What Electronic Ballast to Buy?

[Crash-n-Burn]

I'm in the market for a 250 watt electronic ballast. I can't find anywhere that says whether or not this is a standard feature for an electronic ballast or not but I want to be able to run MH and HPS off of it. I only need 120v. Money's not really a factor, but I don't want to pay a bunch of extra money for a name.

Let me know what's good and what's not!

Thanks.

 

[mixin]

get a lumatek definately

 

[thecarguy]

Lumateks can run both types of bulb, though they cannot change between 120 and 240 v. Plus their reliability is higher than other e ballasts. Perfect for you.

 

[B00st3d]

Get a Galaxy, you wont regret it.

 

[o0th3d4nk0o]

My hydro guy says he sees twice as many Galaxy (which is owned by Sunlight, the monopolist of the hydro industry) failures than Lumatek. The new Lumateks also have excellent RF shielding. For the ultimate ballast, go 240v Lumatek, they don't even get warm.

 

[Crash-n-Burn]

I was really teetering between Lumatek and Galaxy and was wondering if the Galaxy was worth the extra dough. Looks like the answer there is a no...

Anyone else got anything to change my mind?

Thanks for the comments, folks!

 

[mixin]

My hydro guy says he sees twice as many Galaxy (which is owned by Sunlight, the monopolist of the hydro industry) failures than Lumatek. The new Lumateks also have excellent RF shielding. For the ultimate ballast, go 240v Lumatek, they don't even get warm.

i heard that the 240v lumateks are much more efficient. that is great that they don't even get warm. thats a major plus!

 

[ft100]

ive had problems with 120v elux 600 ballasts tripping on a gfci outlet every damn time within 2 seconds. i know these are supposed to be the newer more efficient kind but they are no good to me if they dont work on my outlets. i know the outlets are good because i have ran my gfs hair dryer on them without a problem. so which of these new electric or digital ballasts do you think will solve my problem here? or should i just go back to magnetic? any help greatly appreciated. peace and smoke.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Lumateks won't run a Ceramic Metal Halide bulb.
You'll need a 250W HPS magnetic ballast for that.

Magnetic ballasts for a 250 watt are nice and silent. Just buy quality so you pay less in electricity in the long run.

 

[mixin]

ive had problems with 120v elux 600 ballasts tripping on a gfci outlet every damn time within 2 seconds. i know these are supposed to be the newer more efficient kind but they are no good to me if they dont work on my outlets. i know the outlets are good because i have ran my gfs hair dryer on them without a problem. so which of these new electric or digital ballasts do you think will solve my problem here? or should i just go back to magnetic? any help greatly appreciated. peace and smoke.

i would be hesitant to put lights on i gfci protected circuit because of tripping them. gfci's can be tripped by just a few milliamps of inrush current. who exactly is the maker of the elux?

 

[ft100]

ok then what would you do in my situation where i have 2 seperate 20 amp lines that are all gfci protected and my lights will not turn on but for a second and then they trip? any suggestions to get out of this with working lights? go buy different ballasts? do something electrical? punch hole in wall? thanks for any help. peace and smoke

 

[mixin]

i would shut the circuit off, pull the gfci out and replace it with a standard duplex recepticle

http://www.electrical-online.com/wiringareceptacle.htm

it really is easy to do. just make sure your circuit is turned off (plug a light into it to check its off) follow the simple steps making sure to tighten your screws snug that hold the wire, then make sure you neatly place the wires back in the box. take special care to make sure no ground wires are touching your bare hot, neutral and turn it back on. i am sure there are plenty of youtube videos that will show you first hand too

good luck

 

[B00st3d]

If you believe what your "hydro guy" tells ya then theres no reasoning with an idiot such as yourself. I own 5 Galaxies, four 600's and one 400. I have thousands and thousands of hours on them, 5 harvs on them and now 2 grows goin on them so 7 total grows in the last 2 years with them. I also owned 3 of the future brites and they would fail within 1-2 grows. The Galaxy is awsome, doesnt have the harmonic resonance of the lumateks plus runs all bulbs which lumateks dont do, at least not the ones that were out the first few years. Unless they have updated them then they def do not compare in any way to a Galaxy. Lumatkes would blow so many kinds of bulbs when they came out a few years back where as I have never heard of any Galaxy blowing a bulb. But Im not aware of any new lumateks since I dont pay attention being that Im not in the market right now for new ballasts. I get the Galaxies for cheaper then the lumateks from my local "hydro guy" But ya man listen to all these ppl, none of whom which have owned a Galaxy and most of whom which dont even own a lumatek either. Personally I wouldnt be too gung ho bout gettin a digital ballast unless your running 4 or 5 600's, thats where the noise factor, power savings,soft startup, constant wattage output(eliminates bulb flicker) and things like that come into play. Good luck.

 

[Kerosene]

I would definitely look into CMH bulbs. There's a big thread in the Growroom Design and Equipment on them and they're worth checking out. Our room is destined for 6 CMH 400s. I agree they're quite quiet.

As for GFCI, I eventually want to try Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters for peace of mind. My partner and I have 3 400MH Core and Coil ballasts running through a single GFCI. Two of the ballasts are modified to be remote and one is a natural remote. We haven't had any problems yet. So it may be something to do with the Digi's?