Light Ballast Fried. New light. switch to LED or stay HPS?

big tony

big tony

Active Member
I've tried to do my own research for the past year that I've grown but i'm finally swallowing my pride and asking for help.

I've had a few problems but I've successfully grown 4 plants from seed with around 2 ounces (dry) from each plant. (2 Liberty Haze, 1 Peyote Critical, 1 blueberry)

My grow room is pretty much just a plywood boxed-in area in my garage.
It's 4ft wide, 4ft long, and 8.5 tall.
I positioned it to where its right below the attic access panel. (Basically just a square piece of drywall in the ceiling)

That way, I could vent up there if the grow room got TOO hot. I know it's not ideal but it's worked fine and has saved me having to buy an inline fan and duct work. Not to mention buying another hood for my light, since it's the wing type.

My light is a 1000w ipower Electronic ballast HPS/MH.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005F642CQ/

I know it's not the best, but it was on sale for $149 including tax and shipping.

I also grow for personal use and curiosity of trying new strains.
I don't sell, so I can't really justify to myself spending a ton of money by saying I'll get the money back quickly on the first grow.

Well, my power went off/on about 5 times a couple nights ago and when I went to check on my plants the next morning, the light was off and It was completely silent. Usually I hear the sound of the fans in the ballast running but they weren't even spinning anymore. I tried unplugging/re-plugging in, another outlet, changing bulbs, giving it a break then trying again etc but it appears that somehow the ballast has died.

I've contacted ipower about their 2 year warranty but i'm not too optimistic that it will be successful for whatever reason. And if it is, I think they will want me to send it off to be repaired, and I don't have time to wait since my new grow needs light..

I have a crappy-ish LED light I got for free on Amazon for leaving a review on the plants right now, but I know it's not going to be enough for long term.

So with my main light dying, I figure now is a good time to consider getting a better light.
Either the same type I had before (HPS/MH) or upgrade to a LED light since I hear they are supposedly the
"New wave".

I've researched some and this is what I'm thinking:

HPS/MH

Pros -
• higher harvest:cost ratio than LED (factoring only product cost)
• higher canopy penetration

Cons -
• lots of heat that may need additional equipment to buy to cool it
• higher footprint on electric bill
• replace bulbs every year or two which can be expensive
• less efficient leading to a lot of wasted energy/light


LED

Pros-
• smaller footprint on electrical bill. (save money)
• leds last for much longer than HPS/MH (save money not having to buy bulbs every year or two)
• more efficient leading to less wasted energy/light

Cons-
• much higher COST:Harvest ratio than HPS/MH (since the only good quality ones seem to cost hundreds)
• less canopy penetration, therefore much less harvest on all parts of the plant except the Top
• market saturated with low quality LED grow lights with many products imitating the most popular GOOD Led lights leads you to not know what you're buying, unless you spend even more money buying from re-sellers who mark the original prices up so they can make profit.


I may not be right on some of this, but this is just what I've theorized from what I have researched.

Getting to the point though, I need a new light and I'm trying to decide between HPS/MH or LED.

I'd light to spend between 200-400. Does LED only make sense if you have much more to spend?

I'm growing 6 plants by the way. I'm growing in Coco Coir/Perlite with General Hydroponics Flora Grow, Flora Bloom, and Flora Micro. Also using General Hydroponics CALiMAGic since Coco Coir needs it.

I have no problem putting together a kit if need be. I just want the best light I can get for that price range and can light a 4x4 grow room with 6 plants.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
I just put a 630 watt Growers Choice CMH bulb next to a 1000 watt HPS bulb and the light output is very close, probably within 10% and the 1000 watter was running at 1200 watts but the bulb does have a few runs on it. The CMH is a LOT cooler too. Also has the UV that LED doesn't and that's good for resin production.

You can get the CMH a lot cheaper.

The Growers Choice bulb runs on a 1000 watt DE HPS ballast dialed down to 60% (600 watts). So you can always pop a HPS bulb in there if you want.

If you have height restrictions both LED and CMH may require you to have more distance between the plants and light than you are used to with HPS.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
I would consider a Sunsystem DE 1000w HPS ballast with a quality DE reflector and the Growers Choice 630 Watt CMH bulb. Note this bulb will not run on a Phantom ballast and is not recommended for use with nanolux ballasts.

Also your price limit of 200 - 400 will not get you a LED of any quality unless you want a single 55 watt autocob. To replace the 1000 watter you will have to spend upwards of $1000 or build your own.
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Is there a fuse in that ballast? I recall seeing a post about a dead digital ballast that was fixed by replacing an internal fuse.

I only use magnetic ballasts and recently my 1000W mh/hps one died and needs a new capacitor. Hung up 2 - 400W to finish off these girls, ( one Hortilux super hps and one Philips CMH), so have plenty of time to source a new capacitor. Should finish off cropping the last of 6 plants tonight.
 
