A major US lighting manufacture recently announced a recall of 700,000 ballast-compatible LED tube due to potential burn hazard by arcing. (Search “LED T8 recall” on Internet for more information.) The recall was for “arching” that was occurring inside the ballast-compatible tube, that is, an internal arcing. This issue can be resolved by modifying the tube design. However, this falls short to address the source of the arching problem.  

The root cause of the arcing is the “ballast.” Most ballasts have a starting voltage around 600V. It there are any loose connections in the lighting fixture, whether it is inside the LED tube (internal arcing) or between the sockets and the bi-pin of the tube lamp (external arcing), arching can occur because of the 600V starting voltage. This is a problem since the first use of ballast with the fluorescent T8/T12 lamp. Because ballast-compatible LED tube must operate with a ballast, the arcing problem persists whenever that is any loose connections in the ballasted fixture, posing a potential burn hazard.

The best way of getting rid of arcing is to take out ballast from the fixture once and for all. This eliminates the high voltage issue, removes any ballast replacement and maintenance down the road, and saves more energy on lighting. The Aleddra SureFit® DBA+ LED tube is ballast-compatible, but more importantly, it is also AC friendly. In other words, it can operate on line voltage only (110V to 277V) without a ballast, thus no more arcing. Aleddra always recommends its customers to remove the ballast as soon as possible.

For more information, watch the demo video at:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSX0L6s4oWE

Aleddra’s SureFit DBA+ tube comes with a field-replaceable driver design and is UL/DLC certified. Contact your local electrical distributor or Aleddra at [email protected] or 425-430-4555 for information.