BlackMarketMic
Member
Hi, this is for all those using Apollo lights, in early 2015 I ordered a 1000 w hps electronic ballast on amazon from Apollo lighting I believe. It's a purple lumatek knock off I paid 140 or 160 cdn delivered so the price is very tempting I got it out of curiosity... I read the reviews on amazon and 1 out of 3 customers wrote really bad reviews like use at your own risk or this will set your house on fire or your lucky if it lasts more than 30 days and decided I still wanted to try it out... First off really bad rf interference from this one as the output is in the khz frequency, I had a remote control fan in room with it and it would change the fans modes speeds and shut it off/ turn it on even when it was in a different room, I had to take the fan out of the basement put it on another floor.. Within a week of using the apollo light the hydro electric company drove over to my home and came and checked my smart meter for some reason... Popped out the meter from the meter box and put it back in a few seconds later than drove off a few minutes later. Never heard anything from them afterwards but logically it seems like the cheap ass ballast might have been f****** with their meters rf signal. I did 2 60 day 12/12 cycles with good results then loaned the Apollo to a friend he did a 50 day 12/12 cycle and gave it back to me. It sat in its factory box for a few months then I decided to use it again, it was used for about 10-15 days 12 hrs a day with an 1000 w super hps eye hortilux bulb then... Went in the room one morning and noticed on 1 of 2 lights were on and worse than that the bulb metal socket was soldered to the ceramic socket of the reflector, ended up breaking the bulb with my hands trying to unscrew it.. Even then with a pair of channel lock pliers never got tbe remains out lf the ceramic socket had to trow it out and buy a new one. As for the ballast looked completely normal except it didn't work anymore, tried it on several older bulbs I knew were still working but nothing, tried plugging in 120v it ran on 240v but nothing but silence not even the el cheapo pc fan inside worked so like the review on amazon warning you these Apollo products should definitely not be legal to sell and operate, clearly inferior Chinese knockoff of an already problematic copied lumatek.
