Is my ballast dying or my lamp?

[RaptorJesus]

hey all. i have a 600w galaxy electronic ballast. i've been using on-and-off for about 6 months now. last week i noticed that my light was off, so i unplugged the ballast and plugged it back in. it kicks in, starts warming up for the usual 5 minutes or so, the light comes on no problem. then after a little while of it being fully lit it just turns off. every time.

at first i was thinking it was the ballast, so i went to the hydro store that i bought it from (and the dude talked me out of ordering online just because of the fact that i could get an easy warranty exchange at the store), and they wouldn't exchange it because they switched to lumateks (same thing i thought?) so i did a little more research and read somewhere that when the lamp is reaching the end of its life it may have symptoms like mine.

just wondering, anyone have any experience that points to either one? i know i'm supposed to switch out the lamp every 6 mo or so and its on my list of shit to do but i'm broke right now and would rather not spend any more than necessary right now. thanks in advance guys

 

[hoosierdaddy]

It is either an igniter, capacitor, or bulb going bad. Do the bulb first, since you need to have one for sure. If that doesn't do it, change out the cap.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Off. As in totally and completely and the ballast is shut off as well?

Does it come back on after about 10 minutes? (Nah... that'd be a mag ballast)

I don't know anything about Digital ballasts so I don't know how they handle bulbs when they get old.

I DO know that HPS bulbs will start to cycle when they get old. (Shut off and then re-start after a few minutes) With a mag ballast you can at least hear the ballast still running.

 

[RaptorJesus]

its really hard to tell if the ballast is turning off or not. these things are completely silent and mine has always been very cool temp-wise. i can hear the buzzing when the bulb is warming up but after that i never usually hear anything coming from the ballast, even when it was working no problem.

i'm heading back out to the hydro store today, and if the dude's gonna give me shit about an exchange, he damn well better plug it into a test setup for me and see what the problem is. if it is the ballast, i'm gonna give him shit until i get to walk out with a new one. if it's a bulb, i'll buy one and be on my merry way. these people need to back up their products if they're gonna charge n arm nd a leg for them

btw thanks for the replies dudes

 

[Mickymouse]

If its HPS its the bulb.That ceramic rod inside gets a crack in it and when it heats up they seperate and the light goes out.When the bulb cools it will light again.If it was capasitor or ignighter it wouldnt light the first time.

 

[yamaha_1fan]

I would tell that shop to fuck off. Explain to them you had many choices online, and you bought from them locally because of the support you thought you had based on their comments.

If you go and test out the ballast, and its a bulb, I would take a hard look at how they treat you during that visit and if unhappy, tell them thanks, and buy a bulb elsewhere. BTW bulbs have a 1 year warranty.

Also some digitals and certain bulbs dont play well together

 

[cyberthreat]

yeah what yamaha said I bought everything from cheap hydroponics spent like 1200$ he gave free shipping plus he took money off the price and the shipping alot because he hse ups the total weight was 120lb split in to three box's plus he gave me some free gromets and I had a problem with my ballast he payed to ship it back and sent it to me over night and he gave me a free hortilux bulb for the inconvience which wasn't his fault he even gave a bunch of free sample of Kool bloom plus other stuff when order my nutes and that was just a 80$ order and filled the box with the free additive that's customer service and also who give's a shit if they stop dealing with galaxy the can still them exchange it with the company as long as it wasn't sold after they drop galaxy and also my guy didn't test it he just pack it up and sent back to the company but he sent me a new one over night the day he got plus a bulb you just talk to him over the phone that's when he will make you a good deal also if you tell him that you will use him for any of your hydro supply's that you don't need right away ask for joe he's the owner and he don't bs you to just to make money plus you can trust his advice unlike some hydro stores I have made deal with before

 

[Guest 18340]

You should bring the ballast AND bulb back there with you. They'll test the bulb first.(They do test bulbs, right?)
I had a similar incedent with my Galaxy and turns out it was the bulb.
What bulb are you using, btw? Like yamaha pointed out, not all bulbs work with all digi ballasts.
Please do let us know the diagnosis...Evl

 

[cyberthreat]

I hope your not in the middle of a grow just incase you need to Return the ballast because they might have to order one

 

[Chunkybuddha]

I would tell that shop to fuck off.

