-
Happy Birthday ICMag! Been 20 years since Gypsy Nirvana created the forum! We are celebrating with a 4/20 Giveaway and by launching a new Patreon tier called "420club". You can read more here.
-
Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!
How long did your digital ballast last before it stopped working?
- Thread starter hush
- Start date
Wow what an informative thread.I grew contantly from 2002 until November of last year with magnetic ballasts and never had a single issue except for a bit of humming.I always ran them at 240V.Do you know why magnetic ballasts hum?Because they don't know the words..
I had some galaxy's that were hardly used and they all shit the bed. I had one mag from sunlight supply give me a problem way back in the day- I believe it was the ignitor. Other than that, all reliable 95 percent or better of the time.
OldPhart
Member
Is everyone overlooking the gain in PAR that a digital can deliver over a core/coil for the same amount of power. It was my understanding that a digital can get about a 30% gain in PAR output due to the much higher frequency. At least this was what they were taunting when the original Lumatek came out, which I still have one of the sealed/filled ones running right beside me. Although this ballast only has two runs on it, it has spent most of it's 10+ years in storage.
ive got lumateks that are 3 years plus. all fine. tbh I think its more about how they are placed, I have mine with air flowing underneath so they don't over heat etc.
Speed of green
Active member
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.
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.
growingcrazy
Well-known member
6 years on a Gavita proline 600. Just died from a power outage.
Take care to make sure the fans work & blow out the units on an occasional basis. Dead fans or accumulated dust will make them run hot & fail early.
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.
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.
cultivatorkid
Member
there are instruments to measure light as I'm sure results will vary.
Ca++
Well-known member
Only reputable suppliers give the mean hours of service. Usually charts that show how fast they may fail, with average times, and a time when you should just change the lot as they are all done.
This is the cannabis world, so you are probably wasting your time looking at any of the manufacturers spoke of so far. I was offered 2 shopping trolleys full of gavita 600s and a couple of fancy controllers a few years back. Taken out a factory where they just wanted the things gone. Within a short time scale, they would only strike sylvania lamps. Gavita offered home brand lamps, presumed to be these. Sylvania standards are about the easiest lamps to strike. Along with the nuisance of not striking, some where smoking. The trolleys were a mix of broken, temperamental and good. I left them.
I'm going to offer LED drivers as an example. 6-8 years, if you remote mount them. Most will have a Tc spot to enable temperature measurement within fittings, to aid design. This is reputable kit though, made with solid state capacitors. In a hydro brand driver, you will find electrolytic caps that define the age the unit will fail. A few years, perhaps.
This is the cannabis world, so you are probably wasting your time looking at any of the manufacturers spoke of so far. I was offered 2 shopping trolleys full of gavita 600s and a couple of fancy controllers a few years back. Taken out a factory where they just wanted the things gone. Within a short time scale, they would only strike sylvania lamps. Gavita offered home brand lamps, presumed to be these. Sylvania standards are about the easiest lamps to strike. Along with the nuisance of not striking, some where smoking. The trolleys were a mix of broken, temperamental and good. I left them.
I'm going to offer LED drivers as an example. 6-8 years, if you remote mount them. Most will have a Tc spot to enable temperature measurement within fittings, to aid design. This is reputable kit though, made with solid state capacitors. In a hydro brand driver, you will find electrolytic caps that define the age the unit will fail. A few years, perhaps.
Back in the day I had a conversation with an engineer that worked on a couple of digital ballast projects and he told me that there was negligible lumen degeneration over the life of the product.
FWIW With cap @ coil LU1000's we used to change out the capacitors at one year intervals.
PS: it is simple to change out the noisy fan on that nanolux
FWIW With cap @ coil LU1000's we used to change out the capacitors at one year intervals.
PS: it is simple to change out the noisy fan on that nanolux
This has happened to me twice over the years using those cheap digital ballasts on Amazon. Buy cheap, buy twice.
I think another over looked thing is to have a good quality timer and one that can handle the watts you're using. I've seen pictures from other growers of timers that were completely melted / melted plugs
I think another over looked thing is to have a good quality timer and one that can handle the watts you're using. I've seen pictures from other growers of timers that were completely melted / melted plugs
Three Berries
Active member
You should set a high temp limit on your exhaust fans so they shut down in a fire.
