What's new
  • ICMag with help from Landrace Warden and The Vault is running a NEW contest in November! You can check it here. Prizes are seeds & forum premium access. Come join in!

Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH)

J

JackOneill

Member
I have a 400 watt hps magnetic core ballast from HTG and I screwed in the CMH and it fired right up when I plugged it in. :) No problems with broken glass in the bulb at all either and I got mine within 4 days. I am a happy customer sorry to hear you had such bad luck.
 
Cali smoke

Cali smoke

Member
jdubz206 said:
i'm really starting to doubt the quality of these bulbs. Last Tuesday I bought a Phillips CMH MasterColor 4k bulb. On Thursday, the bulb stopped working. On Friday, I returned the bulb and got another. The bulb has been on ever since then. Today, I was constructing my GR and took down everything and shut the light off. Now I try to turn the bulb back on and the exact same thing that was happening on Thursday is happening again. The arc tube has what looks like a bolt of lightning jumping around in it and it seems like it will fire up, but it never does. I've had this happen on 2 seperate ballasts with 2 "new' bulbs. Maybe it's the source that is the problem, but the source has been mentioned in this thread and has been noted to be reputable. I'll switch this out again, but if the bulb breaks again I'm done - back to Hortilux. I can't be running to the shop every other day to get a new bulb. It's fucking ridiculous.The color looks awesome and the plants love it, I won't doubt that. It seems like a lot of people have issues with these bulbs in this forum alone and we are a very, very small percentage of people\companies who buy this bulb. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

You may need to get a stronger ballast. I had the same problem with the lighting bolt coming on, but with a little patience, I checked on it after 5 minutes and it fired right up. Now it has no problems firing up.
 
Last edited:
simba

simba

Sleeping Dragon
ya if you had a 2nd lamp and still having That Exact issue something else may be wrong IE you may not have enough Service amps avail..
that exact issue with the lamp is Extremely Rair.. Id expect to see failing to even do that.. over lightning..

I can say Most buyers never post here..
so ya you will hear neg fast but only cause theres ONE place to discuss..

the only Damged lamps are from the shipping.
the lamps we hear of not firing or failing to reignite after a few cylces are Very Rair. actually less rair than a EYE Horti Blue MH failing.. but they dont have a single thread to discuss..

trust me the sellers dont Like Re-Replacing Lamps it ends up loosing them money so rest assured if its a lamp problem there on the Mfr..

contact your shop.. ask them to multi-cycle Pre-Burn your lamps..
 
jdubz206

jdubz206

Member
cali smoke - at first, the bulb fired right up. i left in on for 72 hours and then shut if off for about an hour while i moved some stuff around. i turned the light back on and from that point on, the bulb wouldn't fire. i let it run for 20-30 minutes before I shut it down again. the shop i bought it at always tests them when i bring them back too. it no longer worker on their ballast either.

simba - the weird thing is that i have another 400 watt hps bulb and it fires up fine. time and time again. plus i have a heater that i turn on sometimes on the same circuit and i specifically leave it off while firing the bulb. i just picked up another 400 watt ballast and i'm going to put the CMH bulb in there and see what happens. since the hps bulb seems to be working just fine, maybe i'll leave that in my older ballast. i was planning on getting two CMH bulbs, but that might not be possible. we'll see, the guy at the shop is really cool. he said he'll keep replacing them as they go out.

thanks for the help guys. as far as other things go, i just put up all the 2 x 4's downstairs. hopefully i'll be able to hang my other light and put up the pandafilm and mylar before the weekend. the girls are just waiting to flower.
 
JohnnyToke

JohnnyToke

Member
"simba - the weird thing is that i have another 400 watt hps bulb and it fires up fine."

I had the same issue with one of my ballast not firing this cmh bulb everytime but my other ballast did. I opened the ballast I was having problems with and replaced the ignitor ($12) and it works like new. It fires up the cmh everytime. that ballast was about 4 yrs old.

assuming your ballast has the same issue, its an inexpensive and easy fix.

regards,
JT
 
jdubz206

jdubz206

Member
thanks johnny. i'll look into that. is there anything that would tell me the ignitor is worn out by looking at it? was your ballast ruining the bulbs or did the bulbs work after replacing the ignitor?

thanks for the advice. i'll let you know how everything works out.
 
