Apollo Horticulture vs. iPower 1000w MH Bulb?

I'm about to buy a 1000w MH bulb. I don't want to spend too much, so I'm looking at the cheap brands. The main ones I see are iPower and Apollo Horticulture, but if you have another brand to recommend let me know.

Anyways, I'm wondering which one is better, or if there's even a difference? The Apollo claims 110,000 lumens and the iPower says only 88,000. Their reviews on amazon are basically identical, and the iPower is cheaper. Which one would you get, or do you recommend another brand?

Apollo Horticulture: http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Horticulture-GLBMH1000-1000-Halide/dp/B0081IEC2K/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1424307813&sr=8-5&keywords=1000w mh
iPower: http://www.amazon.com/iPower-GLBULBM1000-1000-Watt-Magnetic-Digital/dp/B005HJKZNQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424307813&sr=8-1&keywords=1000w mh

same company. Best mh bulbs are at aquarium shops. Coral vue, reef etc.... They have a fuller spectrum. Philips CMH is the best hid bulb for flower and veg. They run on specialty ballasts or mag ballasts depending on the bulb. Those CMH have the highest par rating and cri of all hid.

hyroot said:

same company. Best mh bulbs are at aquarium shops. Coral vue, reef etc.... They have a fuller spectrum. Philips CMH is the best hid bulb for flower and veg. They run on specialty ballasts or mag ballasts depending on the bulb. Those CMH have the highest par rating and cri of all hid.

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Yeah, I know a 1000w MH isn't the most efficient but I've already got the ballasts for when I run HPS in flower, and I'm not about to spend $250 on more ballasts.

hortilux blue mh would be better then. Apollo and I power. No difference between the 2.

hyroot said:

hortilux blue mh would be better then. Apollo and I power. No difference between the 2.

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But even the Hortilux is out of range of what I want to pay for a bulb that I will probably only ever use for 6 weeks. That thing is around $150, where as the iPower is like $30. So if I were to go with a cheap bulb, you think they're all the same no matter what the specs say?

pretty much no difference between cheap bulbs. I suggest what ever bulb you flower with you use that for the last 7-10 days of veg so there's no spectral transition going into flower.

most hps and mh bulbs have very little difference . They all use an aluminum arc. They all use the same amount of mercury. They barely have been improved on in the last 30 years.

Get what.u can. Both.Will give.u cat buds. As plants look.at.p.a.R anyways

ive has great results w/ plantmax, ultrasun, ipower, and viavolt bulbs as well as phillips and ge...more money doesnt mean better bulbs, i used to use hortilux and replace 1nc a year, now i use cheap bulbs replace every 6-8 months and have not seen a difference in yield or anything else..in my opinion cheap bulbs are worth the money, wile expensive bulbs are not..just in my expierience, nothing against those of u still using high priced bulbs as they do last longer, but still 2 cheap bulbs replaced every 6-8 months is cheaper than 80 dollar bulb that lasts a year w/ no yield effected.

Local hydro shop guy told me to stop using HPS, that the full spectrum daylight MH are best for the whole grow. I am trying out a Plantmax Daylight 7000K MH now.
I don't know enough, or have the experience to know if this is a good choice. Just throwin it out there. If you look at the spectrums through, HPS is so limited, so at best it's quantity of photons over the quality like with daylight mh.

cri - Important in photography, irrelevant to plants

- Jiji

I purchased 2 of these bulb, I've been running it for 20 hrs now. The reviews aren't to sound on Amazon but im giving it a shot. I'm using a magnetic ballast it seems to fire the bulb. It does run considerably hotter than hps. Its more blue than other MH tho. I wouldn't run it on a digital ballast as it's a 60hz bulb even tho it says compatible, I don't like the way those digital ballast fire the bulb. Seems hard on it. Hard to sort through user error or good products these days.
It's also really hard to find solid reviews on products. So it looks like I'm the guniea pig in this scenario.