600w Ballast advice

Heyas all,

One of my ballasts finally went belly up today and I'll need to get a replacement. Can someone recommend a decent digital HPS/MH 600 watt ballast brand? The cheapie Ipower ballast lasted a few years so I could always order another and roll the dice.... I know there are now loads and loads of options out there now so I'm more asking for a brand that you picked because your experiences with reliability and if you did have a problem did you run into warranty issues?

Would prefer a company that I can deal with here in the US for returns/maint. My local hydrostore isn't really an option ( damnit !!!! ) because their lights are unbelievably expensive and they have a dubious record with customer service.

Hoping to get away with spending less than $200 if I can!!

Phillips GAVITA are really taking off in the UK.

I personally use a 400w lumatek.

I used to use the 600w version.

Haven't had any failure issues at all in 5 years of growing.

They run cool too which is a bonus if you need to mount them within your space.

I have mine outside my grow though.




J

I use to run ipowers until they became doorstops. I tried a few Nanolux's and there nice but they all make a high pitched sound thats annoying and one went out during a storm that shouldnt have since there protected so got rid of them. Now for my 600's im running the newer model Galaxys. There quieter then any other ballast ive used and didnt blow out during any storm outages.

Gavita and lumantek have really good digital ballasts. i personally run Gavita and couldnt be happier. A friend of mine has Lumantek and has been nothing but pleased.

1+ jondamon

Well I went ahead and splurged a bit on a Galaxy Grow Amp ballast from a hydro store I found in a nearby town. It was near the price I wanted and he took my old ballast as a trade. I guess he repairs them and resells them as used equipment.