Cheap WELLTHINK Ballasts.. are they any good?

[dirtnap411]

Wow, kinda wish I'd have read this before buying my new 600w, we'll see how it works for me, I'll be putting this one on bricks to keep it off my wooden floor. Wish me luck, but for a complete setup for $200 shipped, I had to try.

 

[daze860]

Wow, kinda wish I'd have read this before buying my new 600w, we'll see how it works for me, I'll be putting this one on bricks to keep it off my wooden floor. Wish me luck, but for a complete setup for $200 shipped, I had to try.

Its all good untill you have too send it back for warranty, then just save yourself the hassle and buy a better ballast. They blow

 

[oldguybreath]

I bought the 600 watter from ebay seller kawamagoo or something like that . I got the unit in, fired it up and the new bulb I bought for it blew. No biggie, bulbs go bad but the problem was it blew the ballast also. When I got the new bulb in (NEHYDRO by the way, excellent service) and tested, dead ballast. Thing is the 600 watter has no external fuse!! Never noticed that till then. E-mailed the seller who replaced it after inspection. Offered me a complete refund but I said I would take a 600 watt dimmable. No problem/no extra $. The seller provided me excellent warranty service. I said she/he was excellent and that word of mouth is the best advertisement; that I would mention it. Bear in mind the ballast still blew when lamp shorted or surged. I thought I would get the dimmable thinking it was a later generation. So far it has worked fine. The cat sits on top of it to keep warm. What I don't get is how can these ballasts be more efficient if they are just as hot as magnetic ballasts. IF NOT HOTTER as others have stated. They do get warm, and that equates to inefficiency.

 

[dxco]

Wow! I bought my first couple 600W welthinks from kawamagoo on eBay via Best Offer, which he didn't want to honor -$60 each! Finally he shipped them -sold one & have one burning in my store as a display. Havent had any trouble but I WILL be moving it off the weeden wall after what I've read. I ended up contacting welthink & becoming a distributor but I've made a couple great buys on magnetic ballasts (pallets of them) & have never put in an order. It's funny that this kawamagoo on eBay is also from VA (where Sonny, the US Distributor is located) & he sometimes sells cheaper than the distributor! I think they are the same person.
My experience with the 600w is: seems a bit warm but that's one of their claims (convection cooling rather than a fan that WILL burn out like a computor power supply -when the fan goes, the power supply or ballast does too) -I'm OK with the heat.
A cheap 600W MH bulb seemed to burn out prematurely but it could have been a bad bulb because I replaced it with an HPS & it's running fine.
Fire! If that's true the distributor who imported them in the earlier message needs to contact UL because they claim to be UL listed (for some reason now I don't believe them)
Overall: My experience has not been bad -maybe I got lucky
BTW if anybody is interested in these, let me know
I also have a bunch of 600 & 1000W Xtrasun & Sunleaves ballasts (slightly used) & have some unfired Sun Systems ballasts w/o boxes -Should have a few complete systems coming in too. danindesmoines at aol.com

 

[bonnie.]

Cut & Pasted from another forum...

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My company imported 500 ballasts from Welthink in HangZhou China under an OEM agreement in early 2009, over 50% of the units have been returned in less then 8 months. Problems range from poor quality caps and other internal components burning out to units that completely blow up and start fires. I mean, we have seen units where the fuse is completely blown out of the unit!

Also, Welthink has been less then cooperative when it comes to honoring their warranty. They avoid our calls and emails and try to accuse us of tampering with the units.

Sonny from Welthink in VA eventually sent us out 48 1000W units as replacements (ALL Welthink brand, not our label) and EVERY one burned out within 3 months.

Now when we try and have Welthink sort out the warranty issue they completely ignore our requests. No emails returned, no phone calls answered and no replies to our Alibaba requests.

You get what you pay for when you deal with Welthink and Sonny in Virgina Beach, VA! Remember, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is and this is definately the case with Welthink Ballasts.

you can check out http://www.welthink.info where you will find complete details of our dealings with Welthink along with detailed photos of these garbage units.

Save your cash and buy from a reputable manufacturer. Welthink manufactures crap ballasts. My company is out over $50K as a result and Welthink is running for the hills. Let my bad experience save you from learning the hard way!!!

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I also can testify that these ballasts are complete SHIT. I bought 20 of them and all 20 were eventually faulty! One damn near burned my effen show down. And these pricks DO NOT honor their warranty. I have $4k worth of worthless burned out SHIT Welthink ballasts. Save your hard earned cash and buy from an established company with a proven track record. Welthink is a joke!!!

You liar,when did you buy from Welthink in Virgina Beach,VA? Show your evidence!!! The truth was you bought from our factory in China.

This is a email, skype conversations between you and your partner with me.See the email you sent to us, see what you have done to the ballast you purchased from our company, who modified the ballasts and complained making these sitting is very time consuming?? Yes, you did as you threatened us in the email you sent to me, you already defamed us to sully our reputation in many public forums!! You liar!!!

Everything I post is 100% truthful, I will let everyone know the truth, if I am lying, you can sue me and our company as you threatened us 4 years ago. You liar!


----- Original Message -----
From: Dave
To: 'welthink bonnie' ; ***911@yahoo.***
Sent: Sunday, October 04, 2009 2:24 AM
Subject: RE: Follow up


Bonnie,
I am ***’s partner in Canada… The fact that you are playing this game over your faulty product is shameful. I am a VERY powerful man on the internet and I will have absolutely no problems documenting our experience with you and your company in a public forum where everyone searching for information about Welthink and your faulty products can see just how you and your company conduct business.

From: welthink bonnie [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, October 03, 2009 8:49 AM
To: ***911@yahoo.***
Cc: David Lloyd
Subject: Re: Follow up
Your email dated July.11,2008.


2) The variable resistors in all the ballasts must be set at maximum settings from the factory so we get best output. That is the market requirement. Presently we are making these settings and it is very time consuming. Please have this done at assembly line.


The skype record dated July.11,2008

[2008-7-11 8:34:00] ***911： hi Bonnie - yes i am but was going to sleep so if its 10 mins I can chat . Is that OK?
[2008-7-11 8:34:18] bonnie： ok
[2008-7-11 8:34:50] bonnie： do you mean you are adjust the variable resistors in the ballast?
[2008-7-11 8:34:59] ***911： yes
[2008-7-11 8:35:08] bonnie： please stop it
[2008-7-11 8:35:19] ***911： why