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Anyone in here have any experiences with 1000 watt digital ballasts? I want some input on there performance compared to magnetic 1000 watts as far as reliability, lumen output, and what brands are shit and what are good. Would a top of the line 1000W magnetic ballast be a better choice? Peace
Hey Blazeido, no answers to your post......because most growers don't know digital ballasts are available. I'm presently building a new GR and wanted to get top of the line lighting. I'm going to use 6 x 1000w bulbs, Avenger adjust-a-wings reflectors with the super spreaders.
I'm really agonizing over the issue of digi ballasts or not. My research has turned up the following info :
Positives for digi ballasts : Low weight, brighter bulb which lasts longer due to 'soft-starting' technology, no humming, less heat. Perfect it would seem.
Negatives for digi ballasts : As of now there seems to be a LOT of unreliable digi ballasts around, ESPECIALLY in the the 1000w range. I can tell you that Lumatek withdrew their 1K ballast due to problems, Future-brite have also had their share of technical hick-ups and cannatronics have also withdrawn their 1000w AND refunded customers ! Another big negative seems to be RF interference. Several users have reported a drowning-out of the AM and FM radio bands even up to 100 yards ! Or how to piss off all your neighbors quick time and have the authorities looking for the source. Finally they are at least twice as expensive as their magnetic brothers.
So where do I stand : I'd probably go with 600w digi's IF I was assured of no RF problems. I get the distinct feeling that 1000w digi's are not quite ready yet although I'd love somebody to tell me differently.
I just heard back from a future bright technician that told me that they no longer sell there 1000 watt Future Brights as MH/HPS because of problems with the MH. They are now listing them as only HPS. He said that Sunlight supply doesn't support any of the claims that these ballasts are MH/HPS compatible even though most of the sites selling these ballasts say they are. BEWARE BUYERS!
We had a number of problems with the 1000W digitals. In the first 5 months, we were using 8 units, and we had 3 fail, so we discussed these failures, along with the heat issues, we decided to go with the 600W digitals.
We have been using the 600W digitals for @1 year and we did get slightly lower yeilds (@5%less), but our power bills were 50% lower than the 1000W digitals.
My fealings are that the 1000W digitals still need some serious engineering work to resolve these problems, while the 600W units work great!!!!
Sorry to drag this back up, but I was wondering if there'd been any new developments on this.
Last I'd heard there were still a lot of problems with the digital 1000's, has anyone finally really fixed them?
i just purchased a 1000w ballast from quantum and it works great, and the guy at the hydro shop said the new lumatek 1000s are just as good and both have dimmers:thumbsup:
I only buy the heavy, old-fashioned, magnetic ballasts, because I always seem to have unreliable electrical utilities, most places I live (out in the boonies) ... magnetic ballasts tend to safely absorb voltage spikes and fluctuations, that will fry a digital ballast ... :smokin: