All Lumateks are dead here, all Quantums are dead, all older Galaxy styled ballasts are dead...but, lol one of my original "Greenhouse" 600 w ballasts is still alive (dozen years plus?).
My last digital ballasts I will EVER purchase (changing to 100% mag/capacitor here) were Galaxy GrowAmps...and we shall see about those.
And yes I run 220 volts here...the "only way to fly".
all mine are digital ive got 20 ipower and 8 grow crew (growers house house brand) all have been going for about four years except one ipower that melted something inside causing the fuse to blow repeatedly. Amazon replaced it with no issues.
Mine are mounted to the walls in an a/c controlled environment.
I noticed a few making noise from the little fans when i had them mounted vertically, changed them to horizontal an no more issues.
Can't find a proper thread but I don't want to open one more for a relatively stupid question:
how many hours a digital ballast last?
or
what is the loss % over time?
Searched few producers websites, searched the web, ICMag and other cannabis forums but didn't find a proper answer.
Don't want to enter in magnetic vs ballast, LED and so on, but for the little I know any electric component working for thousands of hours, at relatively high temperature, stressed by a constant current flow lose efficiency over time. Do you know any producer that tested their own ballasts over time?
My experience with digital ballast is...I bought dozens in my life, just a couple stopped working without safety issues, they just stopped. All the Lumatek I have still work properly but I highly doubt they do produce the same as a new one. So my question is: after how many hours is good to change a digital ballast? a 10% light loss could mean a lot of weed lost each harvest.
PS: I had a nanolux 600W and it was one of my favorites. Yes, it does make noise but for the rest I had good harvest with it, very light and easy to place everywhere, it works cooler than passive cooling ballasts. It still works after many cycles.