Absolutely.. Especially since he convinced you about the exchange.

 

[RaptorJesus]

I hope your not in the middle of a grow just incase you need to Return the ballast because they might have to order one

thats the worst part, i have 4 big fat ladies vegged for about 45 days. they've been under a few CFL's for almost a week because that's all i have. it's very very sad. i might just take clones off of them if it's gonna be much longer, the stretch/stress is terrible.

my ride to the store blew me off today so we'll see what happens tomorow


edit: forgot to mention that yes, it's an HPS. kind of relieved that it's probably just the bulb. i'd be really surprised if the ballast crapped out on me after 6 months

 

[spacecadet]

i got a galaxy and hortlux eye 600 watt hps brand new and mine did the same thing 2 weeks from harvest and it just died and not sure it its the ballast or bulb trying to deal with the online store i got it from and so far i am getting a run a round

 

[RaptorJesus]

well my ride blew me off AGAIN. checked on the plants today and one out of 4 of them is completely dead. the other are going to follow i'm sure, since the store isn't open on weekends, so whenever i end up getting out there i'll let you guys know what it was for sure

maybe i'll try to get some clones off the remaining plants but who knows how that'll work.

 

[ganjalove]

Yo raptor that exact same thing has happened to me and i thought it was the ballast the whole time cause it would hum and the light would turn on then off on and off for two hours then start working the rest of the light cycle, pissed cause def effected my yield but turns out that I needed to replace the piece of shit bulb that came with the setup would of earlier but had limited funds at the time but all worked out well so maybe that will help ya

 

[HeadyPete]

Bulb's go bad and blow and fail and you should always have a backup bulb handy, even if it is a cheap HPS, it is better than no HPS (or a couple CFLs ). This will buy you time to get a new grow bulb.

If you had a 2nd bulb you could have swapped it out, troubleshooted your problem, spared yourself and the hydro guy some grief, and most importantly finished your crop, all in a few minutes. If it's your ballast, then you have some credible evidence to go to your supplier with.

I have a Galaxy 600 with an Osram Plantastar bulb and it's been functioning with no problems for almost 2 years now.

I have yet to hear of one confirmed problem with these ballasts.

 

[Sir_Nugget]

yeah what yamaha said I bought everything from cheap hydroponics spent like 1200$ he gave free shipping plus he took money off the price and the shipping alot because he hse ups the total weight was 120lb split in to three box's plus he gave me some free gromets and I had a problem with my ballast he payed to ship it back and sent it to me over night and he gave me a free hortilux bulb for the inconvience which wasn't his fault he even gave a bunch of free sample of Kool bloom plus other stuff when order my nutes and that was just a 80$ order and filled the box with the free additive that's customer service and also who give's a shit if they stop dealing with galaxy the can still them exchange it with the company as long as it wasn't sold after they drop galaxy and also my guy didn't test it he just pack it up and sent back to the company but he sent me a new one over night the day he got plus a bulb you just talk to him over the phone that's when he will make you a good deal also if you tell him that you will use him for any of your hydro supply's that you don't need right away ask for joe he's the owner and he don't bs you to just to make money plus you can trust his advice unlike some hydro stores I have made deal with before

Not a single punctuation mark anywhere... u need to take a college writing course

 

[lysol]

In my experience friends have always jumped at the chance to go check out the "cool" hydro store with me, if your friends are blowing you off your secret is almost certainly not safe with these people. Better to order online in future and find an older mature friend ( not assuming you guys are young but me and my friends are ) who will sign for your "computer parts" when they get shipped. Let us know how it works out for ya

 

[RaptorJesus]

Not a single punctuation mark anywhere... u need to take a college writing course

dude i posted this thread 9 months ago... you're bringing it back just to talk smack to someone who was tryin to help me out? what kind of fucked up troll are you


well anyway since the thread is back i guess i'll tell everyone my ballast is fine. the bulb died on me for some reason. still using it to this day. thanks for all the ideas folks