Resurrected from the dead.
I finally got around to pulling the hood apart to figure out what was going on rather than dealing with Red Sea and sending the thing back. I think my unit wins the prize for poor construction.
At first, I was sort of happy. The jumper wire between the two end caps wasn't inserted all the way. I wiggled it and it came out! So, I powered up thinking I was all set. Wrong. Chased back to the ballast and the brown wire wasn't seated correctly, it too just pulled out! So, power on again.... nothing. Bah.
Ok, the next logical thing was to see if there was even power off the relay. Meter shows power and it's working correctly. Reconnect the power and test the output side of the ballast. Nothing. Check the relay power and it's good. So, swap two ballasts and see what happens. Result: Now 2 different bulbs are dead. What?
After another 20 minutes of scratching my head, testing for voltage and a few choice words for the person that engineered this thing I finally found it.
A bad crimp on the blue wire's flag terminal. It was crimped around the insulation, but not around the copper. Pulled all the power leads and soldered the flag terminals. Just the one wasn't connected, but for the trouble to get back in there later, it was worth dealing with. But still, 3 critical faults in constructing the one circuit.
The real end result is that I'm even more disappointed with the whole thing. I can't really say anything because my wife loves the look of it and the fact that most everything is integrated and "leak proof" in her kitchen. (don't bother explaining to her about the chiller loop....)
So after the skimmer that barely skims, the noisy pumps, the constant battle with micro bubbles and the grating noise of the hinges (who ever designed those must have had 4 arms and was deaf) I can at least say I fixed the lights.
Haven't been this disappointed in a purchase in a long time and I was one of those people who bought an HD-DVD player.
