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A tale of 5 ballasts

simon

Weedomus Maximus
Veteran
I run 5x600HPS. The SS1 600HPS ballasts were purchased 5-6 years ago and have been working without a hitch. Or, so I thought.

I've been battling yield issues for the last year. Having isolated every variable and eliminated it, the lights were last in line. For whatever reason - stupidity, arrogance - I never suspected the ballasts. After switching lamps around to no avail and finally getting down to the ballasts, I discovered that 3 out of 5 SS1s were putting out significantly less light.

My light meter measured 1 ballast at ~1/3 the (light) output, and 2 ballasts at a bit less than ~50%. The other 2 are fine. Lord knows how much this cost me in lost product, wasted electricity, strains that I wrote-off, and on and on.

Light meters can be had for ~$50. Please note my misfortune and check your equipment.


Capacitor Testing Procedures posted by junior_grower

Link to inexpensive capacitors posted by junior_grower


Here's how you'd go about installing a new cap:

ballast_002s.jpg


Open ballast and locate the capacitor. It's the taller, cylindrical object on the bottom. The igniter is the part on top. Loosen the strap and make the cap free to work with.


ballast_004s.jpg



ballast_008s.jpg



Cut the wires leading to the wire nut attached to the capacitor and replace. Use new wire nuts once the two wires are twisted together. You may not be able to strip the high-temp insulation with traditional wire strippers. A utility knife works well.

ballast_005s.jpg


The old capacitor. Put everything back the way it was and you're done. You've successfully replaced the capacitor and brought your ballast back to its original spec. Get ready for higher yield!

Simon
 

montehierba

Member
new toys

new toys

Not trying to sound like a jerk but you have to keep up with technology if you want to see the same nuggggzzz you see on icmag or hightmes, yield if influenced mainly by strong sources of light and constantly among others but if light if the problem... change your bulbs maybe after a couple crops a bulb or something, 600 watts are great to work with more eevn distribution of lumens and powerwise aswell.:smokeit:
 

simon

Weedomus Maximus
Veteran
good advice, and anyone running old mag ballast should change out the capacitor every now and then.

The caps are causing this problem? I figured that it couldn't be the igniter, and the odds of the transformer going bad are pretty slim. That does only leaves the cap. I'll see if I can get one tomorrow and test this out.

Simon
 

junior_grower

Active member
Yup over time they go bad I have found new ones for my 1000's online for as cheap as 12 bucks shipped. ( i bought 10)
 

simon

Weedomus Maximus
Veteran
Yup over time they go bad...

I got some new caps today. That did the trick. The ballasts are back to spec. Ordered some extras to have in stock, as well.

The garden is 1-2 weeks from harvest. I keep looking at the plants and wondering how they would have done with some light intensity. I probably lost tens of thousands of dollars over the last year or so. Thank you again for posting.

Simon
 

9Lives

three for playing, three for straying, and three f
Veteran
Good post for sure! Definatley something to watch out for...

k+
 

GrnMtnGrwr

Active member
Veteran
Wow, some great info here on a not-often discussed topic that is relevant to just about every grower. Thanks simon, for sharing your experience. Any recommendations for a light meter?
 

simon

Weedomus Maximus
Veteran
Any recommendations for a light meter?

I bought an inexpensive, Chinese-made meter on Ebay for ~$50. It reads up to 50K and it can switch between lumens or foot candles. I don't know how accurate it is, but in our position it seems like the relative readings matter most.

I mostly use the meter to setup the plants, relative to their respective positions under the light. In retrospect, I think it really helped the garden produce as much as it had with little actual light.

Simon
 

Cutty

Member
Thanks for the post.

I will be replacing mine before the next grow. My SS ballast are only 3 years old but it's so cheap why not.

I would have never thought about this otherwise. +1
 

ColBatGuano

Member
I bought an inexpensive, Chinese-made meter on Ebay for ~$50. It reads up to 50K and it can switch between lumens or foot candles. I don't know how accurate it is, but in our position it seems like the relative readings matter most.

Cheap light meters are typically just as accurate (if not as precise) as pricier ones. I used to work in film/video, and worked with them a lot. I like analog ones more than digital, if it matters. They're often cheaper, too. Sekonic is a good brand. For our purposes, especially to test the life-cycle of a ballast capacitor, a cheaper model is just fine. Buy one used and save even more.
 

krunchbubble

Dear Haters, I Have So Much More For You To Be Mad
Veteran
I run 5x600HPS. The SS1 600HPS ballasts were purchased 5-6 years ago and have been working without a hitch. Or, so I thought.

