11 month old bulb bad yield

[IllEagle007]

Well I called another place and he can get them in tomorrow for 35 each. Sweet! After this I am investing in a light meter! Not letting this happen again.

 

[rmcc-luke]

Electronic Ballasts - 4.5 years w/o a single blown bulb
Hortilux SHPS bulbs - swapped out every 3rd grow.
-Luke

 

[Aksala]

So is this only happening on magnetic ballasts or will digital ballasts also have a problem? I've had my 400 watt lumitek for about a year now and haven't seen the slightest drop off.....use the same bulb for about 3 grows then just swap it out.

 

[toohighmf]

I change my bulbs every grow. If I'm taking the risk to grow my meds, I want the most bang for my buck. Even a 4% decrease in bulb output means that I'm loosing 4 ounces for every hundred that I grow. You calculate the loss of those 4 ounces versus the cost of purchasing a bulb and you'll soon realize the benefit...

I have seen Hortilux bulbs not affect yield when run for well over 1 year without losing yields. when the yields hurt, and the bulbs appear dim, it's time to change your bulbs! every grow?? thats expensive! bulbs last over 20,000 hours if I'm not mistaken. 1000 hours to run a bloom cycle on 1000 hours. thats 2 years of blooms before requiring a change

 

[abitavenger]

Thanks for posting that link BTW. Im going to swap my old blast with the new to do alittle comparison.

Glad I could help.

Simons the man for the original post though

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

if your smart youll get new bulbs every two grows... Bulbs maybe good but show a huge decrease in amount of lumens produced after two runs with them...

there use to be graphs somewhere on here.... but if you have the money youll get the money you spent on the bulbs back in the harvest everytime...

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

did i read this correctly as in you ballasts are also showing decrease in light output....? hmmm

 

[IllEagle007]

Yes Poopy the ballast. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=159066

 

[Yes4Prop215]

note to self: keep them ballasts fresh! crazy how your yeilds went down almost 50%...

 

[IllEagle007]

Ya tell me about it. At first I thought it was just bad seeds but grow after grow my yields were just so bad. If you check my gallery that was when everything was good, havent really had good yields since.

Some of it could be my fault but the light was defiantly dim compared to my new 600.

 

[BirdManFlyHigh]

Sounds Like its Time for a New one

 

[EatMoGrass]

The Hortilux Super Hps 600 watt bulbs have a much shorter lifespan than the 400 and 1000 watt bulbs. Hortilux says lifespan for the 400 and 1000 watt bulbs is 24,000 hours and the 600 watt bulbs are only 16,000 hours. From the graph on their site it can be seen that the 600 bulb looses output much faster than the others. I still love my Hortilux 600 every bit as much as my Hortilux 1000 and 400 watt bulbs.