Fluorescent tube ballast & control box....

At the risk of some more eggs sucked ...

This 'new' UV tube, is it blacklight or germicidal? The former won't do much for sterilisation, the latter won't do much for your eyes.

I was looking at a friend's UV water steriliser which would not start it's UV tube.

We opened the control box/enclosure to discover a fairly cooked looking ballast & a plug & turn starter.

When I changed out the starter & tried again the tube lit ok but flickered a bit. If I turned the starter (so disconnecting it) the flickering stopped.

Does the flicker indicate anything? The tube is new.

Also the control box has a green ?neon? indicator for "lamp running" that nowadays barely glows. Any suggestions why & what to do?

Overall is it worth maybe changing the ballast to something a bit more modern? Its a 40w T5 UV tube.

TIA

Ah :-)

Well it was what was about :-)

Says something like 8-65 on the side...

The one that came out had no obvious markings & had detached itself from its base.

Germicidal (it sterilises water), and is blocked by glass (hence the quartz sleeve it sits in). I could do with a tan :-)