Why is my bulb getting burned?

[Ministro]

Hello all, it´s been a while since I am not arroung.... I am growing again since 2011.... a medical emergency put all wires out of my brain.... and recovered well considering how wisky is to get an hemorragic stroke.

I need some help with a 600´s bulb. I was running a Agrolite 600 w Gro&Flo with a cooltube..... but the bulb started to get a bit pink and after brownish....and then I realized that it was getting burned. A friend told me that if I dont run the extractor fan the bulb will get burned (600)

And now I have an aluminum hood (open) thinking that it wont burn , Asked the guy from the growshop and he told me that it should not get burned......
so after 3 days I took a look to my bulb and.....



Does this happens with any brand of 600´s ????
Does any 600 must be atached with a cooltube connected with a fan??

Please any info is preciated.

Peace

 

[Andyo]

ballast

ballast

What ballast are you running this bulb on ?.
Its unlikley to be lack of air or cool tube causing this burn, hps lamps run for a year and more in glass enclosed reflectors with no cooling .
It may be just that bulb .
Or the ballast .
possibly voltage fluctuation.
CWA= constant wattage auto transformer" ballasts are best they buffer wattage against dips and surges .
If your in south america id suspect voltage and ballast ive only seen dodgy horse n cart type ballasts there .A

 

[iTarzan]

You never run a cool tube without a fan.

You never should run a hooded reflector without a fan unless you take the glass off.

The heat in the cool tube most likely ruined that build or severely shortened it's life.

 

[Ministro]

Power Grow electronic ballast 250-400-600 dimmer

 

[Andyo]

ballast

ballast

Ok i would use a magnetic ballast for reliabilty ive used them for 40 + years.
http://www.venturelighting.com/vlps/HPS600Wballast.html please note that the ballast in this link is 60 hz you electricity supply is either 50hz or 60 hz need to check that itll be printed on your meter .A

 

[Ministro]

Im using a 1.2 x 1.2 Tent. After I realized the bulb was getting messed up, I used 2 cooltubes, each one of them with a 400W hps. Never used fan and the bulb looks 100% fine.

 

[Andyo]

cool tubes no fan

cool tubes no fan

I dont see the point of cool tubes with out fan the point of using them is to suck out heat ?
i understand the point that in the extra heat of cool tube no fan the bulb is ok though .A

 

[Ministro]

I dont see the point of cool tubes with out fan the point of using them is to suck out heat ?
i understand the point that in the extra heat of cool tube no fan the bulb is ok though .A

Thats why I posted a pic of the hood that is not a cooltube and the bulb already started to get a bit burned.

 

[Kiloz]

Was the two bulbs the same brand from the same store? If so, the store could have gotten a bad batch of lights.

Also if you're going to use electronic ballasts its a good idea to only use high quality ones, id highly recommend the Adjusta Watt one, from Sonlight.

If two lights break with the same ballast it could absolutely be something wrong with the ballast.

 

[Ministro]

Well they are not breaking, the bulb starts to get a bit brownish and later in 2 weeks looks darker, not broken.
after all this happened, I placed 400W phillips and there is no problem at all