LL electronic ballast, eye bulb, 3 months old.

Ive noticed my strike time has slowly extended over the past few months. Takes close to an hour sometimes to fire up. Ballast seems to be doing its job since bulb flickers every 4-5 minutes. Can someone tell me if the problem is the ballast or the bulb?
Have checked connections many times. No change.

Thanks

Check your wiring and bend the centre prong in the mogul socket upwards. Also clean it and the contacts on the bulb if they have carbon on them.

I recommend you make sure when you light your lamp you let it run for at least an hour or so before shutting it off. Running it for 10 minutes at a time is just going to wreck it and can cause extended strike times like this.

The problem is probably the bulb, but it might go away if you run it for several hours to let it "burn in" a bit.

Quite normal for arc sizes we use in our lamps. They aren't meant to be cycled often as MMc states. A good test would be to get another lamp to check the condition of your ballast. Then you'd have a backup.

Thanks to both of you. Our run times are in the 4-5 hour range. I've cleaned contacts a number of times...tried the bent mogul connection. Figured the second bulb option would probably clear things up...I have a 400 watt metal halide sitting around...will this work with the electronic ballast?

yup

Thanks davehtr