converting a enclosed ballast 400 hps/mh to remote ballast, worth it or not

[indicameds]

hey, i jumped the gun and spent 180 on a light and it is the sun leaves light from discounthydro. well its an enclosed ballast, i was wanting to make a cool tube but found out the the damn light is so hard to tear apart, they packed everything in so tight i cant get to some things to get em off. so my qeustion is should i worry about remoting the ballast or leave it be and just try to cool the whole thing in the cab. i would send it back but then i would have to pay for shipping and loose my shipping my from the first time. thats like 80 bucks right there. thanks for any and all help.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

If you think you can do it successfully without much change of screwing it up. (just a lot of hard work) I'd say go for it.


You'll save yourself a ton of time without the added task of regulating a hotter environment.

You'll end up needing more airflow and possibly having to cool your house a bit to maintain temps if you live in a hot place. (Nice run on sentence there.)

Also, should your air flow fail for some reason, your ladies can crisp a lot faster with the additional heat.


If you believe there may be a chance you'll screw it up (and I've messed up plenty of equipment so I'm extra sure these days) Don't!

Be safe and good luck!

 

[mexilandrace]

they put it together somehow, there is no way you can't get to everything if you think about it.

Its just three wires maximum that you need to extend, and any regular old extension cord conveniently has three wires too and is of a heavy enough gauge most of the time to no worry about it. Not talking extension cords from the dollar store though.

Its easy and once you do it one time its gets easier and easier, I can rewire a ballast to a remote light in bout a half hour. I used to do it enough that I started buying surplus lights and selling on Ebay.

Its easy peezy.

 

[FreezerBoy]

The smaller the number the larger the wire. You'll want 14 gauge or larger. 16 and 18 are too small.

Question is, do you need to remote? Throw it in the cab and fire it up. See what happens.

 

[Grizz]

its easy as hell to do so, just mount it on a piece of 34 plywood with a rubber insulation under it and wire it back the way it was, takes about 15 minutes.. if you mount it up high you don't even have to cover it and it runs cooler. Ive done 8 of them about a year ago with no problems.

 

[indicameds]

pictures of the cab in progress and the light and ballast in question

pictures of the cab in progress and the light and ballast in question

hey, thanks everybody that replied, i think im going to go ahead and give it a shot. theres quite a few wires in there. but i think thats because its a switchable ballast for hps and mh. but the only thing i need to extend is the actual socket wire leading to the light. but the problem being im going to have to tear the whole thing down in order to get it out or the enclosed shroud. i got enough post to post pictures now i believe so ill get some pictures on here tonight of it and the cab its going in. thanks again for all the help guys. be back with pics.

 

[mexilandrace]

on the ballast side of the light unscrew every single screw you can, then see what comes loose and figure out where the screw is on the stuff you can't pull out.

I have never seen them put together with anything other than screws.

That thing would be a bitch to cool effectively in that small of a space.

 

[indicameds]

thanks for the reply, its appreciated. i started the other day trying to take it apart. i can get most of the screws out but some of them wont come out and i got to get them out before i can get to the other parts i need to loosen. but im using a drill to take everything apart and the phillips bit i have is to big and i dont want to strip anything. so i gotta barrow some tools and i think i should be able to get it all apart.