Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH)

[bigbadbiddy]

Whatever they are, you should go with them (as long as they house any suitable light for your project).

20 bucks is way cheaper than you will ever get and potentially you have high quality fixtures on your hand that would normally cost you 10 times as much or more.

Just get the bulbs (you should use new bulbs anyway as you have no way of telling how "good" the old bulbs are or how long they were in use etc.).

Sounds like a great deal to me.

 

[h1ghscore1]

so got a few question here, regarding the 860's. ive been running them over a year now on the traditional mag ballast, im looking for anyone that can help me sync a better ballast up to drive these bulbs.

sunplix is out with theirs but haven't found any personal accounts of using them with the 860 and the "real" numbers they're drawing from the wall.

are they worth the coin? any comparables ballast or is that the only true 860 option?

also i have a shot at buying some more SS LEC they are just under a year old (bought last year had 3 pulls from) i heard they have the step up transformers inside the 120v Lec is there a link showing how to mod them for 240v use?

lastly if were to part together my own 315 kits i was thinking going in this direction

SS luxor or OG vert hood (no glass)

philips open rated bulb

prism or nanolux or philips ballast

Thoughts.....?

my new vs used option is being weight on if the sun system is worth buying used performance/ durability wise since i wont be getting warranty with them.

Help a growther out

 

[h1ghscore1]

never mind contacted the rep for sunplix and was told to not expect the 860w ballast to be out for another year to year and a half.

to make the 120v run on 240 you just have to open the case/hood and remove the transformer....

 

[HarvestMoon303]

Anyone else think that it's time for a full-on CMH Forum? It's getting impossible to find information in this huge thread.

For instance, I'd like to see photos of 315w CMH (or whatever watt) grows, ideas of height/stretch/heat, best brands and spectrums, etc. It's nearly impossible to find this information as it is currently laid out.

Just flipped a 4 x 315w CMH + 1 600 HPS room.

 

[Feijao]

Anyone else think that it's time for a full-on CMH Forum? It's getting impossible to find information in this huge thread.

For instance, I'd like to see photos of 315w CMH (or whatever watt) grows, ideas of height/stretch/heat, best brands and spectrums, etc. It's nearly impossible to find this information as it is currently laid out.

Just flipped a 4 x 315w CMH + 1 600 HPS room.

Yes!

 

[bonglemonade]

Anyone flowering with 210watt cmh bulbs?

 

[gr866]

Hey folks, I was upgrading by adding a 600W HPS to my 4x4 tent. I called my Hort shop guy, been doing business with he for yrs. Told him of my plan to do a stacked 600W and 400W HPS and ordered the light, ballast and extension cord with socket for 600W. around $250.
He called me back a short time later and said he had a Nanolux 315 CMH with a 3100 K bulb that he had put in a tent for a demo but it was too bright. Gave me a good price for the lamp and bulb, $200. Bulb was only used for 2 weeks.

Now I was going to stack the 600W above the 400W, but if i get this I am being told that I would not need to stack the 315 above the 400W and I should get great vertical coverage,

I guess my question is, if I go with the 315 should I stack them, go instead with the 600/400 combo or just go the 315 by itself? I plan on vegging first couple of week under a 400W MH then switch to vert using what ever combo of lights I end up with.

Any thoughts, I should have my seed in hand within the next couple of weeks and will be ready to rock my winter grow.

 

[dbkick]

so got a few question here, regarding the 860's. ive been running them over a year now on the traditional mag ballast, im looking for anyone that can help me sync a better ballast up to drive these bulbs.

sunplix is out with theirs but haven't found any personal accounts of using them with the 860 and the "real" numbers they're drawing from the wall.

are they worth the coin? any comparables ballast or is that the only true 860 option?

also i have a shot at buying some more SS LEC they are just under a year old (bought last year had 3 pulls from) i heard they have the step up transformers inside the 120v Lec is there a link showing how to mod them for 240v use?

lastly if were to part together my own 315 kits i was thinking going in this direction

SS luxor or OG vert hood (no glass)

philips open rated bulb

prism or nanolux or philips ballast

Thoughts.....?

my new vs used option is being weight on if the sun system is worth buying used performance/ durability wise since i wont be getting warranty with them.

