600 Watt Ballast / Bulb Recommendation

[gtg341w]

New grower with a top-fed DWC setup. I am looking for personal experience with 600w ballasts.

Primarily I am interested in value/price and noise level. It seems like every ballast that I have seen online has 10-15% of reviews claiming that the ballast either arrived damaged, or failed within the first few grows.

What has worked for you guys? I am perfectly content with a B+ solution, I just dont want to drop a few hundred bucks on a system that will fail.

 

[Drop That Sound]

I been running nanolux digital ballasts off of amazon.com with good luck.. As far as noise go's if you go with digital its the RF interference type of noise you don't actually hear that I would be most worried about (interfering with cable tv boxes and other sensitive electronics including your neighbors devices). The new nanolux OG series already comes with a RF filter built into the power cord to help stop that. They also have a decent warranty incase one fails but I've been pretty lucky so far.

Bulbs: HPS's especially start to decline in lumen output after so many hours, usually 6 months of on off use. I prefer to buy the cheap apollo or ipower bulbs and replace every 2 flower cycles. I have used $100+ solarmax super hps and hortiluxes and get the same yeild as I do from the cheap $20 bulbs so i'll let you do the math on that

 

[hubcap]

(Drop that sound brings good advice. Digital is better if electrical/RF noise is an issue. Think pacemakers. Im -told- placing a ferrite bead on the power plug reduces this noise, but, Im skeptical. I follow his logic with bulbs, too. See below)


Ballast?
Loooooong story short, I have a 600w no-name digital ballast that still puts out the advertised power, and works with MH or HPS bulbs, that I bought as a complete kit (from a site I totally forget) in 2007. Two Thousand SEVEN. lol. Still works fine. Fires both MH/HPS lamps easily.
Assuming you're looking for a ballast that fires both MH and HPS lamps....

My advice here, would be, go with whatever you can afford that covers your basic use requirements. Cheaper is generally better because, like most hobbies, one pass through and you have 100 ideas on what to do better. And it never hurts to have a spare. Get an ol one to get up and going and worry about the "fancier" stuff later. Make sure voltage jives with your source power. Usually 110-120Vac in the states. (make sure it come with ALL the hardware to get going....correct, already hard wired, power cord(s) and a good length cord with a bulb socket. These will fit most, if not all, vented hoods/reflectors.

Bulbs?
Make sure they put out the spectrums you are looking for is really the key, here.
I usually replace bulbs after a round and a half, anyways, so I go cheap, here, too. What I mean by that is.....
Ill start with a MH for veg.
Swap in a HPS for flower.
Finish.

Start next round with MH.
Get new MH. Donate old one or Keep old one as emergency bulb.
Swap in HPS.
Finish round. Get new HPS.

Start next with new MH..
Start with new HPS..

etc etc

No science behind it....just me thinking the weakest link in the chain is the bulb. As long as everything else is working to get it lit......its got to be as strong as it can be, and, like all HP bulbs...they degrade with time and duty cycles.

Basically, what DTS said, just under the influence of a sativa dominant mind fucker.

rock on, mate.

-cap

 

[dank.frank]

Have you considered a new 315w CMH instead of a 600w?



dank.Frank

 

[Medfinder]

i picked up an used switchable 600 750 1000 watt and it uses any hps or mh digital.. 45 bucks.

sometimes shops will sell um cheap.

600 watts id entry for some yield in my opinion. there are test on equipment here
http://www.grozine.com/2015/07/28/ceramic-metal-halide-grow-lights/

 

[dank.frank]

I don't think I'd put a single 315 up against a DE HPS. That seems far fetched. From everything I've seen documented they make a 400w obsolete and compete easily with a 600w.



dank.Frank

 

[hubcap]

they make a 400w obsolete and compete easily with a 600w.
dank.Frank

with comparable power consumption?
I know it -says- a certain wattage and all....
but is it truly putting out this power?

Im always looking for ways to save without sacrificing yields.........

-cap

 

[Weedwell]

I've been running a nanolux de 600 and am really happy with it so far. Only about 1 month in.
-MW

 

[FunkBomb]

I ran a 315 CMH in a tent that I usually used a 600w HPS in. The quality was A+ but the yield was right around 50% of what the HPS produced. A real comparison is a 630w CMH dual lamp light vs 600w HPS as the ballast is probably pulling ~650 watts.

-Funk

 

[growingcrazy]

Gavita proline remote ballasts. Still runs a 600 SE lamp, the greenpower EL's.

These put out more light than any other 600 lamp/ballast combo I have tried. I have two rows of lamps, the gavitas on the left put a reflector cutoff line underneath the hortilux super HPS lamps on the opposite side, from 6+ feet away. (get that?)

 

[clown baby]

Have you considered a new 315w CMH instead of a 600w?
dank.Frank

^^^ This. the 315 LECs might cost a bit more up front, but there's less lumen depreciation on the bulbs and they run at half the electricity, putting out almost the same footprint. Higher quality light.

Otherwise, if you have amazon prime, the Vivosun 600w ballasts are pretty cheap and seem to work (3 out of 3 running fine - no failures yet). Since I replace HPS bulbs every year, I don't bother with hortilux. Just running standard HPS.

I'm slowly replacing my 600w with 315s.

 

[Erliqin]

Iam between 600w hps, a 400w hps, or a 315w cmh. But report Ive seen the cmh just wont get near a 600w hps in yield.

Its a 4x4 tent with a sp250 led already in it. its 230w of wide spectrum led light. But maybe hps does better than cmh when pairing the led fixture. Iam planning digi ballast either 600 or 400 hps rather than the 315w cmh, only because yields when paired to led.

^^^ This. the 315 LECs might cost a bit more up front, but there's less lumen depreciation on the bulbs and they run at half the electricity, putting out almost the same footprint. Higher quality light.

Otherwise, if you have amazon prime, the Vivosun 600w ballasts are pretty cheap and seem to work (3 out of 3 running fine - no failures yet). Since I replace HPS bulbs every year, I don't bother with hortilux. Just running standard HPS.

I'm slowly replacing my 600w with 315s.