WARNING Sun Systems GroPro dual 600

[pico]

Oh boy, I am a little mad folks. I have been turning people on to the Sun Systems Gro Pro dual 600w ballast recently. I think the idea of having 2 lights running off of 1 box and 1 plug is great. I own some of these things myself and like most things about them. But they have had trouble lighting bulbs sometimes. Just randomly the ballasts won't fire.

That was enough to tick me off a little about these ballasts, but I still thought it could be my bulbs. Well today I tested the light output of the gropro compared to the pulsar 600 ballast. Well guess what.......The pulsar put out 50% more light compared to the gropro. In other words, the gropro is underpowering the bulbs which is why they sometimes won't fire probably. So there might be just a 1000w transformer powering two 600w bulbs.

Whatever is going on it is bullshit and you should not buy these ballasts. Anyone who owns any of these should try to return them (good luck) and call Sun Systems and tell them this is bullshit. I went out today and bought 4 new 600w ballasts and will be contacting Sun Sytems to rectify the problem.

I am getting tired of these hydro companies.

 

[Guest]

Damn bro.. that really blows.. please keep us posted on what Sun systems has to say about the problem..

 

[cocktail frank]

i own 2 of these and dont seem to have a problem.
if you flip over the ballast, it looks like there are 2 seperate ballast in there. i can tell that because i see the machine screws that hold the ballasts in the casing.

 

[pico]

Nope, sorry pal there is only 1 transformer on the gropro. I don't see any screws on the bottom of mine either.

The light meter doesn't lie. Pulsar said 150,000 lumens and gropro said 100,000 lumens. Take your pick.

Glad yours work fine. Mine light up 97% of the time. But I had to mess around with different bulbs and I still hear the ballast not firing once a month or so. Have to turn it off and try again in 10 minutes and it will fire.

 

[kennycar]

sorry to hear that pico .... I was just thinking about getting a new 600 and dumping my 400 but I keep hearing things like this about the 600s. maybe I will wait a while longer befor I buy. I dont have much funds so i have to be careful how I spend it, lol be sure to let us know if they make good on your ballasts,I know there are a lot of people who will want to know. good luck

 

[pico]

I spoke with Sun Sytems this morning. Got someone on the case and hopefully I will be able to swap these out for a better ballast. They should be calling me back soon. I made it fairly clear that I won't be pushing their products ever again if they don't make good.

There should not be any problem with the regular 600w ballasts, just these gropro ballasts that use 1 transformer for 2 lights.

I did buy some pulsar 600w ballasts for $210 each yesterday.

 

[TrustNoOne]

i was going to buy one of those tomorow. i think i'll hold off now. thanx pico.

 

[cannigrow]

wow, glad i passed on this one when i was shopping...it sounded really cool.

 

[Guest]

Always wondered why there was a few used ones sitting at the hydro store.

 

[clowntown]

Do you have a Kill-A-Watt or similar to see how much the GroPro is drawing?

 

[CannaBullies]

I thought about getting one of these.Thanks for the heads up.Hope they exchange it for you without problems.

 

[pico]

I wish I had a kill-a-watt. I keep having uses for one.

Maybe I will order one

 

[TrustNoOne]

i passed on the sun system and bought lumatek and future brite digitals. one of each.

i'll let you all know the results when i'm done.

pico, again , thanks for all your time and shit man.

 

[Guest]

Hey pico,

Sorry, to hear your bad news. I was thinking about buying a few of those units. Thanks for the heads up. I hope they sort you out and don't screw with you. Keep us inform on the problem and lets hope they take care of you.
Take care,
BG

 

[pineappaloupe]

One word....

fuck.

if you are really 100% serious about the lumen loss i might have to ditch this ballast for 2 600s.
is there any hope of a refund? cause this is bullshit. I ran my growpro for a little over a month. it actually died and has been sent back, it over heated and stopped firing bulbs one day. every other time it lit the bulbs from cold start in well under a minute.
It seems very bright too, much brighter than my 1000w MH

oh well.

if this were coming from anyone but pico I would feel better, cause i could tell myself that they are mistaken.
is there any hope of getting a replacement from sunsystem?
fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck

 

[pico]

I am going to do my full workup on these units tomorrow. But from a light meter on two side by side 600w lights at the hydro shop there was 30% less light in the gropro. This test was done because someone else running 10 gropros noticed a 30% loss in harvest and decided to test his out one day. The test at the shop confirmed that and I will see if my own more extensive test will do the same.

Still no word from SunSystems

 

[TrustNoOne]

my shop is calling sunsystems also. i stopped in last week and told him about this thread and he said he'd call and see if he can get any info.

 

[Strawberrycough]

Hi Pico, damn that sucks about the Sunsystem Dual 600....ewwwww. dont tell nobody but lumatek is releasing a dual digital 600 on the 22 of this month.

 

[Guest]

Duel Digital will be nice. Hope they don't have any issues with it. Those units are so nice. Allot less space is taken up, but they got to work right first. Let's hope they did their testing on them
Later,
BG

 

[pico]

Tests done on a 3'x3' grid @ 21 ". Test points every 12"

Pulsar 600w

1. 780
2. 1160
3. 1220
4. 660
5. 1550
6. 3010
7. 2990
8. 1350
9. 1550
10. 3270
11. 3280
12. 1380
13. 880
14. 1440
15. 1380
16. 760

Average 1666.25 Footcandles



GroPro Dual 600

1. 700
2. 1060
3. 1110
4. 610
5. 1410
6. 2680
7. 2680
8. 1220
9. 1460
10. 3040
11. 3020
12. 1290
13. 780
14. 1310
15. 1350
16. 700

Average 1526.25 footcandles


So in real world tests it is more like 10% more light. Either way not acceptable. I tested with hortilux which sunsystems guy reccomended. The in store test was with Localux which I think he said didn't work too well in the gropro.

These tests were with a batwing reflector that has very bad light output. I am testing a different batwing right now to see if there is a difference.



Ok, so I guess we don't need to be as alarmed as i initially thought, but still I won't be using these ballasts anymore. Not firing bulbs is a real problem.



If these numbers don't make sense to you, pop on over to my Aircooled Reflector Testing thread in my signature. Should clear things up.