Help a growther out

I don't like sunplix after originally thinking they were pretty solid.
I've found the best ballast that will run the allstart 860 to be the hortilux platinum but it's extremely pricey(well worth it) or the AN badass, both may prove hard to find but I found several baddass on craigslist local and one platinum used. There are probably places that still have stovk in either ballast but I think at least the baddass has been discontinued. On another note there have been attempts at running the allstart on true UHF sine wave ballast that run over 120khz, I intend on giving this a try in the near future.

 

[dbkick]

so got a few question here, regarding the 860's. ive been running them over a year now on the traditional mag ballast, im looking for anyone that can help me sync a better ballast up to drive these bulbs.

sunplix is out with theirs but haven't found any personal accounts of using them with the 860 and the "real" numbers they're drawing from the wall.

are they worth the coin? any comparables ballast or is that the only true 860 option?

also i have a shot at buying some more SS LEC they are just under a year old (bought last year had 3 pulls from) i heard they have the step up transformers inside the 120v Lec is there a link showing how to mod them for 240v use?

lastly if were to part together my own 315 kits i was thinking going in this direction

SS luxor or OG vert hood (no glass)

philips open rated bulb

prism or nanolux or philips ballast

Thoughts.....?

my new vs used option is being weight on if the sun system is worth buying used performance/ durability wise since i wont be getting warranty with them.

Help a growther out

And as far as the luxor and og go they're both great hoods and you could change out from 860 allstart to 315, the luxor will do an entire 4by4 tent well in veg all by itself, the og has a bit more of a tighter footprint and I supplement with onyx led when I run the ogs with 315 and galaxy ballasts. The beauty is I can easily change out from 860 allstart to 315 in both the luxor and og. I approve of both.

 

[dec]

Hey!

I bought a 150w CMH lamp. Works great on magnetic ballast, but it of course does not hot restart (weird loud buzzing sound from ballast) in case of a power outage during a storm.

So I went on ebay and bought a digital ballast for my CMH. After receiving it it didn't work. The friendly seller sent me another ballast and this one also doesn't work.

Does the seller just keep sending me broken ballasts or is it possible that this lamp not compatible with the ballast I bought?

Lamp: http://imgur.com/a/fu7yB

Ballast: http://imgur.com/a/a0sVShttp://imgur.com/a/n7U6W

Thank you for helping!

 

[TreeWolf]

Anyone else think that it's time for a full-on CMH Forum? It's getting impossible to find information in this huge thread.

That would be awesome

 

[Qqqqqqqqqqqqq]

Wow. This thread has a lot to comb through. Probably too much that I have to ask my questions directly. Is this 860w cmh equivalent to a 1000w hps and will fit into my donut vertical grow? Can this be put into a regular socket and whats the best ballast and bulbs?

Oh and is there less radiant heat than the 1000w hps? Thank you!!

 

[digging]

I have another question. If one was to use the Hortilux Platinum ballast to drive the 860 watt CMH bulb, will the fact the Hortilux Platinum ballast is 1000 watts have any detrimental effect on the 860 watt CMH bulb ?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Phaeton]

Hey!

I bought a 150w CMH lamp. Works great on magnetic ballast, but it of course does not hot restart (weird loud buzzing sound from ballast) in case of a power outage during a storm.

So I went on ebay and bought a digital ballast for my CMH. After receiving it it didn't work. The friendly seller sent me another ballast and this one also doesn't work.

Does the seller just keep sending me broken ballasts or is it possible that this lamp not compatible with the ballast I bought?

