digi timer taboo w/digi ballast?

[the gnome]

got supplies in with a few titan apollo 9 2-outlet digital timers in the order along with some brand spankin new Mh bulbs.
new bulb installed last fri or sat.
the timer manday nite, next moring that lite was out, tried to relug it back in and the fan on the ballast would kickin for a few secs and then die... so this morning i put a spare mag ballast in there and bam!... nothing so i took out the new bulb and you could see the burn marks inside where it blew....

the I hazily remembered reading something somewhere about not using a digital time with a digi ballast....?
and i just found out where i saw it.

anyone else have this happen?

good news is, talked to the supplier and i get a new bulb shipped out asap---> gratis
they want the old one to send back to the manf.
i'll put a note in the bow with the bulb and let em know about the timer being digital.

 

[rives]

Gnome, you don't say what size lights you are running, but you can just about bet that those timers are too small. You need a much heavier-duty timer for any HID lighting, not just electronic ballasts (magnetic ballasts can be even worse).

They don't give a rating for an inductive load, but this is quoted straight from their "tech tips" for that timer -

Q = I want to run electronic/digital ballasts on the Apollo 9. I won't exceed 1000 watts. Is this okay?
A: Not recommended! Digital ballasts have a huge initial in-rush of power (from 10 to 40 times the input power) when they strike the bulb. This initial power surge wreaks havoc on the timer. The contactors inside the timer are small and can be adversely affected by this power surge. The best answer to this situation is to consider using the Apollo 4 to run your ballast. It has a heavy duty relay built into the Apollo 4 that is intended to handle a power load like this from ballasts.

 

[the gnome]

Gnome, you don't say what size lights you are running, but you can just about bet that those timers are too small. You need a much heavier-duty timer for any HID lighting, not just electronic ballasts (magnetic ballasts can be even worse).

They don't give a rating for an inductive load, but this is quoted straight from their "tech tips" for that timer -

Q = I want to run electronic/digital ballasts on the Apollo 9. I won't exceed 1000 watts. Is this okay?
A: Not recommended! Digital ballasts have a huge initial in-rush of power (from 10 to 40 times the input power) when they strike the bulb. This initial power surge wreaks havoc on the timer. The contactors inside the timer are small and can be adversely affected by this power surge. The best answer to this situation is to consider using the Apollo 4 to run your ballast. It has a heavy duty relay built into the Apollo 4 that is intended to handle a power load like this from ballasts.

1000w 's rives and you hit the nail on the head..
it blew a contact connection in the lower part of the bulb on ignition phase coming out of the nite cycle.

they are replacing the bulb so alls good
I'm hoping to let others know about the situation.
lesson learned on this one and I hope other see this and take notice like I *should have* ....live-n-learn eh

btw, they were only offering the apollo 8 and 9 models

 

[rives]

Glad you are letting people know. All watts are not created equal - those things are rated at 15 amps (1800 watts) according to their specs, but I doubt that they would stand up to a 400w ballast. There is so much inrush on these types of loads that the conventional wattage ratings are meaningless.

Nice that you got your lamp replaced!

 

[watts]

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics...ollo-8™-two-outlet-24-hour-timer-p-2012.html

says it in the description there: Do not use with electronic ballast.

Wonder why it doesn't say magnetic?

 

[AzGrOw-N-sMoKe]

I have 9000 watts on these, always work perfect... Az

 

[the gnome]

I have 9000 watts on these, always work perfect... Az

IDK either, possibly some bulbs are more prone than others?

what timer and bulbs are you running?
its possibly the timer, Ive used digi ballasts for 3 yeras, and Ive had digi timers and analog too.
can't seem to recall this happening before?

well bottom line for sure is this...
don't use the apollo9 timer on a digi ballast
to fire up a 1000w solarmax 7200K bulb

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics...ollo-8™-two-outlet-24-hour-timer-p-2012.html

says it in the description there: Do not use with electronic ballast.

Wonder why it doesn't say magnetic?

lol...thats where i saw it....DUH!

 

[growshopfrank]

Ive seen many plug in timers that have failed because the receptacle that they were plugged into was old,loose and just plain crappy
a grower can prevent a lot of stress and grief if they just replace any receptacles that they are plugging lights into with a new commercial or specification grade receptacle its very cheap insurance vs having a fire or light failure
to the OP my guess is that it was a defective lamp as the defective ones usually crap out in the first couple of cycles and it would take some odd circumstance for a timer to kill a lamp in one day

 

[growshopfrank]

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics...ollo-8™-two-outlet-24-hour-timer-p-2012.html

says it in the description there: Do not use with electronic ballast.

Wonder why it doesn't say magnetic?

power factor and/or harmonics

 

[rives]

Ive seen many plug in timers that have failed because the receptacle that they were plugged into was old,loose and just plain crappy
a grower can prevent a lot of stress and grief if they just replace any receptacles that they are plugging lights into with a new commercial or specification grade receptacle its very cheap insurance vs having a fire or light failure
to the OP my guess is that it was a defective lamp as the defective ones usually crap out in the first couple of cycles and it would take some odd circumstance for a timer to kill a lamp in one day

Exactly. I have difficulty coming up with a scenario where the timer could affect the lamp - far more likely that the timer would either weld or burn up the contacts. The only thing that I would add to the information on receptacles is that the commercial or specification grade receptacles use screw clamp connections for the wiring rather than the spring-clamp back-stab holes that the cheaper ones use, and are far more reliable as a result.