How To Replace The Fluorescent Starter In A Windhager Bug Zapper

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Fourmilab is surrounded on three sides by farmland. Within the summer, bugs are everywhere. Faced with this situation, defence in depth is the only possibility: window screens, bats, Odonata on the pond, fly strips on the windows and swatters in each room, and because the last degree of terminal defence, high voltage Zappify Bug Zapper shop zappers with ultraviolet fluorescent lures. These will not be elegant units, however they get the job accomplished. The principle couldn't be less complicated-flying insects, whose compound eyes see lengthy-wave ultraviolet gentle that mammalian eyes don't, are attracted by the lure tube, which appears to emit a dim blue gentle to humans. To succeed in the light, they must fly between wires electrified with between 4 and eight kilovolts which, when the insect completes the circuit, kill-a-bug. The one drawback (at the very least if you are not a flying insect) is that they do not seem to final very long. After a bit multiple summer time, the bulb either begins to flash on and off like a strobe gentle or simply refuses to light at all.



Replacement bulbs are readily obtainable and easy to put in, however in my experience, a minimum of half the time replacing the bulb does not fix the problem. With no mild to draw the insects, a zapper is ineffective, so despite the fact that its high voltage subsystem continues to work completely, most people junk it when altering the bulb would not make it light up. I'm approach 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 occurring. The supply of the problem proved to be as simple as I expected and as straightforward to remedy, so within the hope of saving somebody else the difficulty of figuring it out, I've scribbled these notes on the way to restore your individual bug zappers. These instructions pertain to bug zappers made by the Windhager firm of Salzburg, Austria, who have a dominant market share in this obscure business right here in Central Europe.



Obviously, if you have a bug zapper made by another firm, it will look totally different inside and may conceivably use a completely different circuit for the fluorescent lamp. Unless you understand what you are doing and know enough electronics to be assured you're not going to do something stupid, it's best to depart issues effectively enough alone and get a new bug zapper. Further, we'll be disassembling and modifying a machine which, when opened up, has exposed connections to potentially lethal mains current and very unpleasant if not deadly excessive voltage. If you're sufficiently silly or scatterbrained that you are likely to neglect to tug the mains plug before sticking your hand contained in the guts of a bug zapper, you should cease studying instantly and Zappify Bug Zapper shop choose some safer venture, like making microwave popcorn. To start with, earlier than beginning this procedure, you should definitely attempt replacing the bulb and see if that fixes the problem.



If it does, you've got saved loads of time and, if not, you are going to want a replacement bulb eventually, so why not have one readily available when the time comes? If a new bulb doesn't do the trick, the problem is almost certainly a failed fluorescent starter contained in the field, so we'll must open it up. You probably did remember to unplug the zapper before beginning to disassemble it, did not you? First, take away the bug catcher tray at the underside of the zapper, taking care to not spill useless bugs all around the floor or your work space. Depending on the model, the two halves of the body of the bug zapper are fastened together with 4 or six screws. On "industrial" models, these are 2 mm metric machine screws and nuts, but some "consumer" models use infernal "split slot" screws which are supposed to keep you from opening up the system. You see, you're a consumer, so you are anticipated to consume-purchase, buy, purchase, not mend issues which break.