What would happen if...
 

..I put a 55 watt pc bulb into a 65 watt pc fixture, :onfire: ?

Nope won't work. As you are then pushing to many watts through a bullb that is not designed to have that many watts. Your bulb may blow up. The underwriter labarotories only allow 5% variance in manufacturing. Which means your ballast could push more than 65watts and bulb less than 55 watts. Which if you mess with that could mean "fire hazard"

I wouldn't mess with it.

Craig

Sheesh, I'm not electronics whiz, but the one Workhorse 5 ballast in our Hamilton fixture came with two 55w PCs. We use 65w PCs with that ballast with no problem. I think it might depend on your ballast. What ballast do you have?

It may physically work per say.Maybe this bulb or the next one but maybe the one after that explodes from being over driven. But in all reality not a great idea. You are taking a chance. I do this for a living so i have seen some not so nice things happen with people who over do electrical things. I myself just wouldn't take the chance. But hey to all there own:) Just not worth a shattered bulb in my tank.

Craig

Yes Bev, but that is under powering it. Putting a 65W in a 55W socket just means it will not get enought power and not glow as bright.
I don't think the 55W in the 65 W would explode (don"t qute me on that)
But I think it would burn a lot brighter for a much shorter time if it fired up at all.
IMO:wink: .

Sorry my mistake. On Bev's case it would be fine as she is doing exactly that. Under powering it. On the 55 watt bulb in a 65 watt rated fixture you are over driving the bulb which could result in a blown bulb over your tank,

Its getting a little late and i can't read real well apparently tonite...

Craig

Ok, thanks for the opinions guys, I don't think I'll try it. That said, anyone know where I can get a Hamilton 65 watt 10,000K straight-pin pc bulb? Or if they even make one in this configuration?

Thanks,

Check J&L. IIRC, we bought our straight pin PCs from them. AI might also have them.

Yeah, I already tried both of those options. AI only had 55 watt, and J&L only lists Coralife and JBJ pc bulbs. I don't want Coralife'$ bulbs, and I also like the colour of the Hamilton's better, which makes me want to shy away from the $20 ebay-type bulbs....

electronic ballast
 

what type of ballast is it? most PCs units are using electronic ballasts nowadays and putting a 55w pc bulb into a 65 w pc fixture will be fine because the electronic ballast will adjust its output accordingly.

in addition, i've read numerous articles that the 55 and 65 watt bulbs/fixtures are basically the same. just query it on a search engine and you'll find the same articles.

Hmm, interesting. I don't know what kind of ballast - it's a Coralife Aqualight fixture, so whatever they use in those...

Heh, amusing...

I actually looked in my two coralife 2x65's today - 3 of the bulbs are 55w'ers. All have been like that for >1yr.

You can also get adapters so you can adapt the bulbs from one pin style to the other.

corallife
 

the coralife aqualights use electronic ballast so go for it..... trust me it will work.

Andy, where did you get the pin convertor? I'm looking to convert some square to straight pins without having to rip out the previous.

It worked for me. I have tried it and used it for extended period of time. However, if I remember correct, it will only produce ~63watt equivalent output. If the bulb is spec at 55watt, it will be overdriven a bit and give off a little more heat. Otherwise, it will work perfectly fine.

On the overdriving topic, there are numerous articles on the internet about overdrive PC lights. Mostly about doubling the power source to the bulb by connect the ballast for two bulbs into one. From what I understood, the bulbs with double input will not double in output. I think it was something like 1.5X the output. Again, the bulb will heat up even more. Safety hazard for sure. I won't do it, but I think it is good to know.

BTW, pin adaptor can be found on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.ca/Power-Compact-Flu...QQcmdZViewItem

Yeah, I've been using my old 55 watt for several days now, no problems. It's a good temporary solution...