"Dunter Powries" wrote in message
...
I'm great at this hobby until something doesn't work. Then I'm all
swearing
and throwing stuff and the kids have to go stay with my mother for a
couple
days. OK, that's not true (well, some of it's not).

I have a compact fluorescent light hood with four 55-watt bulbs on a
timer.
For about a month now, when the lamp is turned on, nothing happens right
away. After a few minutes, the ends of the tubes begin to glow very, very
faintly orange. Until a few days ago, after about fifteen or twenty
minutes
the tubes would suddenly light up or if I flicked the switch once or twice
the tubes would light up. Now, after twenty minutes the bulbs still
haven't
lit up, so I flick the switch on and off a few times and they'll light.

The fixture is a few months old. Right after I fired it up the first time
I
noticed that one of the tubes was discoloured. Does anyone have any
ideas?
I bought it online so, although I COULD return it, I'm strongly inclined
to
fix it myself.



This sounds like a problem with the starter device. There are two types,
that I know of, the first and older type is cylindrical about 3/4 of an inch
in diameter. It is normally located on the top, side or end of the unit. If
you have this type then the fix is relatively easy, grabbing it between
thumb and forefinger, twist it out and replace it with another purchased at
any half decent electrical supplier. They are not expensive and should last
more than a year. (dependant and the number of times the light is switched
on, the number of tubes it has to fire and almost all other environmental
conditions! I.e. YMMV) As you have four tubes, you might find you have 2 of
these, although then I would have expected you to say that two tubes lit and
the others didn't or at least battled to.

The other type is all intergrated into the ballast (thats the heavy thing
normally associated with flourescent lights and in aquaria lighting units is
normally seperated from the tubes to keep it away from the water!) If this
is the case you can try removing, all but one of the tubes, checking to see
if it lights first time, then adding another and so on until you potentially
eliminate a faulty tube (could be the one you mentioned looked a bit off
colour!) If this doesn't work and it won't fire with any one of the tubes
then I would say you have a duff unit and it will need replacing.

I hope this helps.

Gordon

P.S. be sure to unplug the mains plug before attempting any of this, I would
hate for you to get a nasty surprise!