P

przcvctm

Well-known member
Veteran
On a semi-related note: I had read the cautions in this thread about eballast incompatibility. But, I had a Lumatek and thought I'd give my new CMH a try to save $ on a new ballast if I didn't need one.

Well, it fired up immediately. I closed the doors of my lit up cab to return 20 min. later to a dark cab and a whiff of something electrical burning.

Now I know from my own experience. Learn from me.
 
Last edited:
JohnnyToke

JohnnyToke

Member
jdubz206 said:
thanks johnny. i'll look into that. is there anything that would tell me the ignitor is worn out by looking at it? was your ballast ruining the bulbs or did the bulbs work after replacing the ignitor?

thanks for the advice. i'll let you know how everything works out.
Click to expand...

the ignitor that was in there was not completely bad, just weak. it would fire up an hps bulb fairly easy. it just didnt have enough kick to fire up the cmh everytime.

when I opened the ballast, there were no obvious signs the ignitor was weak. I knew this ballast was 4+ years old and maybe a cheap fix would be to replace the ignitor for $12 before buying a whole new core kit replacement for $60. it worked.

maybe just luck. who knows.

regards,
JT
 
G

green_tea

Member
przcvctm said:
On a semi-related note: I had read the cautions in this thread about eballast incompatibility. But, I had a Lumatek and thought I'd give my new CMH a try to save $ on a new ballast if I didn't need one.

Well, it fired up immediately. I closed the doors of my lit up cab to return 20 min. later to a dark cab and a whiff of something electrical burning.

Now I know from my own experience. Learn from me.
Click to expand...


haha that sucks man.

what was burning? the bulb or the ballast?
 
G

Guest

How does the taste and smell with the CMH compared to the HPS differ?

And potency, I havent seen anybody post anything about quality changes in there product with a CMH.
 
Last edited:
simba

simba

Sleeping Dragon
ya we hoping more will chime in with there results..many have switched few have reported...

taste, smell thats opinion really.. however i say it improves as its full spd with UV.. (i can say i have seen Supposed reports of flowers under hps not being as aromatic as flowers under Sun or MH/HPS combo and well now they have cmh)

potency.. with CMH is a Guaranteed Increase over HPS.. as hps emits very lil UV and CMH does..
UV doesnt Increase the Number of trichnome sites (thats genetic primarily, then enviro/nute)
however the plant does needs UV to Fully Fill the Trich's.. IE the Round Head..
 
simba

simba

Sleeping Dragon
I have to say..
when using CMH..
you NEED to add SILICA to your nutes..
well not need but it makes alot bigger difference with cmh than with HPS..
its needed for the plants cells to divide which is what we NEED>>
use silica as PH up also.. (mix ur nutes, use silica per instructions and to raise PH)
 
G

Guest

Thanks,
im bought on these CMH, faster root growth, leaves seem to show its true colors, 1 bulb for 2 phases of growing, huge color spectrum, less heat, decent price, seems to closly resemble the sun (my plants seem to smell and look better outside). And the UV rays makes sense to increse potency due to the plant protecting itself from the UV rays with THC.

How would the CMH color chart compare to the colors the sun emits?

SILICA? almost sounds poisinous.
 
Pinball Wizard

Pinball Wizard

The wand chooses the wizard
Veteran
ya we hoping more will chime in with there results..many have switched few have reported...
Click to expand...

I just cut the colas...the rest still has WW seeds incubating...should be ready around Valentine's Day.. :wave: ..... :muahaha:
 
OsWiZzLe

OsWiZzLe

Active member
I'm in week 6 right now with 4 more to go.....Those Aqualine Buschke Bulbs are suppose to emit alot of UV ..mixed in with the CMH .....we shall see what happens....Plants look amazing so far...I'll post pics soon :joint:
 
simba

simba

Sleeping Dragon
Ya the AN barricade will do fine.. (even though i dont like AN for there Fibs)
id prefer if you got another brand of silica.. LOL

nah.. and no intention as of yet. unfort...

Greenhead..
i looked at your 1st and 3rd grow.. you should switch up to 150 CMH,, you can get a ballast cheap and CMH is way more efficient than CFL..
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top