Opinions of FutureBright and Galaxy 600W Digital Ballasts?

[krustytheclown]

The local hydro shoppe sells Galaxy (green) and FutureBright (blue) brand 600W digital ballasts.

Could you please share your experiences and opinions of one or both of these ballasts? There are no recent threads I can find on these products.

I am primarily concerned with:

-Breakage/Durability
-RF Interference for ballast and cord set
-General electrical safety

 

[1TWISTEDTRUCKER]

Krusty,i've got a futurebright 600w but havn't had a chance to use it yet but everything i found a yr.or so ago when i bought it,was good.
Haven't looked into the Galaxy.

PEACE;1TT

 

[FunkBomb]

Im running a 400w Galaxy and absolutely love it. No noise, very little heat if any, and no interference. I have read in the Digi Ballast thread by Clowntown that the Futurebrites have an RF issue. Best of luck


-Funk

 

[SkillsBot2935]

Ive been running a 600watt future brite for a while and its been fine. Uses .5 amp less power equating to a 10% savings in electricity. The soft start works well saving lamp life. It also just happens to be inches from a small TV which it doesnt seem to bother at all...
Some sites are a lot cheaper than others so just shop well and you will be all good

 

[Erin Kerrik]

From reading the thread "best 600w digital ballast" it seems the RF interference issue has been resolved by the manufacturer. Also, the consensus in that thread was the 600W Lumatek was the best.

 

[GorillaGrower]

check out bghydro.com... they have reviews of some of the digital ballasts w/ rf interference tests. The future brite ballasts aren't bad.. but the 1000 watt are junk.. and dont know about the 600w versions.

As far as lumateks go they do work very well.. the new ones with a female dongle on the outside for the lamp cord is the way to tell its new versioni.

The new galaxy ballasts use the same process and is supposedly the same thing as the lumateks since the revision.. w/ and extra bonus. The galaxy's have the same dongle to cut down on rf interference, + are multi voltage switchable, + handle all bulbs from every manufacturer.

I would go with galaxy or lumatek.. both can be had for around $200-230. I don't have personal experience w/ the galaxy's but if they are like the lumateks you'll be happy. hope this helps. GG