Fluorescent Tube Operation

I moved into a new apartment about 5 months ago, and it had an 18" fluorescent tube fixture installed above the kitchen sink. I leave it on all the time because the room is dark and needs some ambient lighting anyway. From the get-go the tube was funky, not really burning completely. I would jiggle it around and get it to work better, but a few weeks ago it died out completely. So I bought a new tube (Philips, 15W) at Home Depot, and installed it. It will only light up partially, near the ends of the tube. I can't get the whole tube to fire up, despite much jiggling. I doubt that the bulb is bad. Could this problem be caused by a faulty ballast? I don't know anything about them, any suggestions?

i would bet it is the starter
a round silver thing that looks like a large capacitor on the side by one of the ends (you just twist it a little and pull it out)
they sell them at most hardware stores or at lowes
tho it will cost half as much as a new fixture lol

I have the same problem with the light fixture in my kitchen. The problem is i have already replace the bulbs and the ballast(a used unit). I hope the fixture i have use a starter if not i think i might have to buy another ballast.

http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infelectrical/inffluor.html
Here is a useful link i found while searching for the problem.

Thanks for the help, guys. I think my fixture has a starter, so I could have a bad starter and/or bad ballast. Sounds like it would be easier to replace to whole thing.

Lightmeup said:

Sounds like it would be easier to replace to whole thing.

Click to expand...

Not really. The starter costs less than $2 and will take about 30 seconds to replace. I'd definitely try replacing the starter first, it's about 90% likely that that will solve your problem.

Peter