Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - Fluorescent light switch

I have a fluorescent light that had a bad switch. The light is for an aquarium and is a push button style switch but wouldn't stay on. If I held the switch in, the light would stay lit. I tried to replace the switch but the best replacement I could find was a toggle switch that had 4 terminals.

Now when I turn it on, all that lights up are just the ends of the light and not the whole light. Not sure what I did wrong in this process. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Anthony

I had the same issue with my aquarium light and I solved it by eliminating the switch and wiring the fixture directly to the power cord. I plugged into a strip that had a separate switch for each of four receptacles. Very handy.

Try turning the lamp slightly and this may get it to light. Also, many of these fixtures have a starter. It is a little silver can you can see beneath the bulb. These can go bad and are replaceable. You turn it counter clockewise and the two mounting pins will release.

I didn't think it was the starter or the ballast since it was working with the old switch so long as I was holding in the switch, 15 minutes (or whatever it took me to replace the switch) prior. That isn't to say it isn't the issue, but I thought it made it less likely. I thought about replacing the cord and putting in a cord with a switch in it, which would be similar to the solution you decided to implement. I may try just wiring it and bypassing the switch to test out that it would be in fact related to the switch itself.

Some flourescents had the switch as a starter. You pushed it and held it for a couple of seconds and then let it go. While you were holding it that was energizing the starter section. then you let go and it went into run mode. It could be yours was one of this type.

That sounds likely. I bypassed the switch with the same result. So it seems the best solution is to find a switch like that. I didn't see anything like it at Lowe's and unfortunately in my infinite wisdom, I threw the old switch away after replacing it.

How many wires connected to the old switch?

There were 4 wire leads running through the switch.

Ok, I think I've figured out that I don't really want to replace the switch with what was there once since it would be nice to be able to do things like put the light on a timer. But I'm not really sure for what I need to install an auto starter for this either. There seems to be a lot of different types of starters out there (just from searching the web) but I'm not really sure what I would need or even where to get it for that matter. Do the normal home improvement stores (lowe's, home depot, etc) carry this stuff?

Any help in getting me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Anthony

You need just one of those two terminal starters, and a socket for it. Connect it where the other two switch leads went to. It will conenct to one of the other terminals at each end, the other terminals connecting to the linecord and through the ballast.