My experience with HTG ballasts..

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robertmarley

Member

• Apr 9, 2010

• #1

400 watter we ran for a while was ok, there cheap magnetic one


Over a year ago I picked some of their "digital greenhouse" 600 watt ballasts with bulbs.. holy fuck what a mistake..

From the onset I had this crazy problem with them making breakers pop that they are not even on.. its the craziest thing. So I sent them back and they were nice enough to send me new ones.. and now the problem is back. Now its so bad that it pops both of my room breakers (its on the garage breaker) and one of the lights will not even fire.. this is after 6 months of the replacement.

Forgot to mention that the reason I sent back the first ballasts was becuase they were blowing out my bulbs, one just burnt out and the other shattered in the hood ( pretty scary )...

So now here I am, every night dealing with this crazy breaker popping bs, tomorrow im going to buy a quality dual 600 ballast so I dont have to deal with this again. As of right now, every night one light will come on and the other wont, and while the first light comes on both breakers for the rooms in my house pop. (the breaker that the ballast/lights are on has never popped)


Moral of the story, dont fuck with digital greenhouse, its straight garbage. I read a story on another forum (grassssscity) of some guy having his cause some crazy EMF problems knocking out his cable signal through his neighborhood and causing cops to come to his door.

 

Lazyman

Overkill is under-rated.

Veteran

• Apr 9, 2010

• #2

I'm dying to see if a different brand doesn't have the same problems, but I have had zero problems with Quantum digi's for a couple years now, except they eat ALL Hortilux bulbs. Switched to Ushios and no issues whatsoever. Been reading more reports of bad Lumateks lately, higher failure rate than previous years. Got the Quantums for $288 from my local shop, the dimmer is handy and they put out 10% more lumens than my Sunmaster magnetic ballasts with the same bulb/hood/distance.

 

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BLUNToPOTomuss

Member

• Apr 9, 2010

• #3

Lazyman said:

I'm dying to see if a different brand doesn't have the same problems, but I have had zero problems with Quantum digi's for a couple years now, except they eat ALL Hortilux bulbs. Switched to Ushios and no issues whatsoever. Been reading more reports of bad Lumateks lately, higher failure rate than previous years. Got the Quantums for $288 from my local shop, the dimmer is handy and they put out 10% more lumens than my Sunmaster magnetic ballasts with the same bulb/hood/distance.

Click to expand...

I waited 3 weeks for my shop to get quantums in! they are back ordered and they have NO idea when they are getting more. They said they are selling faster then they can poduce them right now (not really, but tey seem hard to get at brick and mortar stores.

I ended up getting the 600/400 Nextgen over he Lumatek simply for thefact it has 2 power settings and 2 cooling fans.

 

FirstTracks

natural medicator

Veteran

• Apr 9, 2010

• #4

my HTG DG 600w ballast suddenly died.....fan still working, just something in there stopped working 2-3 months after purchase. HTG was easy to workwith with the warranty, but the new ballast promptly blew out my bulb (luckily, inside a sealed hood) splitting it right in half at startup (5 seconds after power on). haven't replaced that bulb yet or plugged in the ballast since. Missed out on the bulb's warranty by waiting too long to take it back, but thats ok.

 

yesum

Well-known member

ICMag Donor

Veteran

• Apr 9, 2010

• #5

I have read their filters are bunk as well. You get what you pay for more often than not.

 

Tactical Farmer

Member

• Apr 9, 2010

• #6

There great guys that run a solid shop.

 

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Admiral Canna

Member

• Apr 9, 2010

• #7

You definitely get what you pay for. On the other hand, I have 2 600W HTG Digital Greenhouse ballasts that been running for over 2 years no probs (knock on wood).

I save 600's for the warmer months and bump up to 1000's in the cooler months. I would not buy a 1000W Lumatek. I hear those are the most problematic out of all Lumateks.