R

Ryante55

Well-Known Member
big tony said:
I've tried to do my own research for the past year that I've grown but i'm finally swallowing my pride and asking for help.

I've had a few problems but I've successfully grown 4 plants from seed with around 2 ounces (dry) from each plant. (2 Liberty Haze, 1 Peyote Critical, 1 blueberry)

My grow room is pretty much just a plywood boxed-in area in my garage.
It's 4ft wide, 4ft long, and 8.5 tall.
I positioned it to where its right below the attic access panel. (Basically just a square piece of drywall in the ceiling)

That way, I could vent up there if the grow room got TOO hot. I know it's not ideal but it's worked fine and has saved me having to buy an inline fan and duct work. Not to mention buying another hood for my light, since it's the wing type.

My light is a 1000w ipower Electronic ballast HPS/MH.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005F642CQ/

I know it's not the best, but it was on sale for $149 including tax and shipping.

I also grow for personal use and curiosity of trying new strains.
I don't sell, so I can't really justify to myself spending a ton of money by saying I'll get the money back quickly on the first grow.

Well, my power went off/on about 5 times a couple nights ago and when I went to check on my plants the next morning, the light was off and It was completely silent. Usually I hear the sound of the fans in the ballast running but they weren't even spinning anymore. I tried unplugging/re-plugging in, another outlet, changing bulbs, giving it a break then trying again etc but it appears that somehow the ballast has died.

I've contacted ipower about their 2 year warranty but i'm not too optimistic that it will be successful for whatever reason. And if it is, I think they will want me to send it off to be repaired, and I don't have time to wait since my new grow needs light..

I have a crappy-ish LED light I got for free on Amazon for leaving a review on the plants right now, but I know it's not going to be enough for long term.

So with my main light dying, I figure now is a good time to consider getting a better light.
Either the same type I had before (HPS/MH) or upgrade to a LED light since I hear they are supposedly the
"New wave".

I've researched some and this is what I'm thinking:

HPS/MH

Pros -
• higher harvest:cost ratio than LED (factoring only product cost)
• higher canopy penetration

Cons -
• lots of heat that may need additional equipment to buy to cool it
• higher footprint on electric bill
• replace bulbs every year or two which can be expensive
• less efficient leading to a lot of wasted energy/light


LED

Pros-
• smaller footprint on electrical bill. (save money)
• leds last for much longer than HPS/MH (save money not having to buy bulbs every year or two)
• more efficient leading to less wasted energy/light

Cons-
• much higher COST:Harvest ratio than HPS/MH (since the only good quality ones seem to cost hundreds)
• less canopy penetration, therefore much less harvest on all parts of the plant except the Top
• market saturated with low quality LED grow lights with many products imitating the most popular GOOD Led lights leads you to not know what you're buying, unless you spend even more money buying from re-sellers who mark the original prices up so they can make profit.


I may not be right on some of this, but this is just what I've theorized from what I have researched.

Getting to the point though, I need a new light and I'm trying to decide between HPS/MH or LED.

I'd light to spend between 200-400. Does LED only make sense if you have much more to spend?

I'm growing 6 plants by the way. I'm growing in Coco Coir/Perlite with General Hydroponics Flora Grow, Flora Bloom, and Flora Micro. Also using General Hydroponics CALiMAGic since Coco Coir needs it.

I have no problem putting together a kit if need be. I just want the best light I can get for that price range and can light a 4x4 grow room with 6 plants.
Click to expand...
You have a 4x4 your saying led costs hundreds it's more like $1000 minimum to cover a 4x4 unless you diy the led. If your not willing to diy or spend $1000 just got with hps. Even with diy led be ready to spend $600-700. Cmh might be the best option for you it's cheaper than led but more effecient than hps
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
big tony said:
ok, so from what I gather, I need a CMH and a Cool tube reflector and around 600 watts for my space.
So would this fit all of that? https://www.amazon.com/Replace-4X300W-2X600W-1-2X1000W-Enclosed/dp/B06XTCGZ6P/

if so, which would be the better option? Enclosed or wide?
Click to expand...
depends on how you grow. if you could do 4 plants in a circle, it's hard to beat a bare bulb 600w hps in a 4x4. edit: hung vertically in the middle of the plants
if heat is an issue, an air cooled reflector is a must. but the curved glass of a cool tube blocks the most light.
 
big tony

big tony

Active Member
here's some pictures of my embarrassingly pitiful "grow room"
as you can see, my plants are doing pretty rough from me feeding too much I believe..lol







 
big tony

big tony

Active Member
rkymtnman said:
yeah big tony, you got way bigger issues than a new light at the moment.

let's get these ladies looking bettter. i see a whole bunch of problems.

could you take some pics of them in normal light?
Click to expand...
whats weird is there is one in the picture that has almost NO problem yet my other 5 are all in rough shape. That one is Red Diesel. The other ones are Green crack and laughing Buddha.




image upload
 
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