[animosity2k1]

Exactly as the title says, will a 400watt bulb fit into a 600 watt balast and not blow out?

NO it whont work!

why would you wanna do that?

you can do 600 in a 1000 also or a 400 in a 600 ,, and a 250 in a 400 but ya can't do a 1000 in a 600 or A 600 in a 400 or a 250 in a 400
as long as the bulb is lower wattage than the ballast it will work!!

[MTF-Sandman]

It'll fit...it'll probably work for a while, but eventually the 600w going through a bulb that's only rated for 400w will take it's toll. It could just stop working, or it could blow up. Is it really worth the risk?

Edit: Sumsimulator - a 10% variance is acceptable...a 400 in a 600 or 600 in a 1K is NOT.

The only bulbs that you can SAFELY run in a situation like this is a 430 in a 400 or a 960 in a 1K.

The ballast will put out a set amount voltage no matter what bulb is installed in it....these aren't incandescent lights that can use up to a certain wattage of bulb as long as it's lower than the socket's rating.

Sandman is right,thats some crazy shit Sunsimulator what you say works for incandescent lamps only,you cant do that with HIDs safely

you two are fuggin crazy !!! i know for a fact you can run these bulbs in what i have posted above ,, the problem with this place is alot of ppl know how to type alot and don't know how to keep confusion out!! listen if yall gonna post !!! ya need to know what ya talking about!!!! KIDS!!!!

so i just have to ask have you two confusist! have you ever tried it!!! i have ran every bulb in the order i have posted just to see if it would work!!! now i base my facts on trial!!!! and there was no error!!!
THANK YOU ,, AND NEXT TIME POST FACTS!

Originally Posted by Sunsimulator

you can do 600 in a 1000 also or a 400 in a 600 ,, and a 250 in a 400 but ya can't do a 1000 in a 600 or A 600 in a 400 or a 250 in a 400
as long as the bulb is lower wattage than the ballast it will work!!

Is this true on both digital and reg. ballasts?
I need to test a Digi. 600watt ballast & bulb I just got. It worked for about an hour when I came back my 2 old lights were on and the new 1 out I have extra 400watt bulbs but no 600 just the 1 that came with it.

[MTF-Sandman]

At the very minimum, you're going to shorten the life of the bulb if you're using a standard core/coil ballast with an incorrect wattage bulb if the bulb is undersized.

SS - What were the test parameters (bulb make/model and ballast make/models) and duration of the "test" that you ran? What else was tested besides functionality?

Seems funny that every growing site, manufacturer and online shop would recommend only using the correct wattage bulb if it wasn't needed....especially the sellers since they could make a killing selling cheap 400w bulbs to work in 600w's.

MTF.. I bought it on line and since they said to send it back for a new 1 I did. I don't like to give bad rep so I won't say where it came from unless the next 1 sucks too.

The only test I could do was a meter reading with bulb in from connections on socket. Got nothing. The power source is the same for all of the ballasts. 30amp line for just the lights.

Got my fingers crossed that the next 1 last many grows