Lamp: http://imgur.com/a/fu7yB

Ballast: http://imgur.com/a/a0sVShttp://imgur.com/a/n7U6W

Thank you for helping!

Voltage is not mentioned. Most (not all) magnetic ballasts are setup to run on 110/120 volts.
GE low frequency digital ballasts for CMH come setup for 220/240 volts only. Hooking up a timer for 220/240 without paying huge sums of money took some doing.
Three out of three GE ballasts function fine for me, nary a problem.

Just a note, the inability to do a hot restart is because of the bulb, not the ballast. A digital ballast will not do a hot restart either.
The only hot restart bulb I am aware of is an HPS bulb with dual arc tubes, if power is interrupted the hot arc tube has the power switched to the cool arc tube which immediately lights up while the hot tube cools down to be ready for the next interruption. Not sure if they still make it, it was a design from before LEDs.

 

[dbkick]

I have another question. If one was to use the Hortilux Platinum ballast to drive the 860 watt CMH bulb, will the fact the Hortilux Platinum ballast is 1000 watts have any detrimental effect on the 860 watt CMH bulb ?

Thanks for your help.

No, even the old core and coil users mostly THINK they're getting a little more advantage because they're 860 runs at 860 watts but this is only true if the ballast uses a certain voltage.
I have a platinum that runs the allstart 860 just fine overpowered to 1kw.

 

[simba]

Simba had to go dark on icmag however he is back with a vengeance

Simba had to go dark on icmag however he is back with a vengeance

Simba had to go dark on icmag however he is back with a vengeance


I am Simba I am Thomas Ordon I had to go dark a few months ago after a ceramic lamp blew up in my face

Some people don't like me some people do those who don't have their own valid reasons however I never did anything on purpose or other to hurt my customers I was affected by corporate retaliation and with a hospital stay in 2012 for 3 weeks suffering issues I don't want to go into and with Philips corporate issues I do have several insights and I still stand behind certain things well anything I said behind before with some reservations however none of my clients that prospered ever had negative flower reports all were in fact achieving higher than industry standard yields and quality

 

[simba]

No, even the old core and coil users mostly THINK they're getting a little more advantage because they're 860 runs at 860 watts but this is only true if the ballast uses a certain voltage.
I have a platinum that runs the allstart 860 just fine overpowered to 1kw.

No no electronic ballast can run the 860 lamp please do not run that land on any electronic digital ballast it will fail and fail catastrophic Lee I sold this equipment and you don't want to be on the receiving end

 

[dbkick]

No no electronic ballast can run the 860 lamp please do not run that land on any electronic digital ballast it will fail and fail catastrophic Lee I sold this equipment and you don't want to be on the receiving end

A lfsw digital that is well within the <174 hz operating range of cmh will run the allstart just fine. I had one on a mover and a hortilux platinum for an entire cycle and it did a nice job. I also know a guy that runs 2 AN badass at 1kw and allstart 860s. Not an issue. Also your info is outdated, sunplix has a digital ballast specifically designed for the allstart 860.

 

[CMH]

Wow. This thread has a lot to comb through. Probably too much that I have to ask my questions directly. Is this 860w cmh equivalent to a 1000w hps and will fit into my donut vertical grow? Can this be put into a regular socket and whats the best ballast and bulbs?

Oh and is there less radiant heat than the 1000w hps? Thank you!!

Hope this helps!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/860W-CMH-CD...468010?hash=item41ab66142a:g:ZUwAAOSwA3dYWHpn

 

[CMH]

I have another question. If one was to use the Hortilux Platinum ballast to drive the 860 watt CMH bulb, will the fact the Hortilux Platinum ballast is 1000 watts have any detrimental effect on the 860 watt CMH bulb ?

Thanks for your help.

You can use this 860W ballast. http://www.ebay.com/itm/860W-CMH-CD...468010?hash=item41ab66142a:g:ZUwAAOSwA3dYWHpn