Hardware Insights Forum

Higher efficiency, extended lamp life...sounds like a silly question, doesn't it??? Not quite, though, because there's one big problem with electronic ballasts: Many of them are cheap crap.

Low quality electrolytic capacitors are common, as are non-safety-rated capacitors across the mains, along with the use of fusible resistors (which are nowhere near as safe as proper fuses). (See also - the problems with CFLs.)

I'm having a bit of a hard time deciding what to vote, but at least the old inductive ones are bulletproof (the ballast itself, that is).

I'd imagine that a -high quality- electronic is probably the better of the two. It's trying to find one that can be the hard bit. I'm not really an expert on light globes, though.

c_hegge wrote:I'd imagine that a -high quality- electronic is probably the better of the two.

I agree. The basis of the poll is if you're not sure what you're getting.