Yo!
I'm looking to purchase a 400w MH bulb that is capable of running on a digital ballast. Currently I've got my eyes on a Sunmaster Full Nova 400w due to it's
beautiful fully balanced spectrum
Does anyone have experience with these particular bulbs or what does everyone recommend?
It's to late to help you but I've tried them. Although I liked the results I had a problem with them. Most of my ballasts are 600 watt lumateks. The problem was bulb failure. I bought 10 of them and some didn't last a month. Other lasted 2 months. I'm down to 2 left and at this point I'm just using them until they fail. I WANT TO BE CLEAR I THINK ITS A COMPATABILITY PROBLEM. I've uses sunmaster bulbs for years and have never had a problem with the blue ice or yellow blossoms. This is why I didn't buy one or two to test them. I've got 8 different ballasts and the only time I've used anything other than sunmaster it was because it wasn't available when I needed it. This is the only times I tried anything else. Each time I had problems. So I started buying sunmasters by the box.
When full novas hit the market it was a no brainer must try. I've mentioned the problem with the 600 watters. Well I also bought 2 1000 watters I haven't had a problem with these but the ballasts are not lumatek like my 600s they're phantoms. So there it is. I can't explain it and I'm not pointing fingers. I like my lumateks and I like Sunmaster. But for some reason they don't mix well at 600 watts. I won't be buying anymore 600 watt ballasts but when they do get replaced I'm sticking with lumateks I'm just going to upgrade to 1000s and I'll see if they're compatible.