 

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OVERMAN

Member

• Apr 9, 2010

• #8

crazy its popping other breakers, might want to make sure you dont have a circuit cross somewhere.

 

ToughGirl

Member

• Apr 9, 2010

• #9

I have 4 of them (Digital greenhouse 600w hps) and I have never had a problem. They've all run constantly for almost 2 years. Your mileage may vary I guess.

 

Snagglepuss

even

ICMag Donor

Veteran

• Apr 9, 2010

• #10

Had a long conversation with the hydro store guy today.Talking about ballasts.Said that often he could repair the old Lumateks , cause a fuse or wire would short out on the inside .But the with the new ones ,now they have become more reliable ,because "Now" they now cover the whole board in resin or goo...Humidity and electronics...He warned to stay away from anything with a fan...I still want a quantum sometime in the future....I didn't have good luck with the htg...but as toughgirl says ...mileage may vary...

 

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HBxNLmaster

Member

• Apr 9, 2010

• #11

well i hope this is not the case when i fire mine up i have to digital greenhosue 1000 watters but i had to break down grow right after getting them and im just now getting it set back up, i dont knwo but im sure the warranty is about up, but my experience with HTG is that they always have great customer service i used to buy the cheap magnetic ballast they sale and had some problems wit hthem but whenver i did they always replaced them no questions asked, i live close enough to go to the cranberry PA store and the guys are knowledgeable nice guys always did me right

 

D

dunkybones

• Apr 10, 2010

• #12

2 out of 3 of my 600w HTG digital ballasts with fans blew in about a year, the third one is still running for almost three years. I have a Lumatek for 2 years no problems, and 2 Galaxies, one blew out in 3 months, and the other is going on a year, no problems.

Ballasts can be as tempermental as the bulbs themselves. How come they are always made by two different companies?

 

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watson540

Member

• Apr 10, 2010

• #13

if the one that doesnt turn on is setting off your breaker..that would tell me to try and start them up staggered. start one ballast..wait till its warmed up, then fire up the other..

Id try to have them on seperate breakers if i were you

 

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Classic Seeds

Member

Veteran

• Apr 10, 2010

• #14

wow it sounds like i have been lucky or got my ballasts before they were in a hurry to make more only had one problem in 3 years with the green house brand 2 400's 2 600's and when the 400'rd messed up they sent me a nother one and fixed the broke one and shipped to me for free incase i had a future problem after telling them people were counting on me for their meds it might be poor quality control from to fast of growth in the demand for the product and unskilled assemblors but i have no complaints they stood by the bad one

 

R

robertmarley

Member

• Apr 12, 2010

• #15

I haven't any replies yet, but just to give a quick update I found a new ballast on craigslist that same night and when I put it in ever since all the problems have went away... crazy shit. So yeah, the ballast was the issue.

 

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robertmarley

Member

• Apr 12, 2010

• #16

Snagglepuss said:

Had a long conversation with the hydro store guy today.Talking about ballasts.Said that often he could repair the old Lumateks , cause a fuse or wire would short out on the inside .But the with the new ones ,now they have become more reliable ,because "Now" they now cover the whole board in resin or goo...Humidity and electronics...He warned to stay away from anything with a fan...I still want a quantum sometime in the future....I didn't have good luck with the htg...but as toughgirl says ...mileage may vary...

Click to expand...

Guy i picked up my ballast from said the same thing about the fan. Oh, by the way the new one is a sun system.

watson540 said:

if the one that doesnt turn on is setting off your breaker..that would tell me to try and start them up staggered. start one ballast..wait till its warmed up, then fire up the other..

Id try to have them on seperate breakers if i were you

Click to expand...

There the only things on the entire breaker though other than the garage door opener.. so I think they should be ok.

OVERMAN said:

crazy its popping other breakers, might want to make sure you dont have a circuit cross somewhere.

Click to expand...

It is crazy, I dont know what that means or how to check for it, but its odd the the garage breaker had never popped throughout all the issues since day one.