Tips On How To Replace The Fluorescent Starter In A Windhager Bug Zapper

Fourmilab is surrounded on three sides by farmland. Within the summer time, bugs are all over the place. Faced with this example, defence in depth is the only option: window screens, bats, Odonata on the pond, fly strips on the windows and swatters in every room, and because the last level of terminal defence, high voltage bug zappers with ultraviolet fluorescent lures. These are usually not elegant devices, however they get the job executed. The precept couldn't be easier-flying insects, whose compound eyes see long-wave ultraviolet light that mammalian eyes do not, are attracted by the lure tube, which seems to emit a dim blue gentle to humans. To achieve the light, they must fly between wires electrified with between 4 and 8 kilovolts which, when the insect completes the circuit, kill-a-bug. The one disadvantage (at the least if you are not a flying insect) is that they don't appear to final very long. After a bit of more than one summer, the bulb either starts to flash on and off like a strobe gentle or just refuses to light at all.



Replacement bulbs are readily out there and straightforward to put in, but in my experience, at least half the time replacing the bulb doesn't fix the issue. With no gentle to draw the insects, a zapper is ineffective, so even though its high voltage subsystem continues to work perfectly, most people junk it when altering the bulb does not make it gentle up. I'm means too cheap to be proud of such a state of affairs, so I decided to open up a failed bug zapper and see what was going on. The source of the problem proved to be as simple as I expected and as straightforward to treatment, so within the hope of saving somebody else the trouble of figuring it out, I've scribbled these notes on how you can repair your own bug zappers. These directions pertain to bug zappers made by the Windhager firm of Salzburg, Austria, who've a dominant market share in this obscure business right here in Central Europe.



Obviously, when you have a bug zapper made by one other firm, it may look completely different inside and will conceivably use an entirely completely different circuit for the fluorescent lamp. Unless you understand what you're doing and know sufficient electronics to be confident you are not going to do something stupid, it's best to go away issues nicely enough alone and get a brand new bug zapper. Further, we will be disassembling and modifying a system which, when opened up, has exposed connections to potentially lethal mains current and very unpleasant if not deadly excessive voltage. In case you are sufficiently silly or scatterbrained that you're prone to forget to drag the mains plug before sticking your hand inside the guts of a bug zapper, you need to stop reading instantly and select some safer venture, like making microwave popcorn. To start with, before beginning this procedure, you'll want to strive changing the bulb and see if that fixes the problem.



If it does, you've got saved plenty of time and, Zap Zone Defender Testimonial if not, you are going to want a substitute bulb ultimately, Zap Zone Defender Testimonial so why not have one available when the time comes? If a new bulb doesn't do the trick, the issue is almost definitely a failed fluorescent starter contained in the box, so we'll have to open it up. You probably did remember to unplug the zapper before beginning to disassemble it, didn't you? First, take away the bug catcher tray at the bottom of the zapper, taking care to not spill dead bugs all around the flooring or your work space. Depending on the model, the 2 halves of the physique of the bug zapper are fastened together with 4 or six screws. On "industrial" fashions, these are 2 mm metric machine screws and nuts, however some "consumer" models use infernal "split slot" screws that are meant to maintain you from opening up the system. You see, you are a shopper, so you're expected to devour-purchase, purchase, purchase, not mend things which break.