Repair and modernization of fixtures at home

Many believe that it is easier to take and change the lamp to a new one, but this is not so - their quality does not get better over time and even expensive models have problems with electrics even if only because their manufacturers themselves do not produce wiring accessories. Therefore, it is worth a try.

I want to start with a simple one: repair of lamps in which shades are mounted with union nuts to an external thread on the cartridge housing. There are a lot of such lamps now, both single-lamp and multi-track chandeliers. There are with cartridges E27 and minions E14, I will start with the latter.

Now on sale and in use there are a lot of diverse and sometimes quite beautiful chandeliers with 3-9 horns and more for minions with such a ceiling fixture. Cartridges, as a rule, plastic ones are not of the best quality: initially or over time, contact with the base in them becomes very poor, and in advanced cases the plastic dries up and collapses so much that the cartridges simply crumble. If the chandelier suits you at the same time, then it makes sense to spend an evening on its restoration.

I want to say right away about the power limit: if the shades are glass, and the chandelier structures are metal or even plastic, but are not less than 3-4 cm from the lamps on the sides and 6-7 cm from the top, then after repair it will be possible to install the most powerful minions on 60 W or even G9 halogens with a power of 75 W in Uniel adapters, which will lead to an increase in illumination by 1.5-4 times in comparison with previously allowed LVs with a power of 40 W. There is never much light.

The easiest way to replace cartridges with carbolite domestic production and M10x1 threaded entry and union nut. In 95% of cases, such cartridges will fit without alteration, in the remaining 5%, union nuts (they are larger in size) will not fit or the length of the external thread will be small - on our cartridges it starts higher.

In the first case, the nuts will have to be filed to the desired size, because they are plastic (carbolite), then it will not be difficult. You can grind on an emery wheel - it's fast. If the shades are, say, square, then you can simply grind on four sides.

In the case of short threads, you can try to turn the flare nuts so that it grips the thread or put elastic gaskets made of rubber (other suitable material). In an extreme case, you can install old nuts - the thread usually matches.

So the process itself lamp repair:

Turn on the light and find in the switchboard that turns off the chandelier. If you have worked with an electrician and are familiar with electrical safety, you can limit yourself to turning off the circuit breaker and checking that it disconnects the phase - using voltage indicator or a good tester (showing the mains voltage when you measure the potential difference between yourself and the phase in the outlet).

Unscrew the lamps. Remove the chandelier from the hook. Now remove the shades by unscrewing the nuts from the cartridges. If it does not work, then turn first together with the shades until it touches. Remove the cartridges. It would be nice to wash them. You can start the repair.

Old plastic cartridges are usually assembled on two-piece clips (excluding union nuts). To remove them, you must first unscrew the entire cartridge, and then with a screwdriver, unbending the latches, separate the upper part from the bottom.

Next, with an awl or a thin screwdriver, we press out the spring holding wires and take them out (if you just pull it, they will come off). After that, if there is a polyethylene sleeve at the bottom that prevents the wires from contacting the metal tube on which the cartridge is screwed, then you need to remove it and save it for installation in a new cartridge.

Now you need to check the wires.If the chandelier was designed for 60 W lamps and the wires do not have any signs of thermal aging after three years of operation or more, then you can leave them. Especially if the lamps work with the base down.

In other cases, it is better to replace the wires with heat-resistant (briefly described in my previous articleor just ask the store for heat-resistant wires). It is possible on favorite MGTF radio amateurs in second-layer isolation. Section is not important, because scanty currents - it is possible and 0,5 squares, but more often you can find wires with a cross section of 1,5 squares. Such and buy (or thinner), 2,5 - this is already too much and inconvenient to install.

If the lamp is multi-tube, then be sure to check the connection points of the wires inside the chandelier. It is usually not difficult to find these compounds and they are available for maintenance in all decent chandeliers. Twisting wires unacceptable, they must be soldered. I also recommend that you adhere to the standards in force in our country and lay all the ends of multi-wire (flexible) wires, I always do this. If the twists are crimped by sleeves, I recommend removing them and soldering everything, this will have to be done when replacing the wires.

It should be noted that replacing the wires, you can choose any scheme for connecting the lamps to groups, for example: 3 + 1, 4 + 1, 5 + 1, 2 + 4, 1 + 2 + 3 and others, not originally provided by the manufacturer or remodel one-group a two-three-lamp lamp for two groups of lamps: 1 + 1 and 1 + 2, if you have three-wire wiring to the chandeliers.

Do not be afraid to solder, it is very simple if you have good fluxes, if anyone is interested, I can give some recommendations. I learned to hold soldering iron in my hands even before school, and despite the fact that amateur radio remained in the distant past, I still solder almost all the electrics - it’s calmer to live.

Install new cartridges. Screw on the bottom, screw the wires firmly on the terminals of the insert (you can also solder) and assemble the cartridge.

With good contacts in the wiring to the chandelier, the chandelier itself and normal switches lamp life should be about 1 year at the rated voltage (indicated on the lamps). If this is not so, then in 99% of cases the switch is to blame and it needs to be replaced.

You can also install lamp protection blocks, which in most cases also help with bad circuit breakers, for example, Belarusian “Granites”. There are others (mostly Chinese). The principle of action for all is the same: a smooth increase in voltage on the lamp, but since the circuit is mounted in series with the lamp, it reduces the voltage on the lamp. The magnitude of this drop is 5-30 V, and if you already have a low voltage, then it is better to refuse these units or install those that provide a minimum voltage drop (the same Granites ~ 4-5 V).

Protection blocks differ in power, they need to be selected according to this parameter, one block for each group of lamps. They can be mounted under the switch, but it is more convenient to place them directly under the ceiling, soldered to the luminaire circuit and hidden under the cap of the chandelier covering the input terminals or at the junction of the group's cartridges.

Then it was only left to install the ceiling lights and hang the lamp in place. It is necessary to make this through the adapter block. If the wires are aluminum, then it is better to buy Soviet-style carbolite - it does not damage the wires as much as modern Chinese, in which the wire is pressed with a screw from the wall of the brass sleeve. There are terminal blocks, where the screw rests against an intermediate steel plate pressing the wire - this will suit us. I do not advise Vago and other spring clips - their reliability is in question.

Well, that’s all, after such a simple repair, the bulbs will practically cease to burn out. It happened that people almost fell into hysteria by changing 10-15 lamps a month and replacing the chandelier helped for six months or a year, and after repair, even in Polish-Chinese chandeliers, the lamps almost ceased to burn - once every two months (a real example in a new bedroom apartment with good wiring,stable voltage and four fixtures 3 + 3 + 5 + 6 LN 60 W in which the cartridges were replaced - scattered in the hands after a year and a half of operation, the rest of the fixtures were found fit and not repaired). Worth trying, right? Especially since it is very simple.