Magnetic versus digital ballast

J

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
I'm considering buying a 1000w Hydrofarm magnetic ballast for $118 on amazon. I know they run hotter, but the price is attractive. 2 year warranty. I would prefer the 1000w phantom digital, but it's twice the cost @ $208 with a 3 year warranty. I'm leaning towards the phantom II digital due to it's cooler operation and longer warranty. Recommendations? I'm basically eliminating an old 600w ballast and replacing with 1000w. It will run side by side with a 600w. First time running a 1000w.
 
spek9 said:
The Phantom is lighter, quieter (no fans!), cooler and is dimmable. I run a Phantom II ballast for my 1000W lamp and have absolutely no complaints.
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Just ordered it. When it comes to grow room equipment there's no room to cheap out. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I ordered from Amazon for a couple of simple reasons. 1) $205 was the best price I could find on the 1000w Phantom II digital ballast. 2) If I ever have a failure I will simply order another one with me free prime 2 day delivery, use it as my replacement, and then send the old one that stopped working back as "defective" whilst I await my full refund. It's not like these things have serial numbers. Love me some amazon.
 
There are at least a handful of growers on RIU that use these ballasts (in fact, I was in a thread with another grower this morning about this topic), and I haven't heard any of them complain of any issues. The unit has a 3-year warranty. At least if you send it back, it's not a whopping 35lbs you've got to ship.
 
iPower sells a 1000 watt digital for under $100 that I've used for years..........it's quiet, doesn't run hot, creates no interference with other equipment nearby, is small and light and they've been trouble free.
 
SSHZ said:
iPower sells a 1000 watt digital for under $100 that I've used for years..........it's quiet, doesn't run hot, creates no interference with other equipment nearby, is small and light and they've been trouble free.
Click to expand...

I run iPower ballasts for my 400W and 600W lamps, and I've had no problems either. One of them I've been running for over five years (with very short breaks), and not even the cooling fans have caused me grief.
 
jonnynobody said:
Just ordered it. When it comes to grow room equipment there's no room to cheap out. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I ordered from Amazon for a couple of simple reasons. 1) $205 was the best price I could find on the 1000w Phantom II digital ballast. 2) If I ever have a failure I will simply order another one with me free prime 2 day delivery, use it as my replacement, and then send the old one that stopped working back as "defective" whilst I await my full refund. It's not like these things have serial numbers. Love me some amazon.
Click to expand...
I always keep a spare ballast for all my lights on the shelf. Bulbs too, keep a used one at least. Would suck to be without your light for a couple days during peak flower.
 
Renfro said:
Only reason to run magnetic ballasts now days other than cost, is RFI and cable service.
Click to expand...
@Renfro ,
Does a ballast mess with a cable signal? My neighbors were complaining about a bad cable signal. Could My ballast be to blame??? ( I live in a condo with shared walls). That ballast has since crapped out and I’ve noticed that the cable company is not around as much. (Phantom ballast now)
 
twalte said:
@Renfro ,
Does a ballast mess with a cable signal? My neighbors were complaining about a bad cable signal. Could My ballast be to blame??? ( I live in a condo with shared walls). That ballast has since crapped out and I’ve noticed that the cable company is not around as much. (Phantom ballast now)
Click to expand...
It's a well known issue with some digital ballasts and cable TV service. Generally you would have to be a cable subscriber for this issue to happen and if it was happening you would have heard from the cable provider already since it would take down the whole local loop. They can trace down the home that is the source of the interference. Not all digital ballasts have this issue, like Gavita for example.
 
I ran a few of iPower 600s too for a few yrs without issue. I've since replaced most of them with CMH and keep them on the shelf as spares.
But if I were to buy another 1k I'd go for the phantom as well.
I mix my 1ks with 315s but I'm hoping to swap out at least 2 of my 1k with some comparable LEDs but reading thru the LED threads requires a lot of patience and a lot smoke....oh and pizza bites, for the drama
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'm glad I went with the phantom. It runs fairly cool. I remember an old 150w magnetic ballast I had about 12 years ago and it ran so hot I had to keep a fan blowing on it, and if you touched it for more than a second you would get a nasty burn. A 1000W magnetic ballast would be a fire hazard plain and simple. The phantom runs cool enough I can keep the palm of my hand wrapped around it comfortably.

LED's seem cool, but I'll stick with the gold standard. When commercial greenhouses switch to LED's I'll have another look.
 
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