Flickering HID

Hi folks,

My 250 W metal halide is flickering constantly. I have had it for about two weeks on a 24/0 schedule, and the flickering started about 1 week ago. It isn't visibly going off, just flickering in intensity.

I've searched on here and elsewhere and read that it could be due to a poor quality bulb or one that is about to go, but most refer to them actually flickering on and off.

My grow is going extremely slow, and I'm wondering if this flickering bulb could be the cause. My options are:

1) Stick with it
2) Shell out for a replacement (gah! MORE expenditure!)
3) Switch to my 600 W HPS bulb. Not the right spectrum, but more powerful at least.

What do the lovely experts of RIU say?

Do you have 2 separate ballast or is it an adjustable ballast. If it's adjustable and you have it turned down to run the m/h, that could be your problem. I would switch bulbs while I was replacing the m/h for safety reasons. I personally don't like to run electrical equipment that isn't running properly with out knowing why it's not running properly.

Wanted to add I seen your other post about the fuse in the plug blowing. I think you might have issues with the actual ballast. If you were blowing things from electric overload it would be at your fuse/breaker box, the plug fuse is equipment protection from power surges. I'm probably wrong and somebody will set me straight but this is my 2 cents.

Thanks man. I might take the bulb back to the shop, ask them to run it in an identical ballast and see if it flickers.

Like yourself, I don't like running electrical stuff if it isn't 100%!

The ballast is set to the right wattage for sure.

I might just go and get a new MH bulb and be done with it.

FlashBabylon said:

The ballast is set to the right wattage for sure.

Click to expand...

Famous last words! I went up to set up a temporary rig of cfls on the girls while I took the bulb back to the shop to get it tested, and looked at the ballast - it was set to 400W!! Stunned - it was *definitely* not on 400W when I set it up. I must have knocked it when doing some tidying last week.

Anyway, thank god it didn't blow my lamp! Wouldn't surprise me if I get a shorter life out of the bulb as a result, but now it's set back to 250 it isn't flickering at least!

I wonder if that has been hampering the growth of my babies. Or rather, I hope it has, because that would mean they'll take off now!

I had this happen a few months ago, It was the bulb. Get a new bulb and you should be good to go.

You should ALWAYS have a spare bulb on hand for situations like this, or worse, complete bulb failure. Order a spare on Amazon or Ebay, It doesnt need to be top of the line, i keep iPower bulbs as backups. They are only $15 or so.

Hehe it wasn't the bulb, see my post above yours, I had set the wrong wattage on the ballast like a chump. Amazed it didn't go pop.

I have a 600W hps as a backup which will be my flowering bulb but damn right actually I should get a second hps on hand in case of failure during flowering. Don't think much point in having a spare MH I'll only be vegging a few more weeks I hope.