Philips 315w CDM Elite (CMH)

[village green]

Thanks for the tips. Just got back from buying a tent but they wanted 600 for a Sun System or 550 for a Phantom. I seem to recall much better deals being discussed earlier in this thread. I can see a store not wanting to repackage a bulky tent but discrete shipping should be easy with a small fan, carbon and light, as you say.

 

[Laavamara]

is there any safety operations in philips 315w ballast?

 

[oti$]

Thanks for the tips. Just got back from buying a tent but they wanted 600 for a Sun System or 550 for a Phantom. I seem to recall much better deals being discussed earlier in this thread. I can see a store not wanting to repackage a bulky tent but discrete shipping should be easy with a small fan, carbon and light, as you say.

My local shop is charging about the same as you are seeing. I shopped around online and found much better deals. My most recent phantom was just over $350 shipped and the one before was even cheaper, but I can't remember exactly how much. Horticulturesource & growershouse have both have had good.

 

[oti$]

Deals

 

[village green]

Thanks for the tips. Been so excited to try a CMH but found out I get to have intestinal surgery out of pocket. Maybe I can take a summer camping trip in the tent I bought LOL. Bet by the time I get to try one out these lights will have come down in price.

 

[40AmpstoFreedom]

$329 https://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/phantom-315w-ceramic-metal-halide-grow-light-3100k.html

 

[Zeez]

Found a Prepaid shipping label in my inbox today. They did not say anything about them covering the cost.. That's good .

Did you get a new ballast?

 

[40AmpstoFreedom]

Well, I had to make a decision. i went with 10 of the phantoms to start. If I went the LED route I would only be able to afford enough of them to cover (2 or 3) 4x4 areas since they cost almost 3x as much per unit and only cover 2x2 of space which = 4 units per 4x4. The phantoms cover 3x3 with ease per unit so the initial grow would suffer big losses the first second and third grow which would mostly have to be invested back into lights to cover the same amount of space and would be less yield the three grow straight due to not being able to afford enough for initial start up costs. If I was able to afford the initial startup and cover the same amount of space I would have gone the LED route. I really did not want to wait 9 months until I started seeing a good profit and I did not like the 2 year warranty on them when a 5 year minimum use was needed.

While the Starlite LED's look extremely promising I want to wait until they are full spectrum and have been time tested. I plan on switching fully over to them after my investment in these has paid off and they need to be replaced. I may make my veg room fully led though we will see.

I appreciate everyone's feedback in this thread and time put in.

 

[Avinash.miles]

Well, I had to make a decision. i went with 10 of the phantoms to start. If I went the LED route I would only be able to afford enough of them to cover (2 or 3) 4x4 areas since they cost almost 3x as much per unit and only cover 2x2 of space which = 4 units per 4x4. The phantoms cover 3x3 with ease per unit so the initial grow would suffer big losses the first second and third grow which would mostly have to be invested back into lights to cover the same amount of space and would be less yield the three grow straight due to not being able to afford enough for initial start up costs. If I was able to afford the initial startup and cover the same amount of space I would have gone the LED route. I really did not want to wait 9 months until I started seeing a good profit and I did not like the 2 year warranty on them when a 5 year minimum use was needed.

While the Starlite LED's look extremely promising I want to wait until they are full spectrum and have been time tested. I plan on switching fully over to them after my investment in these has paid off and they need to be replaced. I may make my veg room fully led though we will see.

I appreciate everyone's feedback in this thread and time put in.

glad you are making the switch, hope to see a new thread or some pics of your time using them in the future.

 

[watts]

Do not shop at plantlightinghydroponics anymore. They have been doing bad business the past 2 years and I don't think they are in business anymore, even though their website is still up. I don't believe you can checkout and have your payment processed anymore. People have reported them to the Attorney General of Ohio. They used to be really good. If they are still in business now, hopefully they are under new management.

Edit: I just read a review stating they are under new ownership since April. His name is Tom. Best of luck.

 

[40AmpstoFreedom]

Do not shop at plantlightinghydroponics anymore. They have been doing bad business the past 2 years and I don't think they are in business anymore, even though their website is still up. I don't believe you can checkout and have your payment processed anymore. People have reported them to the Attorney General of Ohio. They used to be really good. If they are still in business now, hopefully they are under new management.

Edit: I just read a review stating they are under new ownership since April. His name is Tom. Best of luck.

i have not ordered from them in 2 years but I have made 10k+ in orders from them in previous 5 years before that and never had an issue. They always have the cheapest prices. I wonder if there issues are with vendors trying to force price fixing on them. I know they had to change a lot for awhile where you could only see it in the cart. They have also always shipped everything no matter how big or small very stealth. (in 2014 I ordered 5k worth of stuff and 0 issues went and looked it up)

 

[Hammerhead]

Did you get a new ballast?

