Bulb and ballast questions..

Guys. New to growing with HID lighting. I have a few questions..

Can you use a 1000w bulb w/ a 600w ballast? I know the reverse would be dangerous but I'm just curious if anyone has done that.

Also, are the connectors from the lamp socket from the hood universal? In other words if I buy a ballast and a hood separately will they work together without worrying about different connections,.

its not recomended to use any other watt bulb with a different wattage ballast, or vice versa..
and no, not all hoods and ballasts use the same plugs. i ran into a problem with my setup when i bought a hydrofarm hood that didn't have a chord set, so i bought a universal chord set, also from hydro farm, and it has different connectors than the ballast that i went with... it was a simple fix, all i had to do was go online and bought this thing called a baasp connector.. it pluged right into the ballast, and let me than plug my ballast into my hydrofarm hood.. i think it costs me under ten bucks, and work and fit perfectly..

I am currently using a 400w hps bulb in a ballast of 600w. Lots of different people have different opinions in this matter. Personally i would not use a bulb of higher watt than the ballast.

Yes the connections would be the same if u bought the ballast & reflector seperate. They all use an E40 fitting.

I hope this helps u a little

If your ordering online just go ahead and order from HTGSupply, they have a site as well as an ebay account. Ive used them several times and they have great deals. I doubt you could save any money buying separately and this way you will know everything is meant to go together and is safe. As racer said the connectors aren't always the same. On a side note Im not sure a 600w ballast would even have the juice to kickstart a 1000w bulb.