Your timers are most likely having problems switching the large *inductive* loads of the ballasts. What you need is a heavy-duty timer that is rated for switching motors. Motors are also inductive loads so timers meant to control them should be better able to deal with your ballasts. Most of the usual "heavy duty" timers are specified for use with large *resistive* loads like incandescent lighting and are not necessarily capable of handling the inductive voltage spikes that are present when the MH lights are turned off (and the very high currents when they're turned on).About a month ago one of them failed. I replaced it. 3 Days later the new one failed. I replaced it with a different brand. That lasted about another 2-3 days. Each failure was the case that I got up in the morning and the light was still on, despite all indications on the timer itself that the light should be off... the relay in the timer appears to have welded shut! So I went and spent $40 on a "high-current" heavy duty timer, specifically designed for such applications as "mercury-vapour lighting". It failed similarly after 2 days. All the timers were rated at 2400w, well above the 376w total load I was giving it.
***************************** Waveform Technology UNIX Systems Administrator
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