CMH burning out prematurely?

This is being posted on behalf of a friend, so details will come in as I receive them myself:

250w HPS ballast kit from AdvancedLighting was built and used for 11 weeks with a horizontal 250w CMH bulb with no problems.

Next grow, same light was used for 6 weeks and then friend noticed overnight that the light had gotten dimmer. "All I see is blue and it no longer hurts my eyes" he said.

A few days later the bulb stopped turning on. He said it burned out but I'm not sure if there are actual burn marks. He put in a new 250w CMH and it burned out within a few days.

Temps were a constant 90F (plants thrived in it.) That may put a strain on the ballast/bulb but it's really not that high.. not sure why the bulbs would give out?

Ballast has not been touched since it was built. No power outages or anything to report. Lamp was on a timer. Ballast is running on 120V, it is from Howard Industries. I will ask if the ballast has any burn marks on it.

He is about 4 weeks from harvest and would like to get this sorted ASAP before ordering another CMH - for now he ran off to Casa De Pot to get a temp HPS bulb.

I bought a 400 CMH bulb in 2006. It came pre-burned. I still use it today. Do you still see a dark burn ring at the base...when, new?

I think pre-burned bulbs from the factory, are best...IMO..

I don't think Philips pre-lights any of their lamps. I think in the case of the CMH, it is the distributor AdvanacedTechLighting (Simba) that has been doing the preburning for their customers only.

A vertical ran in the horz position could cause an early demise, or visa-vera...although I am not convinced these aren't the very same lamps.

Pinball Wizard said:

I bought a 400 CMH bulb in 2006. It came pre-burned. I still use it today.

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How many months of 12/12 do you have on that lamp now???? Please tell me it's the distributor you still use today. lol


!!! I would suspect the ballast as the issue, especially with how quick the second lamp went.

Stay Safe!

hoosierdaddy said:

I don't think Philips pre-lights any of their lamps. I think in the case of the CMH, it is the distributor AdvanacedTechLighting (Simba) that has been doing the preburning for their customers only.

A vertical ran in the horz position could cause an early demise, or visa-vera...although I am not convinced these aren't the very same lamps.

Click to expand...

I think the same as you... In fact, my lamp protective sleeve had 2 labels...under the one that said "Vertical", was a label that said "Horizontal". It went through a 100D grow just fine. Bright fuckers...I couldn't imagine one in 1000W...

Speaking of CMH...I'm wondering if they may promote undue leafiness...I had an Afghan and a Satori that was grown under a 400 vert CMH that was leafy as shit... But some C99XHaze and LSD grew wonderfully.

I read the whole patent one day and I am pretty sure I saw verbiage about the position of the tube, and part of the patent was that the proper polarity was accomplished in any orientation. Perhaps they do have tooling to produce two separate lamps, but I highly doubt it.

Hydro-Soil said:

How many months of 12/12 do you have on that lamp now???? Please tell me it's the distributor you still use today. lol



Stay Safe!

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I lost track of the hours...(It went out on loan...24/0 for 3 months, last summer)......still works, well...no problems....but, my reflector, sucks....too much strike-back

Poor connection in the capacitor or ignitor circuit?

Failed capacitor or ignitor?

Just thinking....... Every product has a certain % that aren't perfect, but I would wonder about the other components. Sure sounds like a capacitor to me.