digital or elecronic?? HELP needed

H

highwayman

Well-Known Member
i was looking to buy a couple new 60watt hps lamps and i don't know what type of ballast to get with them.. can someone please tell me which one is better? the digital ballast or electronic??
 
highwayman said:
i was looking to buy a couple new 60watt hps lamps and i don't know what type of ballast to get with them.. can someone please tell me which one is better? the digital ballast or electronic??
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do you just use a 100w ballast for a bulb under 100w ? npt trying to thread jack but an hour or so ago i was trying to find what type of ballast to get with a 50w hps bulb.

i dont know which one is better, but if you can get a remote ballast that would be good so you can mount it out side the room.
 
digital and electronic are the same. I think you mean elec/digi vs inductive/magnetic.

Its dealer choice.
Digi/electronic:
Power savings are for the ballast alone, bulb will still draw what it needs.
So if it claims a 15% savings, its 15% of the ballast overhead (my 400W sucks about 450 from the wall) So its 15% less of the 50 extra watts, or a 7.5W savings.

Runs cooler. But anyone buying a light has a remote ballast anyways, so we already have the heat out of the room. (recently heard someone claim their digi ran hotter, but thats the first time I heard that)

Longer bulb life. But once again we change bulbs long before they burn out.

Claim to make p for aging bulb/lumens lost. But most people don't have the equipt to call them on it.

Can run HPS or MH (can be a plus if you run only one room)

smaller

Inductive/magnetic:
Simple. Anything goes south, a trip to a lighting supply house and you are back up running the same day.

A bit cheaper
 
mizke said:
do you just use a 100w ballast for a bulb under 100w ? npt trying to thread jack but an hour or so ago i was trying to find what type of ballast to get with a 50w hps bulb.

i dont know which one is better, but if you can get a remote ballast that would be good so you can mount it out side the room.
Click to expand...

a 100 watt balast takes a 100 watt bulb. dont play with putting wrong bulbs in, you could have yerself a face full of glass
 
I have 4 magnetic ballasts and 1 electronic. The magnetic ballasts have never had a problem, the electronic has never worked right - won't turn on until I plug and unplug it 10-20 times - and the company "Sunlight Supply" tell me that there's nothing wrong with the ballast even though I plugged and unplugged the piece of shit a dozen and a half times a day for four months - in an outlet hooked directly to the breaker box, used only for 1 ballast, a fan and a light mover. Never had a problem with any of my magnetic ballasts, run on a timer, on the same electrical outlet.

Get a magnetic for your first ballast, for dependability.

.

bongsmilie
 
"i've heard some ballasts make a loud humming noise is it really that loud from a magnetic ballast?"

If you're in a small room with no other sound you could hear a magnetic ballast, it's a low hum. I never notice mine, the ballast is by my Vortex fan. The best thing about the digital ballast was how cool it is, great for the summer.

I'm asking the company I bought the ballast from to give me a switchable magnetic instead of another digital - I think they thought I'd be more trouble than sending out another ballast and tonight they said they'd do something good. Restores some faith in the company.

I think digital ballasts are great, I'll have another when they're more reliable. But I have back up ballasts if (when) the digital fails. Get a magnetic first if you have no other ballast.

.

bongsmilie
 
The hum. If its loud, something up. Al B. Fuct said there should be no hum. (I could hear a TV cap fly-back power up. Hearing is diverse) But i've never seen a xfomer that tossed out any power that didnn't hum (I deal with 208/230 to 480 VAC @ upwards of 100A for my machines. they all hum, even with no load.)
 
BigBudBalls said:
The hum. If its loud, something up. Al B. Fuct said there should be no hum. (I could hear a TV cap fly-back power up. Hearing is diverse) But i've never seen a xfomer that tossed out any power that didnn't hum (I deal with 208/230 to 480 VAC @ upwards of 100A for my machines. they all hum, even with no load.)
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Hm I thought I made a post, but I guess it didn't go through.

I currently have both HarvestPro magnetic ballasts and the Lumatek 1000 watt 120 volt.

My lumatek 120 volt does cause RF interference. Any continuous-on ph/ppm meter that is plugged into a wall socket will go bonkers. You will also see distortion if you have a television. The distance doesn't seem to matter; the interference seems to run all along the power grid in your house.

Brighter? I don't know. Nothing that can be noticed by the normal eye sight. i'm sure for an average grower, there are other things he could work on to increase yield other than going from magnetic to digital.

Durability and Longevity are to be determined. I have read that Digital ballasts will burn out bulbs faster, so that is probably not an issue for flower rooms since you should be changing out bulbs every 2-3 cycles. But for veg growth, where intensity isn't the main issue, I would stick with magnetic.

I house my ballasts outside. It's hard for me to notice any noise with all the other crap that's making noise (fans, humidifier, air conditioning etc etc). Both magnetic and digital will create heat.
 
noone88 said:
My lumatek 120 volt does cause RF interference. Any continuous-on ph/ppm meter that is plugged into a wall socket will go bonkers. You will also see distortion if you have a television. The distance doesn't seem to matter; the interference seems to run all along the power grid in your house.
Click to expand...

For the RF issues, if noise is on the power lines (and quite likely) try one of these:

http://www.smarthome.com/4845ACF/15-Amp-Plug-In-Noise-Filter-AF120/p.aspx

(the durability issues I think has been basically fixed with them. but being more complicated more chances to go south)
 
Running 4 lumatek 1000 watt 120 volts. One has been running for 16 days flower, brand new out of the box. Saturday, fried the digital timer. Today, it blew up the HPS Hortilux bulb.

So yea........

I'm sure individual experiences may vary, but for our hobby, we need something that's a bit more reliable.
 
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