Lumatek Ballast

I'm thinking of trading out my 1000w magnetics for digitals, but it's important that I not start cranking out enough RF that I broadcast my location to the LEOs or knock out my cable or wireless network or anything.

Anyone have a suggestion of a brand that doesn't have that or any of the other common problems like blowing bulbs and so on?
 
Hello out there.
I would never own a lumatek product again.
they DO have issues That are easily fixed, and the company will help you under the warranty.
hOWEVER WHEN YOU RELY ON A HIGH QUALITY PIECE OF EQUIPMENT TO PRODUCE MEDICINE you expect it to work. can you afford to be down for at least 4 weeks if you have an issue? are you prepared to continually call lumatek to resolve their problems? be prepared that when you send it to them you wont see a new one for at least 2 to 3 more weeks.
So remember this down time is detrimental to you as a grower.
My personal experience is that as of today I have been down for 12 of the last 20 weeks due to this kind of poor turnaround,.
if this is what you want buy a lumatek.

And a note to you jason the owner from a cancer patients prospective: Your firm is a big letdown and your out of touch. You have caused me considerable loss of time,lots of effort , and wasted cash.
This is not what I bought a lumatek to experience. I hope no one else experiences this!! .
to the rest of you, before you buy any ballast find out the waranty policies, how the returns policy operates and prepare for an alternate plan so you dont get fucked by the jasons of this world selling low quality shit that dont work.You see Jason knows to this day he put out a product that had issues and he used us, the growing public for his beta testing.
So jason from me to you: F##K OFF
 
Hello cocoJoe, Are you in the market for a new ballast? If so please share with us what your thinking and leaning towards? Digital or Magnetic? Love to hear your thoughts Thanks Buddy.
 
Hi The Weed and All, I my equipment has been stolen. I'm looking at all options.
The LEDs are becoming a serious consideration. Also digital ballasts are more reliable than when first introduced. I probably would purchase Sun Systems Lighting HID products again, but maybe with the new Galaxy digitals instead of the magnetic ballasts. Also no more 1000 watt units. I don't need that much light. No digitals for sure, and only 400 watts. Leds may win out tho. :peace:
 
The Times they are a changing huh cocoJoe. Do you think you would of said that LED statement a year ago? Wow when the veteran grower like yourself is considering LED. It may signal the tides of change. Thanks cocoJoe for sharing. :peace: Sorry to hear about your thief problem, That sucks.
 
The Weed, It is part of life, if you have something there is always some lowlife that wants to take it away. No I would not have considered LEDs.
Money is a problem, I'm slowly getting equipment. When I'm ready and feel safe I want to do a journal here. In the meantime I hope you can put up with me. :peace:
 
cocoJoe said:
Hi The Weed and All, I my equipment has been stolen. I'm looking at all options.
The LEDs are becoming a serious consideration. Also digital ballasts are more reliable than when first introduced. I probably would purchase Sun Systems Lighting HID products again, but maybe with the new Galaxy digitals instead of the magnetic ballasts. Also no more 1000 watt units. I don't need that much light. No digitals for sure, and only 400 watts. Leds may win out tho. :peace:
Click to expand...

LED's are a joke. For example, who in their right mind would spend $475 for a 126w pentrator that produces 5000 lumens when you can get a single strip 54w 48" T5 HO fixture & bulb that produces 5000 lumens for $35?

Or better yet, spend that $475 to get yourself a 600w HPS setup with an electronic ballast (90k lumens) and a 6 or 8 bulb 48" T5 HO fixture (30k t0 40k lumens).

The only thing serious about LED grow lights is how bad the sellers are scamming growers.
 
RageMonkey said:
LED's are a joke. For example, who in their right mind would spend $475 for a 126w pentrator that produces 5000 lumens when you can get a single strip 54w 48" T5 HO fixture & bulb that produces 5000 lumens for $35?

Or better yet, spend that $475 to get yourself a 600w HPS setup with an electronic ballast (90k lumens) and a 6 or 8 bulb 48" T5 HO fixture (30k t0 40k lumens).

The only thing serious about LED grow lights is how bad the sellers are scamming growers.
Click to expand...

agreed
 
RageMonkey said:
LED's are a joke. For example, who in their right mind would spend $475 for a 126w pentrator that produces 5000 lumens when you can get a single strip 54w 48" T5 HO fixture & bulb that produces 5000 lumens for $35?
Click to expand...

Then again... I've got a nice halogen spotlight that produces SIX thousand lumens that I'll let you have for only $30. Following the above logic, that must be the best deal, right?

Ok, I'm being completely facetious here, but my point is that lumens are only a small part of the equation.

