Lumatek Ballast

[Stix]

I'm currently in the market for a 600 watt digital ballast. I've got my eye on a Lumatek ballast right now. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this ballast?

[beensmokin420]

No experience with it but i've heard nothing but good things. Go for it I'd say!

[Urdedpal]

I heard there is a high return rate on that brand. Hope you get a good warranty.

[Stix]

Thanks for the response guys. Well, thanks to OnionGobblers PM I was able to read alot about the problems with lumatek ballasts. It seems that Lumatek ballasts were causing alot of "High end" bulbs like Hortilux to burn out in a short time. Anywhere from 12 hours to 3 months. From what I've read, the reason the bulbs were blowing out was due to the voltage used to fire these bulbs. All the information I've read seemed to be during the summer of 2006. I think Lumatek has corrected this problem since then. Please correct me if I'm wrong! Anyway, here's some info that I found on the subject. This info is a copy/paste.

**UPDATE ON LUMATEK BALLASTS**


I have been speaking to Jason Bedell, owner of Lumatek, today about their ballasts and the problems with Vaportrail's "blown bulb" problems. It seems that not just Lumatek's but ALL digital or "E" ballasts have a compatibiltiy problem with Hortilux, SunMaster, Agrosun and other "high end" bulbs. It seems that MOST HPS bulbs require 4000-5000 volts to "fire" the bulb and all digital/"E" ballasts fire in this range.

It also seems that Hortilux and these other manufacturers have designed their bulbs to fire at a much lower 1500-2000 volts and these digital ballast a surging over twice that through these bulbs. Therefore, this overload is blowing out SOME (but not all) of these types of bulbs. Anyway, because the Lumatek is not strictly an electronic ballast (it has chip circuitry), Lumatek has redesigned the chips in the latest production models to fire at any voltage requirement between 1500-5000. Now, the Lumatek's will work with any bulb of your choosing and this is the only ballast that can make that claim. Because of the chip technology, Lumatek is the only digital/electronic ballast on the market that even has the ability to alter their firing range.

So what about the older models? Can you use Hortilux bulbs with them? According to Jason, only a small percentage of the ballasts have had this problem with the Hortilux bulb. Some users may never experience or notice any change in their bulb life or system performance. For those that do, Jason HIGHLY recommends using Phillips new "red spectrum" HPS bulb. It is Phillips new high-end bulb. It puts out the same lumens as the Hortilux but has a more targeted spectrum for flowering since the Horitlux is known for it's blue targeted spectrum which aids the vegetative stage more than it does flower. And the best news is that it's about $35.00 lower in price than the Hortilux!



The best news is that he has assurred me that they are going to take care of Vaportrail's problems by either switching out his ballasts for new ones with the new mods or by replacing his bulbs with these Phillips "red spectrum" bulbs at no charge! Jason Bedell appears to be a man of his word that more than stands behind his products. I guess we will see for sure shortly. Hey Vapor, let us know how it all works out with Jason. Good luck, bro!

I am going to be buying a 600 watt from him very soon for my grow with Anita Bonghitt! These are the kinds of manufacturers that we want to deal with. The one's that stand behind their products. That and the 5 year warranty make this digital "E" ballast the Rolls Royce of it's breed!

RB
I also read some info about Lumatek and RF noise. It seems Lumatek and other digital ballasts have issues with RF noise. RF noise causes radios in the vacinity of the ballast to not work properly. Basically all you'll hear is static. Some ballast owners report that they have noise up to a 30 foot radius of the ballasts. Some people say that it will even interfere with police radios.

If anyone has any information that is current about Lumatek or any other digital ballasts I would appreciate any info on the subject you could give.

[Urdedpal]

I could use the info too, I want to upgrade to 4 600s. These 1000watters just don't spread the light far enough.

[Stix]

I guess I'll bite the bullet and get the Lumatek. I was looking at the MD light, it's a little cheaper but it only has a 90 day warranty. The Lumatek comes with a 4 year warranty. Even with the warranty, the last thing I'm gonna feel like doing is mailing a defective light back to where I got it. Oh well, I'll get 1 for now and see how she runs for a couple grows. Wish me luck!

[fatcatzzz]

I have just gone thru RF noise thing with Lumatek. Spent 2 days on the phone with hydro store and Lumatek. All the ballasts have been fixed except the 1000 watt. I have a Nutradip Tri Meter and the ballast rendered it completely useless from 15 ft. away. Even knocked out the Sat. TV. It seems when Lumatek first came out, they did have a problem with burning out blubs. They came out with an adapter that fit inline on the light cord. The adapter has a transformer to step up the voltage to the light bulb

FCzzz

[Stix]

Well, I just ordered a 600 watt digital Lumatek ballast with a 600 watt Hortilux bulb. I'll keep this thread updated on how well the ballast works. Wish me luck!

[beensmokin420]

Good Luck!

So you gonna give us w/ a grow journal too, right?

[wants_togrow]

i just found out what ballasts were tonight at home depot. Im not quite ready to venture into that but it defintly looks amazing if you have one. Good luck to you

[Stix]

The ballast and bulb just came in today. I'll fire it up tonight and see how she does. Hopefully all goes well.

[Urdedpal]

Only one ballast? I thought you were changing them all out.

[Stix]

I only ordered one this time. I wanna make sure it works good before I switch all the lights out. So far so good. The light output is about double my 400 watt magnetic ballast. the 400 watt bulb isn't exactly new though. It's about a year or so old.

It's pretty cool how fast the bulb reaches full brightness with the digital ballast. Full illumination in under a minute.

[Urdedpal]

Hps bulbs should be switched out every 9 months to a year. Its what has been recommended to me by my hydro store and a few of my grow bibles. They count it in hours but to get the most optimum performance its 9 months at 12/12 light cycle. (By the way, have you changed that carbon filter yet?) If you were to put a new 400w bulb in and compare it to your old bulbs with a side by side comparison, you can really see the difference in light output. Also bulbs brightest the first 2 weeks of use, its a fact I learned when I was doing aquarium reef tanks but for the life of me I can't remember why.

[Stix]

Nope, still haven't changed my filter yet. I guess I'll get around to it when it starts stinkin. . Yeah, I definately let my lights go to long before changing them. I'll have to keep ontop of those lights for now on.