Digilux or Sunpulse
- Thread starter Bignugzz
- Start date
lampworker
Well-Known Member
I have tried both and am running with Digilux now. The Sunpulse bulbs have given me problems. My 10k bulb developed a huge blister in the glass shield. I feel lucky that it didn't blow up. I have went through a couple of the 3k bulbs trying to get one that will fire consistantly with no luck. Half the time it fires, with no good reason for the inconsistancy. The ballast is on it's own dedicated breaker. I have been to the grow shop many times with the ballast and the bulbs trying to figure it out and they tell me they cant do anything for me if the bulb fires. I explain that firinf half the time is unaccepable when using timers but it doesn't help. I dont blame the shop because they are more than accomodating when I come in with a problem. Sunpulse talks to them like they are idiots when they call direct. This is a sad situation because I invested in alot of their bulbs because the science makes sense to me but I cant have the problems. Long story short, I have been with Digilux ever sense with only one bulb failure and it was handles on the spot with the warranty. I hope this helps. Peace
Soybean Caterpillar
Member
I just had a very detailed run with SunPulse and just started using Digilux. First off do not use a vented hood with SunPulse, you will be unhappy. They rely on UV light and vented hood glass reflects this and you waste the bulbs. The UV makes the plants 'frosty'. More on this later. Also a vented hood means about a 30% drop from a Hortilux HPS in yield. A open hood (I use a grow wing) resulted in a 12% decrease in yield from a Hortilux HPS in yield, but nice increase in crystals and potency.
The main problem with SunPulse I feel is with the 1000 watt bulbs that they only have made for a short time. The glass might be fine for a 750, 600, or 400 bulb but is too thin for the 1000 watt heat and it bubbles. I had the same thing happen with a 6.4k running 18 hours a day. Freaked me out. But the 4k running 24 hours a day was fine. The 3k and the 10k ran no problem at 12 hours/day, after I got rid of that crappy Lumitech ballast. They and SunPulse do have problems and all SunPulse apparently wants to do is blame the ballast, and all Lumitek wants to do is apparently blame the bulbs. Yet they still list Lumitech as a certified ballast on the SunPulse site. Very shitty customer service from both companies. The guys from Lumitech expect me to drive to them to return a defective ballast, and use my own bulb to prove to them the problem just to have them give me the newer model as a exchange. He slipped and said he could not afford to pay for shipping on returns because they got so many. Hydrofarm (supplier to grow stores) has pallets of bad Lumitek ballasts. Lumitek has NO test or repair at their California warehouse. They just get bulk shipments of crappy ballasts from china and slap their name on them. Already they have had models that caused shorts, but instead of a recall and warning, they just come out with a new model and say nothing. I sense a class action lawsuit in their future. Now they have 'super lumen' switch but do not tell you that overcharging ANY bulb is not good for its life.
And SunPulse rep, condescending and rude. Lectures on how great their product is and does not answer the questions. I had several bulbs that I never even got to put in the light because they all had loose metal parts inside after ordering several from a local store. The replacements took weeks because Hydrofarm apparently dislikes dealing with them. I asked the rep if there was any other way to order any bulbs faster and he claimed he would 'gladly send me one' then never did. But had time to continue sending emails about how great their bulbs were and how dumb I was for not knowing everything he did about light. I responded that if he wants to be taken seriously deal with the poor manufacturing, lack of quality control, shoddy packaging, and nasty customer service if he wants SunPulse to ever be taken seriously.
Then unfortunately found Lumitech ballasts do not like to fire new Sunpulse bulbs and the CPU in the ballast takes too long to kick in. Jason from Lumiteck had went into detail about this very issue online. Then he played like he had no clue on the phone with me when questioned about it. And that first firing is what vaporizes the mercury ball which takes a slightly longer ignition pulse. Lumiteks use a 5000volt pulse followed by the CPU kicking in a few seconds later (hopefully). Unlike Lumitek, Quantum CPU starts immediately. More bulb friendly is what the local grow store calls them. Bought a Quantum which is MUCH better. But the bulb with the bubble (on a Lumitek ballast at that time)told me the 1000W glass is too cheap for the heat they produce, a major defect SunPulse will have to set someone else s home on fire to realize. They come from the same maker of the spinning light systems who brags about how much cooler they keep the bulbs. Perhaps they over designed only for spinner systems and the bulbs overheat in standard hoods.
I too switched to digilux bulbs. Great packaging, and quality you can see as soon as you get the bulb. The HPS runs about 2% brighter than Eye Hortilux HPS and can hot refire if my power goes out. But the Quantum has built into it a 10 minute timer for bulbs if that happens...so double covered.
I would say if you are using SunPulse, beware, unless you are using a spinner systems with auto dimming. Especially beware if you are using the 1000 watt bulbs. The only real great thing I found about SunPulse was the 10,000K spectrum bulb to use the last 2 weeks of flower. Its basically a UV-B bulb that causes the plant to produce resins to protect itself from sunburn. The other bulbs were nothing special. I'm using the Digilux MH for veg and the Digilux HPS for flower and the SunPulse 10,000k those last 2 weeks for now. Until someone else comes out with a reliable UVB bulb for plants at 1000 watts.
Happy gardening.
Soybean Caterpillar
The main problem with SunPulse I feel is with the 1000 watt bulbs that they only have made for a short time. The glass might be fine for a 750, 600, or 400 bulb but is too thin for the 1000 watt heat and it bubbles. I had the same thing happen with a 6.4k running 18 hours a day. Freaked me out. But the 4k running 24 hours a day was fine. The 3k and the 10k ran no problem at 12 hours/day, after I got rid of that crappy Lumitech ballast. They and SunPulse do have problems and all SunPulse apparently wants to do is blame the ballast, and all Lumitek wants to do is apparently blame the bulbs. Yet they still list Lumitech as a certified ballast on the SunPulse site. Very shitty customer service from both companies. The guys from Lumitech expect me to drive to them to return a defective ballast, and use my own bulb to prove to them the problem just to have them give me the newer model as a exchange. He slipped and said he could not afford to pay for shipping on returns because they got so many. Hydrofarm (supplier to grow stores) has pallets of bad Lumitek ballasts. Lumitek has NO test or repair at their California warehouse. They just get bulk shipments of crappy ballasts from china and slap their name on them. Already they have had models that caused shorts, but instead of a recall and warning, they just come out with a new model and say nothing. I sense a class action lawsuit in their future. Now they have 'super lumen' switch but do not tell you that overcharging ANY bulb is not good for its life.
And SunPulse rep, condescending and rude. Lectures on how great their product is and does not answer the questions. I had several bulbs that I never even got to put in the light because they all had loose metal parts inside after ordering several from a local store. The replacements took weeks because Hydrofarm apparently dislikes dealing with them. I asked the rep if there was any other way to order any bulbs faster and he claimed he would 'gladly send me one' then never did. But had time to continue sending emails about how great their bulbs were and how dumb I was for not knowing everything he did about light. I responded that if he wants to be taken seriously deal with the poor manufacturing, lack of quality control, shoddy packaging, and nasty customer service if he wants SunPulse to ever be taken seriously.
Then unfortunately found Lumitech ballasts do not like to fire new Sunpulse bulbs and the CPU in the ballast takes too long to kick in. Jason from Lumiteck had went into detail about this very issue online. Then he played like he had no clue on the phone with me when questioned about it. And that first firing is what vaporizes the mercury ball which takes a slightly longer ignition pulse. Lumiteks use a 5000volt pulse followed by the CPU kicking in a few seconds later (hopefully). Unlike Lumitek, Quantum CPU starts immediately. More bulb friendly is what the local grow store calls them. Bought a Quantum which is MUCH better. But the bulb with the bubble (on a Lumitek ballast at that time)told me the 1000W glass is too cheap for the heat they produce, a major defect SunPulse will have to set someone else s home on fire to realize. They come from the same maker of the spinning light systems who brags about how much cooler they keep the bulbs. Perhaps they over designed only for spinner systems and the bulbs overheat in standard hoods.
I too switched to digilux bulbs. Great packaging, and quality you can see as soon as you get the bulb. The HPS runs about 2% brighter than Eye Hortilux HPS and can hot refire if my power goes out. But the Quantum has built into it a 10 minute timer for bulbs if that happens...so double covered.
