So in the mid 90's I bought an F40T12 Regent Electronic Replacement ballast at a local hardware store, I was curious so I bought it. Came in a red box verses green or blue. At that time I had several F40T12 fixtures in service as temporary lighting for home construction. I wired up a 2 lamp strip light with the new ballast and played with it. It was a rapid start, but I can't remember now if it had an instant or slow start to it, I seem to think it was rapid/programmed start.

Anyways, like the rest of you I experimented with some EOL lamps, some that would light and flicker some times on good "hot" rapid start ballasts. To my surprise this thing would light anything I put in it. It was wired in series as well so when one lamp was out they were both out.

The first time I toasted a lamp it was kind of scary really, I didn't understand then what the gas inside the tube was and thought it to be hazardous. I didn't know these things were under a vacuum at the time. Anyways, I toasted two tubes and found it quite neat really. I then kind of termed this ballast as dangerous and uninstalled it and stored it away for later.

I haven't seen this ballast since about 1995 and it's still around I'm sure but I have to go hunting it down at my Parent's place.

Since that time, starting last year I found this forum and gallery and I was laughing out loud to see folks talking about toasting EOL fluorescents with a good EOL show. I thought, dang other people think this is cool too an figured this out to setup as well.

This leads me to my questions.

What is your favorite EOL show ballast for say F40T12's ? Something that won't kill it in like 30 second kind of thing.

I'm still hoping to find my go-to ballast for this that I haven't seen or used in 20 years now, but in case I don't...

I tried a modern Phillips-Advance F40T12 electronic replacement in small can and it did it, but it was pretty lame really.

I bought an electronic replacement ballast off ebay recently that was in the full sized can like the old Regent Electronic Ballast was and this one ended up having some EOL protection, not a shut down but ran the cathodes in a series to where if one fails it breaks the circuit. It wires weird compared to normal 2 lamp RS circuits on the yellow/heater side.

I'm a sucker for long, protracted EOL "shows". I like to see RS EOL with dim glowing lamps among a group of functioning fixtures (such as a row). I also like the look of one lamp on stuck starter among a group of preheat lamps (even though I know it's bad for the ballast).

Aside from that, on electronic, vacuum loss is always nice, and I like the hiss sound that follows as air leaks in through the molten hole in the glass. I don't really have any preference to the make or model, though.

Sol,

Let me add to your RS EOL Lamp scenario with this one.

Say a room with 15 or more 2-lamp series fixtures. Put one EOL lamp in each fixture with a good bulb too. Film it, fire them all up. There has to be at least one at a moment that will spring to life momentarily.

Usually RS EOL lamps "try" to start up in warmish weather when first started.

I'm going hunting for my Regent Electronic Ballast this weekend.

I have other Electronic IS ballasts to try, like F96T8 just haven't yet. I have a "fixture" for EOL shows now, something to spook the wife with.

I like a relatively quick death. If a tube has a broken electrode or rectifying, it's a toss up between quick and slow death. If death doesn't occur within 10 mins, I wire it up for 2x overdrive.

The Advance RELB-1S40-SC is my go-to lamp toaster. When I finally kill it, I'd like to upgrade to an F96/HO electronic ballast.

NIckfans,

That looks like a good ballast to me for toasting. I like the single-lamp idea. I didn't realize they made a 1 lamp F40T12 electronic replacement ballast.

Most of the time I just use a standard 2-lamp F32T8 instant-start ballast 1 lamp EOL, 1 good (doing this - keeping 1 good lamp that will remain lit helps protect the ballast)

I've also used a 1-lamp magnetic slimline ballast (that was a good lamp fryer too)
Have used a VHO ballast too!

I would like a High Voltage (100-KV To 1-MV) show, Or high Current (A few hundred Amps, It's hard for me to get that much because it needs giant wires and creates a lot of heat.) for the electrodes.

I prefer LED destruction instead.

And you have a cool ballast!