Opinion about dimmable ballast + bulb

GrowTheFlow · Sep 17, 2016

Hi guys, i bought myself an ralight dimmable ballast.
600w ballast, i bought a Osram 600W Nav-T Super HPS Lamp.
I read lots of stuff about bulbs not working correct,dangerous to use regular hps bulbs in dimmable ballasts and so on...
Is it so dangerous to use a bulb that is not specific made for a dimmable ballast?

And is it true that the bulb only will last like 1 or 2 rounds if its not the special type of bulb?

Thanks in advance

Easy7 · Sep 17, 2016

It is dangerous to run a 400w bulb in a 600 ballast dimmed to 400w. From what I read there are no dim able bulbs for growing. Hortilux recommends that their bulbs and I assume all bulbs not be dimmed. Dimming affects spectrum quality.

Fly by Night · Sep 17, 2016

Easy7 said:
It is dangerous to run a 400w bulb in a 600 ballast dimmed to 400w.

Make sure that dial set to 400 and it works well enough, no imminent risk of peril. Overpowering the bulb is the bigger concern whew

exploziv · Sep 17, 2016

Why are we talking about 400w bulbs in 600w dimmable ballasts? OP asked about 600W bulb and 600W dimmable ballast..

TreehouseJ · Sep 17, 2016

I know you didn't specify, but I am assuming your dimmable ballast is digital, likely of Chinese origin, and a serious RFI culprit. I would only use magnetics unless I was in a more sparsely populated area. Cable company told me I was disrupting 600 peoples service with a 600w ballast. People shit bricks when you disturb their internet or television.

TreehouseJ · Sep 18, 2016

And is it true that the bulb only will last like 1 or 2 rounds if its not the special type of bulb?

My grow mentor buys Apollo brand bulbs (cheapies) and replaces them every 9 weeks. He hits a gram per watt with them. You can use old bulbs for years, but your yield will suffer as time passes. If you lose .03% of your yield every harvest, a 20 dollar bulb would have paid for itself.

GrowTheFlow · Sep 19, 2016

TreehouseJ said:
I know you didn't specify, but I am assuming your dimmable ballast is digital, likely of Chinese origin, and a serious RFI culprit. I would only use magnetics unless I was in a more sparsely populated area. Cable company told me I was disrupting 600 peoples service with a 600w ballast. People shit bricks when you disturb their internet or television.

Dutch Company,made in china.
I also bought a lumatek 1000w 230v dim ballast today for my other tent.
didn't read anything about disrupting peoples stuff till now

I'm not scared to buy new bulb every 2 or 3 harvests,maybe if i go for a cheaper type i can do it every round..
my bulb now costs around 35usd,for 45usd i can buy the special made for dim ballast bulbs from lumatek...
little dilemma

TreehouseJ · Sep 20, 2016

GrowTheFlow said:
Dutch Company,made in china.
I also bought a lumatek 1000w 230v dim ballast today for my other tent.
didn't read anything about disrupting peoples stuff till now

I'm not scared to buy new bulb every 2 or 3 harvests,maybe if i go for a cheaper type i can do it every round..
my bulb now costs around 35usd,for 45usd i can buy the special made for dim ballast bulbs from lumatek...
little dilemma

Ya'll are probably gonna flame the shit out of me for saying this, but IMO, if what you are doing is illegal in your jurisdiction, order magnetic ballast, and throw those digis into storage for when the shit gets legalized and you can f*ck with peoples cable 'til the cows come home, or until the FCC comes and fines you. I know it SUCKS to throw money down the drain, I've had to throw out 3x600w digis and it hurt, but unless you can absolutely verify that you are not disturbing peoples cable/internet, you are opening yourself to a world of hurt running digital ballasts. My story is below.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=312456

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Opinion about dimmable ballast + bulb

GrowTheFlow

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Easy7

Active member

Fly by Night

Like a Wing

exploziv

pure dynamite

TreehouseJ

TreehouseJ

GrowTheFlow

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TreehouseJ

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