How Do You Remove The Wires From A Fluorescent Lampholder?

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How Do You Remove The Wires From A Fluorescent Lampholder?

3 Answers

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Answer 1

I am an electrician in Nevada ...Usually on most ballasts there is 2 red, 2 blue, 2yellow, and 1 white and 1 Black.

First turn off the switch to the light or hit the breaker, once all the power is off you want to cut all the wires.Do not try to pull them out of the lamp holder,just cut them but leave plenty of wire (don't cut them at the base of the holder,cut them as close to the ballast as you can, that way you have plenty of slack to wire in the new ballast,once the ballast is free then just wire nut it all back together color to color, then wire the black and white to the power source white to white and black to black ,red or blue turn on the power and witness the magic that is fluorescent.

Answer 2

I asked some electricians. They said whenever they replace a ballast, they don't try to remove the wires from the lampholders. Instead, they clip the old ballast's wires close to the lampholders and use wire nuts to splice the new ballast's wires, keeping in mind to match the wires by color.

Answer 3

For a neat in stallion without all the wire nuts, try this if you have push-in-quick-connect wire attachments on the lamp holder.

1) First, shut down all power to the lamp and disconnect AC voltage.
2) Inspect the lamp holders at the ends. Remove it from the fixture if possible. Most are designed to slide out, but it may have a small piece of metal in the fixture that has to be bent to release it.
3) Look closely at the lamp holder. Mine had 2 places for a push-in-quick-connect, as are on most AC light switches or AC wall sockets, but no release for the wires already installed
4) Here you may have 2 options, A) I could have used small wire cutters to cut the wire off so short it could not be touched and used the alternate wire push connect, or B) I choose to "unscrew" the wire from the push-in-quick-connect with moderate tension pulling the wire out. This can occasionally damage the lamp holder so don't pull hard. If it damaged the holder clip, use the other un-used push-in-quick-connect point when reinstalling.
5) At this point I cut off all wires about 3 inches from the lamp holder and removed the old ballast.
6) Now install the new ballast and route the wires to the lamp holders with same color wire. Remove wires and install one color at a time to avoid confusion.
7) Check to make sure AC is still off before reinstalling AC line wires.
8) Install lamps and covers.
9) Test operation.