I'm still not a fan of LEDs. While I can think of a few situations where the average LED fixture might work better than the average HPS one, I do not intend to end up in any of them. At this point in time I simply feel that they are best purchased by those who delight in scientific experimentation and have the time and money to devote to it (there seem to be a few of those people here at 420mag) and by those with more money than sense who will always fight to be first purchasers of anything shiny, in a colorful box, or "as seen on TV!" (there are probably a few of those people on the site as well ;)) who, it must be said, at least serve the useful purpose of funding the research.

Unfortunately, I do not fall under the first category right now and as for the second, I'd like to think I graduated out of it when I entered kindergarten - or at least a few years later when I stopped chasing the girls to get rid of them and started chasing them to catch them.

Oh yeah - and I've actually "caught" a few.
 
TorturedSoul said:
Then again... I've got a nice halogen spotlight that produces SIX thousand lumens that I'll let you have for only $30. Following the above logic, that must be the best deal, right?

Ok, I'm being completely facetious here, but my point is that lumens are only a small part of the equation.

I'm still not a fan of LEDs. While I can think of a few situations where the average LED fixture might work better than the average HPS one, I do not intend to end up in any of them. At this point in time I simply feel that they are best purchased by those who delight in scientific experimentation and have the time and money to devote to it (there seem to be a few of those people here at 420mag) and by those with more money than sense who will always fight to be first purchasers of anything shiny, in a colorful box, or "as seen on TV!" (there are probably a few of those people on the site as well ;)) who, it must be said, at least serve the useful purpose of funding the research.

Unfortunately, I do not fall under the first category right now and as for the second, I'd like to think I graduated out of it when I entered kindergarten - or at least a few years later when I stopped chasing the girls to get rid of them and started chasing them to catch them.

Oh yeah - and I've actually "caught" a few.
Click to expand...

Halogens generate the wrong spectrum, you'd probably need 500w of electricity to generate 6000 lumens with a halogen, and it will be way way way too hot to be practical. At a minimum with a CFL, you have a selection of bulbs to pick from to optimize whatever spectrum you'd like. Obviously you want to pack your lumens into the right spectrum. In comparing LED's to CFL's or HID's, there is plenty of evidence out there in grow journals that people with $200 - 400 CFL and MH/HPS HID lighting are getting consistently better results than these $400 - 500/fixture LED grows.

Honestly I don't have a problem with LED's, they are definitely useful if you happen to be an astronaut. However, it's important to note that just because LED's are new doesn't mean they are better. Hopefully, this discussion will save somebody some money before they decide to blow their hard earned cash on a $400 - 500 LED light.
 
So I've heard that the problem isn't the ballast but the bulbs, and Sunpulse and Ushio (sp.?) have made bulbs which are meant to be operated at like 20,000 hertz instead of the 60 that traditional bulbs operate at... but I wonder if they'd perform as well as the hortilux eye bulbs that lots of people seem to use w/o any prob's...
 
I mean my hydro shop says they aren't getting returns on the newest models... and any continued prob's are probably the fault of the bulbs., which haven't been giving customers any more trouble either, but it'd be safest to go with those bulbs made to operate at a higher frequency.
 
I just picked up a brand new dimmable 600w lumatek with the multi-watt feature for $180 inc shipping.

I decided to take this one over the nextgen and quantum product because it doesn't rely on a fan for cooling and thus produces less noise. In addition, the new multiwatt feature means I can run a native 400 watt MH in a pinch.
 
I've got this as yet to be out of the box dual voltage 600W xtrasun eballast, still deciding on what bulb to get. I sure hope I didn't get sold an older model that just looked new. I just assumed it was just out but I don't see a date anywhere on the box...
 
Problem with that is that my tents won't handle the heat from a 600w, and I don't want to use that much energy anyway.

Also, I already have a "regular" 250w Lumatek, so this 400/250 unit will let me set up two 250w hoods in a single tent for better coverage, do side-by-side comparisons using 250w HID in separate tents, and probably couple of other things I haven't thought of yet ;).

If yield was my only need, though, your suggestion is right on point.
 
My Lumatek experience

Heya people:roorrip:

I bought a lumatek 600 watt, with a convertable metal halide and a hps bulbs.
It's the one that is dimmable(not sure why the fug you would want to mess with that ) but anyway. It rocks. super quiet, way cool and starts immediately without any noise. purple. buy it, grow more quietly, and be cool

rsz_dscn0092.jpg


hush, I'm out the closet now ~!
 
my extrasun eballast 600W is doing great. I got a bulb from Ushio that is meant for the high frequency of electronic ballasts. or digital or whatever.. anyway, it's working great so far. As is my 400W lumatek that's done perfect w/ both HPS and MH.
 

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