Experience w/ Lumatek 750W digis?

[coolx]

Re digital ballasts vs magnetic, I've been trying to decide between getting more magnetic ballasts or going digital. From what I've read, it seems that a good summary would be that 600's are OK, but only if you get the right bulb, while the 1,000's are just not ready from prime-time yet.

I'm thinking of getting the LTK 750's with Sylvania bulbs ... new construction (that they're going to use on the 600's - I think they have already now), no rf interference after 2 secs, most efficient of all the ballasts. Read the bghydro comparison here:

http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/static/articles/0506_digiballasts.asp

I'd want each of them to cover 4' x 4' - gives me about 47 W / sf - I think that's close enough to 50.

Who's used these before? how was it?
Was it hard to get 750 bulbs? Which ones did you use?
Do you really get to run 240V or is it always 220V?
How big an area did you cover with them?

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

bump

 

[Joe A. Grower]

I've never used one before, but I saw one in action at a grow shop in San Diego. Slick as shit. The ballast weighed maybe 10 lbs., made virtually no noise and ran cool enough that you could hold it in your hand comfortably. It had no fan, and as far as I could tell, no moving parts. After dealing with 10 heavy, hot, noisey 1000W coil ballasts on my last op, I vowed I would never do anything but digital in the future. I don't care if the 750 Lumateks don't put out as much light as my 1000W Hydrofarms. I'll buy more of them until I get the light input I want. The conveniece and reduced heat load are worth it, IMO.

And then there is the aspect of security. I used to swear that I would never put one dime into a grow that didn't either make more bud or reduce my daily workload, but these days I think a lot more about security than I used to. You always have to move a grow op more often than you expect, and usually when you have to move one, you gotta move it NOW! You could toss a dozen Lumatek balasts and all their cords and lamps into a smallish car trunk inside of 5 minutes. Fat chance of that with a dozen 40 lb. coil ballasts. It would take 20 minutes just to wrestle them out of the attic where you put them so they don't heat up the grow room. Since the majority of your investment in an op are your lights, a small light ballast makes it a lot easier to salvage a grow that has been compromised.

All of this may not sound as important to someone growing for personal use, but believe me, nobody is safe these days -- not even legit med users. Stealth and security are just as important whether you grow for a living or just for your own medicine. If the San Diego dispensaries ever open again and I go back to growing, it will be with Lumatek 750's.

 

[Neptune]

Well, I did a searche before starting a thread, and this is the best thread i could ask this quesion in:


What are the 750w bulb options?

can someone give me a link to a working Lumatek 750w bulb? these are HPS bulbs yes?

Who is using 750s right now, i want to hear from you...

 

[Neptune]

bump??

 

[hogwild]

dude i say fuck the 750s go with 600s for one reason, Bulbs.... first of all the lumatek wont run conversion bulbs it says so right on the ads for it, unless its the old model that is silver shrouded instead of blue shrouded. Good luck trying to find 750 watt bulbs, they are out there but they are uncommon. I would stick with the 600s to get better bulb selection, and i would not buy a lumatek because it wont run conversion bulbs or EYE hortilux bulbs.

 

[Mr.Jiggyfly]

My 600 blue lumatek runs hortilux just fine.

 

[flux]

Lumatek does work with EYE Hortilux blubs, and IMO they're excellent ballasts.
I think the 750 wouldn't give you decent intensity on the outside edges. 1kw is the min you need for that area to give proper coverage, or 2x 600 (which is what I'm doing next).

the Silver Star Reflector covers square area's nicely.

 

[Punani JAck]

My 600 blue lumatek runs hortilux just fine.