Find out how to Replace the Fluorescent Starter in A Windhager Bug Zapper

Fourmilab is surrounded on three sides by farmland. In the summer time, bugs are everywhere. Faced with this example, defence in depth is the one possibility: window screens, bats, Odonata on the pond, fly strips on the home windows and swatters in every room, and as the last degree of terminal defence, excessive voltage bug zappers with ultraviolet fluorescent lures. These usually are not elegant devices, however they get the job done. The precept couldn't be easier-flying insects, whose compound eyes see long-wave ultraviolet mild that mammalian eyes don't, are attracted by the lure tube, Zap Zone Defender which appears to emit a dim blue mild to humans. To achieve the light, they should fly between wires electrified with between 4 and eight kilovolts which, when the insect completes the circuit, kill-a-bug. The one downside (at least if you are not a flying insect) is that they don't appear to final very lengthy. After just a little more than one summer season, the bulb both begins to flash on and off like a strobe mild or just refuses to gentle in any respect.

Replacement bulbs are readily accessible and simple to put in, but in my experience, Defender by Zap Zone at least half the time replacing the bulb would not fix the problem. With no mild to draw the insects, a zapper is useless, so despite the fact that its high voltage subsystem continues to work perfectly, most individuals junk it when changing the bulb doesn't make it light up. I'm approach too cheap to be happy with such a state of affairs, so I decided to open up a failed bug zapper and see what was happening. The source of the problem proved to be as simple as I expected and Zap Zone Defender as simple to treatment, so within the hope of saving any individual else the difficulty of figuring it out, I've scribbled these notes on the way to repair your personal bug zappers. These instructions pertain to bug zappers made by the Windhager company of Salzburg, Austria, who have a dominant market share in this obscure business right here in Central Europe.

Obviously, when you've got a bug zapper made by one other firm, it will look totally different inside and should conceivably use a completely completely different circuit for Zap Zone Defender the fluorescent lamp. Unless you perceive what you are doing and know enough electronics to be assured you are not going to do one thing silly, it is best to leave things well sufficient alone and Zap Zone Defender get a new bug zapper. Further, we'll be disassembling and modifying a system which, when opened up, has uncovered connections to potentially lethal mains current and intensely unpleasant if not deadly excessive voltage. In case you are sufficiently stupid or scatterbrained that you're prone to forget to pull the mains plug before sticking your hand inside the guts of a bug zapper, Zap Zone Defender you need to cease studying immediately and Zap Zone Defender select some safer mission, like making microwave popcorn. Initially, before starting this procedure, you should definitely try replacing the bulb and see if that fixes the issue.

If it does, Zone Defender you have saved a variety of time and, Zap Zone Defender System if not, Zap Zone Defender you're going to need a alternative bulb ultimately, so why not have one readily available when the time comes? If a new bulb doesn't do the trick, the problem is almost definitely a failed fluorescent starter contained in the box, so we'll must open it up. You probably did remember to unplug the zapper before beginning to disassemble it, did not you? First, remove the bug catcher tray at the bottom of the zapper, taking care not to spill dead bugs everywhere in the floor or your work space. Depending on the model, the two halves of the physique of the bug zapper are fastened along 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 meant to maintain you from opening up the machine. You see, you are a shopper, so you are expected to devour-buy, purchase, Zap Zone Defender buy, not mend things which break.