How often do you change your bulbs?

[nukklehead]

nukklehead ,change the capacitor every 18 months?



ive run my 600w 2 years now, the 400 mh 4 years. i dont see enough difference in the yield to bother yet with getting new bulbs. a few grams less isnt an especial monetary concern for me and i can use the 60 bucks for different things.


i used to have these old 150 hps,that came with bulbs that might have been 10 years old for all i know(actually pretty sure they were at least close to that number), still grew tight dense buds for me, about 10 grows later for a friend i gifted them to, they were still growing similar looking buds. i think it did at least 4 grows more though i dont know how they differed by then. one bulb had finally gone out.

Yes I know overkill.. I also change spark plugs every 30k...
Sometimes I go 24 mos. But you wont see a post from me saying
Oh shit.. whats wrong with my ballast.??? Because I know that it isnt
my cap. or bulb... Hey whats 20-30$ in the spectrum of things?
Pops taught me to milk every mechanization for what its worth,
He also taught maintanance. So I get your drift... Peace!!
P.S. I drive his 68 chevy small block 4 speed pickup daily..
and so will my son!!

 

[Mantaray]

Somewhere between 6 months and a year, depending on how proactive I am. lol

 

[joe guy]

Hhhmm well damn I got mine used lol and goin on my second run guess I should get one here soon huh

 

[noluv]

My last bulb I kept as long as it kept lighting up. I don't think that was even two years (of 12/12).

After getting the new bulb the difference in amount of light was huge. I know this because I started wearing sunglasses again when tending the plants just to be comfortable.

So I wouldn't recommend going over a year because of both the reduced reliability and the reduced light intensity.

 

[simon]

For veg, I change the GE600HPS lamps every two years. Flower, GE600s and Sylvania 1Ks once a year. I tested some Digilux 1000HPS' this season. Killer lamps for 2 cycles. Third, not as much.

Simon

 

[KnuckleHedd]

I change my hortilux HPS bulbs after 2 years of use. That's not 24 months of daily use, but amounts to 6 crops. I just changed to Plantmax Halides...good price, but they don't seem to maintain their intensity as long as what I was using before. It's a good bulb though and I just bought new replacements. I'm doing 3 crops with those. Capacitors I change every 2-3 years, but if I notice a lamp isn't as bright as the others I'll swap out the cap and that usually brings it up to par. I think capacitors are the most overlooked component in the chain. I get new caps from Capacitor King at a great price compared to the grow shops. Hps starters I don't change unless I see a startup problem, which has been only once since 1986. If I'm wrong about the starter replacement let me know.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

It really depends on a many factors, a big one being the manufacture of the bulb and another the ballast that you are using.

You could expect to see anywhere from a 2%-7% drop in PAR watts per 2 month 12/12 cycle. Electronic ballasts will have the same bulb producing almost 30% more par watts then in a Magnetic ballast but as a result shorten the lifespan of the bulb..

dude none of that is true, the 2-7% sounds like a guess ( but a pretty bad one ), the 30% more watts is straight out made up and very misguided advice

oh and whats a electronic ballast ( all ballasts use electronics unless im missing some that dont ), i presume you mean digital, if you do then they do NOT shorten the life of the bulb, they do the OPPOSITE and lengthen it due to the bulb not being cycled so much by the ballast......... so again.......... untrue

 

[smokeandmirrors]

fresh cap in my ballast every 2 years (i date em) and fresh bulbs every 6 months.
plantmax bulbs, less than $30 , switched years ago and will never go back to $100 hortis.

its the special metals that make that extra blue...they burn off much earlier than the rest of the bulb will.

caps are so overlooked

i change them out every few years and they can dramatically affect your numbers, my lumen meter showed pretty big losses after a few years

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

Still running the same 400 HPS and CMH I bought 5 years ago. 10 grows, 2 bulbs.
I'm a cheap bastard.

 

[nitetimegamer]

DAMN!!!
I guess I don't change mine enough...hell I was using the same 2 HPS 400 watt bulbs going on 3 years, just changed a year ago, no noticeable difference really...still got the 2 old ones I am keeping as backups...frankly I seen 400 watt HPS bulbls at lowes, half tempted to try them..didn't look too closely at them though so don't know details, just that they are cheaper and 400 watt HPS bulbls..I have never replaced either of my 2 MH 400 watt bulbs, but they are hardly ever used and probably in total have a year or less use on them.

i would be leary of a bulb that's 'not' specifically designed for vegging & flowering. the lowes light would have to cover a certain spectrum of light to be effective otherwise it's just a bright light, which will work, but nowhere near a growing/plant specific light. it's designed for lighting; not growing. i'm a photographer by trade & have studied light most of my life; the color temperature & spectrum is critical to productive plants

 

[JointOperation]

ya. something thats very overlooked in the community is changing of bulbs.. every 3-4 harvests MAX.. and caps.. at the very max. 2-3 years depending.

 

[EclipseFour20]

It depends on how much "loss" you want. This graph might change your mind--

For 80% spectrum/intensity (20% loss), the replacement threshold would be 2500 hours for MH and 5000 for HPS.
70% would be 5000 hours for MH and 12500 for HPS

Hmmm...MH in veg, 2500 hours for 80% threshold, 18 hours per day equates to almost 139 days or 4.6 months. HPS in flower, 5000 hours for 80% threshold, 12 hours per day equates to almost 417 days or 13.9 months.

IMHO, I doubt changing the lamps at the 90% threshold would be cost effective (meaning you probably would spend more on new lamps compared to the value of any harvest increase).

Cheers!