ballast that does the same sort of function but without a large inductor. Low voltage fluorescent lamps also use a lot of electronics to produce the required effects.
www.quora.com/What-is-the-use-of-ballast-and-starter-in-the-fluorescent-lamp
i had my bug zapper now for almost 6-7 months, and today for some reason the bulbs/lights in it wouldn't turn on and they are 1/4 black sort of like its burnt.
does the mean i have to replace the lights?
Fan works but bulbs don’t.
No helpful information at all. No link or URL to order.
when that starter is bad will a bulb turn on white?
Bought 2 new starters direct from Flowtron, still nothing when I plug it in.
See I can see my starter is bad but I'm wondering if the power supply for the zap part isn't gone to
Maybe someone has a little more information on this; however, I am curious to know if the starter for the bulb has anything to do with powering the electrical grid for the zapper? My Flowtron light has had trouble illuminating and when initially powering the unit, the zapper grid has random electrical charges coming from it from bugs stuck on the grid. In other words, is it possible that bugs on the grid can continue to pull power from the starter when the light tries to illuminate and would scraping bugs off the grid work to fix the problem?! Anyone?!
Starter does not draw power from fluorescent circuit. High voltage circuit is tied directly to 120 vac. in parallel with light circuit.
@@jp040759 Thanks for the reply! I appreciate it! I ended up installing a new starter bulb and it appears to be working fine now!
@@dezzyd1 You're welcome. Where did you get a new starter?
Super starter is out