Flickering Fluorescent

Have a 4 bulb fixture and the two inside bulbs stay off but flicker on occasionally. I have turned them trying to get them to make a better connection but they still act the same way. Any help greatly appreciated.

 

Have you tried replacing them ?

 

Swap the inside bulbs with the outside bulbs and see what happens. If you still have the problem, you probably need to replace the ballast that controls the two inside bulbs.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I reversed just two of the bulbs and all 4 worked for about 5 minutes and then went out. (2 outside ones) Then I reversed the other two and only the two inside ones are working. That rules out the balast for the inside. When they worked for 5 minutes, all 4 were working so I guess that rules out bad bulbs. Can you guys think of anything esle that may be causing this? (During that 5 minutes there was some flickering before it stopped.)
Thanks again!!

 

Replace all four bulbs. If that fails, replace both ballasts (or simply replace the fixture). Your experiments have not ruled anything out. You only proved that either the bulbs or the ballasts are unreliable.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. John, I do not want this to come across as a wise guy but just curious. I respect and understand you guys are the pros or I would not come here to ask.

How did the all 4 bulbs work for those 5 minutes? Also why are the inside ballast now working yet you say I did not rule out either?

Thanks

 

I have absolutely no idea.

 

Let me see if I understand:

1. Originally your outside bulbs worked and your inside bulbs did not.

2. I told you to swap the two outside bulbs with the two inside bulbs to determine if the problem was with the bulbs or the ballasts.

3. You swapped ONE of the inside bulbs with ONE of the outside bulbs. Afterwards (discounting the 5 minute period) the inside bulbs now work correctly instead of the outside bulbs.

4. You swapped the other two bulbs, and the situation remained the same - outside bulbs not working, inside bulbs still working.

It would seem, using the principles of logic, that the culprit is the bulb that was originally on the inside of the first two bulbs that you swapped. That bulb now resides with the outside pair. Of course, changing all 4 bulbs would have corrected the problem. What still has yet to be determined is if a problem with the inside ballast caused the demise of the bulb that went bad.