I spent an hour installing the uber-cool Magnesium rail light system on my kitchen ceiling, and went to turn it on.
Switch!
Only one of the lights came on, at about 30% illumination, and then it slowly faded out. No lights work since this exciting 3-4 second experience.
Hurrumph.
Double checking, yes, black wire to black wire, white wire to white wire, all teensy tiny screws connected, yep, all good. I opened Magnesium box #2 (intended for the other half of the kitchen) and used THAT transformer.
This time, THREE lights came on dimly. I switched off before they went out.
Some things to know:
I am replacing a perfectly functional IKEA 12v fixture here.
I have installed Magnesium rail lights in my office; work great.
I have above-average electrical skill, not that this takes a lot.
I followed all instructions.
Transformer attaches to rail roughly 1/3 along the rail.
IKEA customer service was unable to help beyond suggesting I return the product. Yeah, thanks... never would have thought of that! Anyone ever had problems like this?
I just swapped the transformer for the one in my office. Office still lights up great, kitchen has the same symptoms. So it's not the transformer... hard to believe I could've installed the track wrong???
If this is annoying, my answering of my own questions, I mean... sorry.
This really blows me away, but apparently the problem is in the track itself. I pulled the track from my second box, stuck a couple of lights on it, and just hung it loose from the transformer like some big freaky chandelier. Two lights, and it works fine.
So pending final installation, it appears that the track has a short somewhere, or some other tiny manufacturing problem, and all that remains is to trudge back to Ikea and hope they believe me and take back their goofy track, burned out transformer, and give me a **** frozen yogurt for my trubble.
Yes, this is a whole condo renovation. One of those great ironies where I live in squalor for seven years, then fix up the joint so I can sell it.
Well, I've now replaced the track and I'm running five lights, all taken from the old track. Though it's a little darker than I'd like, the system works fine. Moody. Theatrical. Like me.
I hereby declare defective track as the culprit. Here's a picture (pre-lighting fiasco):
Just wanted to drop in with an update; not ready to upload any pictures yet though.
I successfully installed two Magnesium lighting systems, and took the defective track one (and its burned-out transformer) back to Ikea. The wait for returns was under five minutes, the associate listened intently and had no idea what I was saying, and took back the product.
I went back a few days later and saw it in the As-Is section! They marked it down by ten bucks!
Ha ha. Just kidding.
I will say one thing about my kitchen lighting though: when you're using nothing but spotlights (even ten of them), the result is very, well, THEATRICAL. There is light everywhere I need it to be, but the shadows and contrasts might not be to everyone's liking. Food for thought when designing your kitchen, especially if you have little natural light.
Im thinking of putting 2 sets in my kitchen (using radium, not magenesium), how do you link the 2 sets together (does each have its own transformer or no? I'm curious as I currently only have one flourescent up there now, and that thing must go.
I started another thread on this and havne't gotten any replies, and then finally found this thread again.
It should work to get a replacement transformer that is 12v and has a large wattage limit? Right? I think it would work. It may be hard to find the right size transformer to fit in the box.
My current problem is that the lights stay on for 10-20 minutes and then all go out. Not a breaker problem, but after doing it once or twice its now completely off all the time. I have a few others I'm going to mix and match to see if I can figure out the problem.
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