Hot MH Ballasts!!!

hey just got my jbj K-2 Vipers up and running!!!! Hurray!!! But had them on for about five hours last night and noticed the ballasts were pretty hot! Is this normal, i dont want to start a fire! Just concerned about this because i thought remote ballasts were supposed to run cooler? Anyone have a Viper and experienced the same issue?:-/

 

The ballast got hot for me for the like 1st week. or so. Now I can touch it easily after running 8 hours or so ... It cools down after a while.

However Not the same for the reflector cage. lol.

 

Ballasts do get hot...This is normal.

 

Is it a magnetic or electronic ballast?

 

Its a remote UL Recognized metal halide ballast! can you stand them up on the end like a sky scraper or should it lay flat like a brick? Also i had one just lying on the carpet and thought that was a bad idea, so i put a clay water tray from a spare clay pot i had lying around? Thought that might be better?

 

Lay them like you would a brick. It would also be good to have air flowing around them as well.

 

My ballast is on a Wood stand my dad made that has slits in it for air to pass under the unit, We have it a few feet away from the Air vent in the room and that passes air over and under the unit.. Might be why mine stays warmish but not hot.

 

cool. ill get some clip on fans soon!! and aim them at the ballasts, that should keep me golden!!!

 

But you don't know if it's magnetic or electronic? The only reason I'm asking is that magnetic ballasts tend to run hotter while electronic ones tend to run cooler.

 

IIRC, the vipers have magnetic.

Now some electronic ballasts run pretty hot too.

This is normal in any case, just make sure to have adequate airflow around it. You really shouldn't need to run a fan on the ballast.