Anyone familiar with this?

[BlackSheep138]

I got a smokin hot deal on some lightly used fixtures for hps/mh.

They are both 400w with a built in ballast
I have no idea what brand of bulbs are best/efficient/powerful.

Thanks!!!

 

[TorturedSoul]

Congratulations. The old style C&C (core & coil, aka "magnetic") HID ballasts would last just this side of forever, then a few bucks spent at the local electrical supply house would have you back up and running for more decades of use.

If heat is (or becomes) an issue, you can easily move the onboard ballast out of the grow area, which will remove the (not insignificant) amount of heat that it produces from that area; it will also remove a fair amount of weight from each reflector, which may or may not be helpful.

The process doesn't get mentioned much any more, but it's every bit as simple as you'd think it would be. And safe, too, assuming the usual warnings (don't do it to a unit that is connected to the electricity, don't cheap-out on the longer wire, if you lost your last house due to fire from trying to wire up a few Christmas tree lights, lol, have someone else do it, et cetera). If I remember correctly, there is even at least one thread on how to do it in one of our sub-forums, probably either the DIY or the lighting one. If you cannot find it, try doing a general web-search on something like:

DIY remote HPS ballast

...or something similar.

 

[Kismet]

Hortilux are top notch and Plantmax and Agromax are decent bulbs as well.