Learn How To Replace The Fluorescent Starter In A Windhager Bug Zapper

Fourmilab is surrounded on three sides by farmland. Within the summer, bugs are in all places. Faced with this example, defence in depth is the one choice: window screens, bats, Odonata on the pond, fly strips on the windows and swatters in every room, and as the final level of terminal defence, high voltage bug zappers with ultraviolet fluorescent lures. These will not be elegant units, but they get the job accomplished. The principle could not be simpler-flying insects, whose compound eyes see lengthy-wave ultraviolet light that mammalian eyes do not, are attracted by the lure tube, which seems to emit a dim blue light to humans. To succeed in the sunshine, they must fly between wires electrified with between 4 and eight kilovolts which, when the insect completes the circuit, kill-a-bug. The one disadvantage (at the very least if you are not a flying insect) is that they do not seem to last very long. After a bit of a couple of summer time, the bulb either starts to flash on and off like a strobe light or simply refuses to light at all.



Replacement bulbs are readily available and simple to install, however in my expertise, at least half the time replacing the bulb does not repair the issue. With no gentle to draw the insects, a zapper is ineffective, so regardless that its high voltage subsystem continues to work perfectly, most individuals junk it when changing the bulb does not make it gentle up. I'm way 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 simple to treatment, so in the hope of saving any person else the difficulty of figuring it out, I've scribbled these notes on how you can restore your individual bug zappers. These directions pertain to bug zappers made by the Windhager company of Salzburg, Austria, who have a dominant market share on this obscure business here in Central Europe.



Obviously, you probably have a bug zapper made by another firm, it will look completely different inside and may conceivably use an entirely totally different circuit for the fluorescent lamp. Unless you understand what you're doing and know enough electronics to be assured you're not going to do something stupid, it's best to leave issues properly enough alone and get a brand new bug zapper. Further, we'll be disassembling and modifying a Zap Zone Defender Device which, when opened up, has exposed connections to probably lethal mains present and very unpleasant if not deadly high voltage. In case you are sufficiently silly or Zap Zone Defender Device scatterbrained that you are likely to neglect to drag the mains plug before sticking your hand contained in the guts of a bug zapper, you should cease reading instantly and Zap Zone Defender select some safer venture, like making microwave popcorn. First of all, earlier than starting this process, you should definitely attempt replacing the bulb and see if that fixes the problem.



If it does, you have saved a lot of time and, if not, you are going to want a replacement bulb in the end, so why not have one readily available when the time comes? If a new bulb would not do the trick, the issue is sort of actually a failed fluorescent starter inside the box, Official Zap Zone Defender so we'll must open it up. You 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 ground or your work area. Depending on the model, the two halves of the body of the bug zapper are fastened along with 4 or six screws. On "industrial" fashions, Zap Zone Defender these are 2 mm metric machine screws and nuts, but some "consumer" fashions use infernal "split slot" screws which are intended to maintain you from opening up the machine. You see, you are a consumer, so you are expected to devour-buy, buy, purchase, not mend issues which break.