I've been battling yield issues for the last year. Having isolated every variable and eliminated it, the lights were last in line. For whatever reason - stupidity, arrogance - I never suspected the ballasts. After switching lamps around to no avail and finally getting down to the ballasts, I discovered that 3 out of 5 SS1s were putting out significantly less light.

My light meter measured 1 ballast at ~1/3 the (light) output, and 2 ballasts at a bit less than ~50%. The other 2 are fine. Lord knows how much this cost me in lost product, wasted electricity, strains that I wrote-off, and on and on.

Light meters can be had for ~$50. Please note my misfortune and check your equipment.

Simon



hmmmm, i have never heard of this. could it of been your bulbs? i will be calling up my sun system bro to ask.......
one of my spots has 10 5+ year old ss1's and the yields are still good with old ass bulbs.....
 

simon

Weedomus Maximus
Veteran
hmmmm, i have never heard of this. could it of been your bulbs?

It definably, positively with 100% certainty wasn't due to the lamps. The caps were responsible for the problem.

i will be calling up my sun system bro to ask.......
one of my spots has 10 5+ year old ss1's and the yields are still good with old ass bulbs.....

It could very well be that older SS1s, like yours, used better quality capacitors. FWIW, I have 2 older 400HPS SS1s and they're both healthy.

Simon
 

junior_grower

Active member
glad we found you a quick and cheap fix. This is one of the reasons I run tanks ( mag ballasts), they can be fixed on the quick and cheap, and they can take a beating.
 

GrnMtnGrwr

Active member
Veteran
hmmmm, i have never heard of this. could it of been your bulbs? i will be calling up my sun system bro to ask.......
one of my spots has 10 5+ year old ss1's and the yields are still good with old ass bulbs.....

I bet they'd be even better with brand new bulbs (and maybe ballasts too if what simon experienced is common.) The light meter thing would be great in this situation, as you could get a reading when you first set your grow up and then check every once in a while to make sure things are keeping up.
 

krunchbubble

Dear Haters, I Have So Much More For You To Be Mad
Veteran
I run 5x600HPS. The SS1 600HPS ballasts were purchased 5-6 years ago and have been working without a hitch. Or, so I thought.

I've been battling yield issues for the last year. Having isolated every variable and eliminated it, the lights were last in line. For whatever reason - stupidity, arrogance - I never suspected the ballasts. After switching lamps around to no avail and finally getting down to the ballasts, I discovered that 3 out of 5 SS1s were putting out significantly less light.

My light meter measured 1 ballast at ~1/3 the (light) output, and 2 ballasts at a bit less than ~50%. The other 2 are fine. Lord knows how much this cost me in lost product, wasted electricity, strains that I wrote-off, and on and on.

Light meters can be had for ~$50. Please note my misfortune and check your equipment.

Simon



i talked to my sunsystem boy, and you are absolutely right! i am blown away by this! he said yes, when the caps degrade, you will lose significant light output. he said when you buy new systems, always check with a light meter the intensity, then check every six months, or when you change a bulb.

this is kinda amazing, there are so many old magnetic ballasts out there. im changing all my caps this week......
 

simon

Weedomus Maximus
Veteran
As we're talking about light intensity, let me share something of interest. When I first started working on this problem, I tested all the lamps. I measured a total of 9 Sylvania Grolux 600HPS lamps, including a brand new, borrowed Grolux. These were the results:

1. 900
2. 870 (borrowed, new lamp)
3. 860
4. 908
5. 660
6. 850
7. 855
8. 917
9. 930

The testing was informal. It was done solely for myself as a way to gauge my own lamps. A light meter was set a distance away from the lamp with no shift in its position (a constant), the lamps all ran on the same ballast - <grin> one of the good ones, as it turned out - and each was allowed to warm-up for about a half hour.

If we dump the 660 value as a possible used/damaged/badly spec'd lamp that came in the lot I purchased, and the highest value as an outlier, as well, we see a (max) ~8% variance in output. Not bad, really.

Simon
 

max_well

Member
good source for capacitors?

good source for capacitors?

THanks Simon for the very useful thread..
I'm wondering, does anyone has a good place to order capacitors from? I imagine they are marked up for the hydro stores significantly.
thanks
Max
 

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