I would say if you are using SunPulse, beware, unless you are using a spinner systems with auto dimming. Especially beware if you are using the 1000 watt bulbs. The only real great thing I found about SunPulse was the 10,000K spectrum bulb to use the last 2 weeks of flower. Its basically a UV-B bulb that causes the plant to produce resins to protect itself from sunburn. The other bulbs were nothing special. I'm using the Digilux MH for veg and the Digilux HPS for flower and the SunPulse 10,000k those last 2 weeks for now. Until someone else comes out with a reliable UVB bulb for plants at 1000 watts.
Happy gardening.
Soybean Caterpillar
meowth
Active Member
I use digilux, and recommend them with all digital ballasts.
meowth
Active Member
Never had any problems with my 400w and 600w Lumatek, knock on wood. I hear extremely good things, and then some extremely bad things about Lumatek. I currently use a Phantom 600w, but have used Lumatek with perfection.
One post and your writing a book on how bad Lumateks are? Hmmnnn, some good paranoid stuff I'm smoking, because you sound like someone in the anti-Lumatek business. Maybe a competitor?
pdillo
Well-Known Member
I've had first hand experience with that issue Jason is talking about with Eye's and Lumatek incompatibility. I've had 4 Eyes get dim and the glass get dark and 'foggy' before figuring out what hell was going on. People on these forums rave that their Lumateks and Eyes work awesome together and deny the whole issue all together… but according to my experience, they dont work together. The dimmable 600w Lumatek ballast could very well be the culprit.
Here is the 2008 Eye Hortilux study on digital ballast in case anyone hasn't read it and cares to.
Sunpulse claims that a digital ballast friendly HPS bulb cannot be created, so if you go Sunpulse, it will have to be a MH conversion (you probably know this) and a MH conversion bulb will create more leafy less dense buds with more trichs (if anyone ever has used a CMH, u know what I'm talking about). I'd be worried about the bubbling glass issue, that seems to happen a lot.
Either way, I wish I wouldnt of bought that damn 600W Lumatek ballast! I'd go magnetic if I had it all to do over. I ordered some Lumatek bulbs last night… I was reeeally close to ordeing the Digilux, but read to many complaints about them burning out too quickly or losing brightness after a short period of time (google it)… but who knows, people on the interweb tend to be over-opinionated
I would like to give Digilux a try, maybe next time I relamp, however I'd like to read more peoples experiences with them (not just 'bro, they rock! get one!').
Here is the 2008 Eye Hortilux study on digital ballast in case anyone hasn't read it and cares to.
Sunpulse claims that a digital ballast friendly HPS bulb cannot be created, so if you go Sunpulse, it will have to be a MH conversion (you probably know this) and a MH conversion bulb will create more leafy less dense buds with more trichs (if anyone ever has used a CMH, u know what I'm talking about). I'd be worried about the bubbling glass issue, that seems to happen a lot.
Either way, I wish I wouldnt of bought that damn 600W Lumatek ballast! I'd go magnetic if I had it all to do over. I ordered some Lumatek bulbs last night… I was reeeally close to ordeing the Digilux, but read to many complaints about them burning out too quickly or losing brightness after a short period of time (google it)… but who knows, people on the interweb tend to be over-opinionated
I would like to give Digilux a try, maybe next time I relamp, however I'd like to read more peoples experiences with them (not just 'bro, they rock! get one!').
legallyflying
Well-Known Member
FYI. I really like my ushios as well. No problems with digital ballasts to date.
dankasaurusrex
Well-Known Member
Nextgen ballasts with Digilux bulbs here. Zero issues and I've got over a year on them. I expect another grow or two out of my bulbs before I replace them. I cannot tell with the naked eye, but do suspect they have lost some intensity over time as all bulbs do. Regarding customer service. The ballasts have a 5 year warranty and the bulbs 1 year. My grow shop told me regardless of the problem (with the exception of shattering the bulb of course) they would honor the warranty same day and that CAP Controllers (the makers of Nextgen and Digilux) don't sweat them if they have to return something. The return policy alone makes me feel better about the product, but I must say in my almost 20 years of growing it's the best set of lighting rigs I've owned. Hope this helps!
legallyflying
Well-Known Member
wait to you realize the digilux bulbs suck ass. I bought six of them as well. No where near as good of a result as the ushios. I'm in portland as well, they have 4 months of flowering on them, I'll sell them cheap.