Yes, its been running for 2 days now no issues.


I see all these new 315w bulbs have a 15$ price increase from the Phillips Agro that seems odd to me. Also I found this from those guys that make those 630w DE CMH bulbs. Once they get there ballast on the market this might be fix for us that dont like having 10 ballast on the wall.


DE CMH Lamps were designed to run optimally in a low frequency square wave ballast but we have found that they are also useful for growers who have high frequency double ended ballasts. Many growers are having issues with heat so they are dimming their fixtures down, and many other growers are switching to CMH because the richer spectrum is much better for plants, giving better yield. Utilizing these bulbs in a standard DE fixture is a great shortcut which achieves both of those goals, greatly minimizes operating expenses and grows higher quality flowers. However, it should be understood that since DE CMH bulbs were designed for low frequency ballasts, a few users may experience longevity issues in certain brands of high frequency ballast. However, we believe the amazing added benefits of the full spectrum combined with the money saving opportunity in utilizing your existing fixture far outweigh the risk of an early bulb failure, and we are developing a ballast right now that is designed specifically for our DE CMH Lamps

 

[Zeez]

Yes, its been running for 2 days now no issues.


I see all these new 315w bulbs have a 15$ price increase from the Phillips Agro that seems odd to me. Also I found this from those guys that make those 630w DE CMH bulbs. Once they get there ballast on the market this might be fix for us that dont like having 10 ballast on the wall.

I took your advice and picked up a couple Prism Ballasts for backup on the Phantoms. Cheap insurance. Phantoms have been doing good. One hiccup required the full reboot. Also got a Phillips 3100k bulb for $74 with GH. Going to run one 4200k and one 3100k bulb in the bloom tent. Haven't test driven the Prisms yet, but will soon.

 

[Hammerhead]

I have the Original Phantom ballast as a backup. I took the 1kw E-PAP down replaced it with 2 315's. I now have 2.6kw instead of 3kw. I should not see any difference.

 

[Zeez]

So they had a new replacement back to you in a week and covered the ship. Not bad.

 

[watts]

i have not ordered from them in 2 years but I have made 10k+ in orders from them in previous 5 years before that and never had an issue. They always have the cheapest prices. I wonder if there issues are with vendors trying to force price fixing on them. I know they had to change a lot for awhile where you could only see it in the cart. They have also always shipped everything no matter how big or small very stealth. (in 2014 I ordered 5k worth of stuff and 0 issues went and looked it up)

I never had any serious problems with them but I started to notice my last few orders they didn't include everything I ordered or told me they were out of stock after I had already paid. They gave me refunds when I requested though. I read where other people had placed real expensive orders for equipment and some of them never received their orders and no refunds. Just a lot of negative reviews the past 2 years I noticed. I went to place an order on their website back in february and it would not let me checkout. I took it as they were finally out of business. They seem to be under new ownership since April though and the reviews are good now.

 

[jonesb]

Something New

https://www.sunlightsupply.com/shop...brand-technology-electronic-ballasts-315-watt

 

[Laavamara]

Can anyone tell me if it would be wiser to put 2 315's to 4x4 (120x120cm) tent or just one 630w fixture?
What is the most legit brand in EU area?

 

[Avinash.miles]

Can anyone tell me if it would be wiser to put 2 315's to 4x4 (120x120cm) tent or just one 630w fixture?
What is the most legit brand in EU area?

pretty sure that's the same thing, a 630 w is just 2x 315's in one hood.
i would get the 2 x 315's because they can be separated and run separately IF NEEDED in the future, that 630 is always going to be ONE light with 2 bulbs in it that cannot be separated without alterations.

not sure the best EU version, best of luck

 

[Blazeee]

Can anyone tell me if it would be wiser to put 2 315's to 4x4 (120x120cm) tent or just one 630w fixture?
What is the most legit brand in EU area?

I would say most legit brand in the eu or uk right now would be the d papillon. For the cheaper alternative theres quite a few guys in the uk also running the maxibright 315w, or the 315 omega ballast with a 315 bulb and e40 to 315 bulb adaptor. Dimlux also make a 315/630 however they are the most expensive, not seen many people runnig the dimlux unit.

Im running a D papillon 630 over a 3x4 area and its great. I bought the double used so i got a good price on it. If i was buying new though i would buy 2 separate units. With the d papillon 630 the ballast is mounted the same as a gavita so you lose a ft of headroom, on the dimlux unit its mounted sideways so you dont lose as much headroom.

Over here ive seen the maxibright and omega kits going for around £250-300
The single d pap with spare bulbs around £400-450
Double d pap around £800
Dimlux 630w around £800-£825