Help! HID light blew at test fire! :(

pikushu

pikushu

Member
bigsteve said:
The quickest way to blow a bulb is to keep clicking it on and off. Really common when folks are first setting up their timers. Here's an OG trick - get a small electrical device, I use a small electric drill, and use that to plug in and check for juice and timer settings. You don't want to put extra clicks on the bulb and the drill helps there.

Usually your situation comes down to the bulb as that is the most fragile part of the system. MH bulbs don't last as long as HPS bulbs and they run hotter. I now use HPS in both my veg and flowering rooms as I also run one 400W bulb and one 1000W.

Some new bulbs take a few minutes to warm up enough to light up. I've waited 15 minutes or more for a bulb to kick on. So be patient and set up your gear minus the timers first. Once the bulb lights you can put the drill online instead of the timer and set up your times that way.

Good luck, BigSteve.
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Thanks for the timer advice!

It went out the first click. It lit but then stopped. It didn't seem like it was doing anything. I was also worrying about the ballast running when it shouldn't be.

I briefly thought maybe I should give the bulb a second chance with my new surge protector. Then I remembered the strange part moving in the base of the bulb when tilting. :sad:
 
pikushu

pikushu

Member
Hey guys! I already got my new bulb and it's working great. I can't tell if the dimmable knob works though. So far 50%, 75%, & 100% are all equally bright as fuck. :blsmoke:
 
farmerfischer

farmerfischer

Well-Known Member
Stay away from cheap eBay bulbs. Most are factory defects that are resold in lots to chumps that have no clue. Buy some hortilux ( eye) bulbs or something similar, your plants will thank you. Trust me lol I bought an Apollo 400 digital dimmible it came with two bulbs h.p.s.& m.h. both worked good at first but faded quickly. I should of known better because I always used hortilux but used cheapies instead.
 
pikushu

pikushu

Member
farmerfischer said:
Stay away from cheap eBay bulbs. Most are factory defects that are resold in lots to chumps that have no clue. Buy some hortilux ( eye) bulbs or something similar, your plants will thank you. Trust me lol I bought an Apollo 400 digital dimmible it came with two bulbs h.p.s.& m.h. both worked good at first but faded quickly. I should of known better because I always used hortilux but used cheapies instead.
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thank you for the comment! I'll definitely try to avoid ebay. I actually ordered my bulbs on amazon. I'm surprised my apollo bulb was broken. Apollo seems like a good brand. hey they coined a great name that attracted me too lol. I actually ordered my second one. it arrived and stayed on for a few minutes thankfully! I can't remember the brand but it had 5 stars. but I'll trust hortilux next time! Maybe I'll get home and find that my new bulb IS hortilux! this whole operation was meant to be anyway hehe :bigjoint:
 
farmerfischer

farmerfischer

Well-Known Member
pikushu said:
thank you for the comment! I'll definitely try to avoid ebay. I actually ordered my bulbs on amazon. I'm surprised my apollo bulb was broken. Apollo seems like a good brand. hey they coined a great name that attracted me too lol. I actually ordered my second one. it arrived and stayed on for a few minutes thankfully! I can't remember the brand but it had 5 stars. but I'll trust hortilux next time! Maybe I'll get home and find that my new bulb IS hortilux! this whole operation was meant to be anyway hehe :bigjoint:
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Apollo is not a quality brand. Its what I call a throw away brand. Use them for a couple grows then they don't have any punch left in them. My Apollo was great at first then it slowly started losing it intensity, even with a new bulb.. I know there pricy but you need a quality brand ballast. Like Sun system or extra sun . eBay and Amazon sell referb's so beware. Lol like the saying goes, you get what. You pay for
 
pikushu

pikushu

Member
farmerfischer said:
Apollo is not a quality brand. Its what I call a throw away brand. Use them for a couple grows then they don't have any punch left in them. My Apollo was great at first then it slowly started losing it intensity, even with a new bulb.. I know there pricy but you need a quality brand ballast. Like Sun system or extra sun . eBay and Amazon sell referb's so beware. Lol like the saying goes, you get what. You pay for
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good thing it was cheap. what are so be first signs of your ballast dying? fading light?
 
T

THE KONASSURE

Well-Known Member
keep a spare bulb

I like a 600w or 1000w ballast with a 400w option running a 400w or 600w lamp @ 400w, or a 600w running @ 600w or a 1000w running @ 1000w

but yeah I`d be lazy and use a 1000w ballast set to 400w with a 600w hps lamp if I was just using one lamp and wanted it to last and stay cool
 
farmerfischer

farmerfischer

Well-Known Member
pikushu said:
good thing it was cheap. what are so be first signs of your ballast dying? fading light?
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Digital ballasts will get hot when the components inside get Dusty even if your fan is fine. This effects life and will cause ignition problems , like what cat of curiosity said. Smoke catch fire. Get a can of keyboard cleaner and lightly blow threw one side and vac out the other at the same time. This way your not opening the housing and voiding the warranty. This is what I had to do with mine and it helps. But a lot of the crud I vac out of mine is cat and dog hair. Lol
 
cat of curiosity

cat of curiosity

Well-Known Member
farmerfischer said:
Digital ballasts will get hot when the components inside get Dusty even if your fan is fine. This effects life and will cause ignition problems , like what cat of curiosity said. Smoke catch fire. Get a can of keyboard cleaner and lightly blow threw one side and vac out the other at the same time. This way your not opening the housing and voiding the warranty. This is what I had to do with mine and it helps. But a lot of the crud I vac out of mine is cat and dog hair. Lol
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his is analog, not digital...
 
Lurkdewitt

Lurkdewitt

Well-Known Member
I had a similar issue with a 1000w MH bulb from Apollo. It went off at the timer and never came back on. I popped in a HPS bulb and it worked just fine. I would hop on amazon and buy a new bulb from ipower or some cheap brand besides Apollo and try it out.
 
pikushu

pikushu

Member
evergreengardener said:
Also just a word of advice don't touch those bulbs with your bare hands and if you do wipe them down thoroughly before turning them on unless you want to see an explosion of the bulb
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you know that might actually be really cool to see but I'd rather see big fat buds soon :p
 
pikushu

pikushu

Member
THE KONASSURE said:
keep a spare bulb

I like a 600w or 1000w ballast with a 400w option running a 400w or 600w lamp @ 400w, or a 600w running @ 600w or a 1000w running @ 1000w

but yeah I`d be lazy and use a 1000w ballast set to 400w with a 600w hps lamp if I was just using one lamp and wanted it to last and stay cool
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Gotcha that's definitely sounds like a good system to have..I don't see how it's lazy lol but definitely seems safer to have a set up like that.
 
pikushu

pikushu

Member
cat of curiosity said:
his is analog, not digital...
Click to expand...
Lurkdewitt said:
I had a similar issue with a 1000w MH bulb from Apollo. It went off at the timer and never came back on. I popped in a HPS bulb and it worked just fine. I would hop on amazon and buy a new bulb from ipower or some cheap brand besides Apollo and try it out.
Click to expand...
Grrrr why is apollo so cheap!? They tricked me with that pimp looking purple and gold ballast! :cuss:
 
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