HPS won't fire/isn't my igniter.. Help!

Hey everyone,, appreciate you stopping by.

Anyways I purchased two new bulbs for my 400w hps ballast and I basically ran into a problem. I got a 400w metal halide which works fine! And a brand new 400w hps bulb that just won't fire.. It has a faint purple glue.

Now I thought obviously it was my igniter/starter. After all it is an old ballast. (I got the ballast and a mint hood for $50 on CL)

But the problem is: when I put my old 430w Agro Hps bulb into my socket it turns right on just fine. Wtf?

So this must mean my igniter works fine correct? I mean the ballast/hood combo was a steal and I understand if I need to replace my CAP and my Starter. But does this mean I just have to send the hps back to amazon...? Or my igniter is barely working? Maybe it got so used to the old hps bulb it came with? Dude said it was used two cycles so...

Much appreciated. I don't have any other bulbs to test.

At the risk of being Captain Obvious, maybe a bad bulb out of the box? cn

That's exactly what I was saying, I am wondering if anyone has had any experience with a bulb having a glow but not ever starting. I thought if the bulb was bad.. It wouldn't even glue in the first place?

If it had a super slow leak or an assembly fault, just upsetting the gas mix in the capsule, you might see what you're seeing. Pure guess though. The fact that your 400MH and 430HPS fire right up does seem to exonerate the ballast. cn

cannabineer said:

At the risk of being Captain Obvious, maybe a bad bulb out of the box? cn

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i would suspect same thing
send bulb back and have replaced

Voltrom said:

That's exactly what I was saying, I am wondering if anyone has had any experience with a bulb having a glow but not ever starting. I thought if the bulb was bad.. It wouldn't even glue in the first place?

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I just had this problem... Yes it's possible. It's the bulb. My glowed but never lite.. Thought my ballast but I swapped to my hps bulb and it worked I wasn't done vegging but since the bulb blew.. I just swapped to 12/12

This may be a dumb question n I'm not tryna insult ur intelligence but did u make sure the cord from the hood to the ballast and the ballast to outlet are both plugged in all the way on the ballast. I had a similar problem which was caused by the ballast being turned on and the cord from the hood to ballast wasn't plugged in all the way n it fried something. I replaced cap and igniter n it still did the same thing. The hydro shop owner swapped me out mine with a diff used ballast n he sent mine back to hydrofarm to get fixed.

need the info

type of ballast (mag or dig?)
type of bulb?

some older mag ballasts are designed for either hps or mh bulbs (but not both).....you may need a conversion bulb

http://www.ilighting.com/media/data/31710.pdf

the philips 430w Agro Hps bulb - pulse start

is the problem bulb a probe start or pulse start?

check the ANSI rating of the bulbs and ballast, make sure they match

No offense taken,, you never know what simple problem someone can have.. Everything works fine,, I've already opened my Ballast & all. It's a 400w Sunlight Supply. It had the warranty stickers on it before I opened. One bulb will work, and then upon screwing out and inserting a new bulb it just won't ignite. It has to be a bad bulb..

I have a 400w Sunlight Supply
3.8A. (HPS400)

My Agro ignites just fine, instantly no flickers. My MH starts up just fine too.

Here's my cheapo Bulb.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005EDB99Y/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1369610978&sr=8-3&pi=SL75

Now it glues but won't ignite... I'm almost too lazy to get a refund and wait for a new one. Fuck that?

Should I just go for a new Philips Agro? What you think. I have a couple weeks tops before I wanna flower... Thank god it aint my igniter/cap.

Do you have anywhere nearby where you can bu=y a cheapo 400W HPS? Maybe 1000bulbs dot com ...

...and send for that refund, young man. cn

dont you need a seperate ballast for the HPS. Are you using the same one you use for MH? THought they are specific

dawgfather said:

dont you need a seperate ballast for the HPS. Are you using the same one you use for MH? THought they are specific

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Using the same ballast. It runs MH & HPS just fine.

cannabineer said:

Do you have anywhere nearby where you can bu=y a cheapo 400W HPS? Maybe 1000bulbs dot com ...

...and send for that refund, young man. cn

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Grrr,, I started the refund process two days ago.. I'm not too sure how I even go about a return on amazon but I should get a return label soon to slap on it

Err.... I'm thinking I'm going to use the Agro for awhile and at the end of my harvest I'll get a new one. It seems like the Son Agro is really a good bulb. I'm not paying $100 for a damn hortilix eye lol. Well... They have cheapskate on 1000bulbs. But if I'm gonna buy a new bulb I'd guess it would be another Son Agro. With its %30 more blue spectrum. I think it's perfect for Flower.

400w of Orange/Red
30w of Blue.

Voltrom said:

Using the same ballast. It runs MH & HPS just fine.

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why would they make switchable MH/HPS ballast if you can just use the same one for both? It may turn both on but there has got to be some legit reason that perhaps you cant see?

i love my hort eye. know when handling bulbs to use purest possible alchohol to remove any oils, this will ensure you get the most out of your bulbs!

Voltrom said:

Grrr,, I started the refund process two days ago.. I'm not too sure how I even go about a return on amazon but I should get a return label soon to slap on it

Err.... I'm thinking I'm going to use the Agro for awhile and at the end of my harvest I'll get a new one. It seems like the Son Agro is really a good bulb. I'm not paying $100 for a damn hortilix eye lol. Well... They have cheapskate on 1000bulbs. But if I'm gonna buy a new bulb I'd guess it would be another Son Agro. With its %30 more blue spectrum. I think it's perfect for Flower.

400w of Orange/Red
30w of Blue.

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I've really enjoyed my Ushio bulbs. "Opti Red HPS 600w, and an "Opti Blue" 600W MH "conversion" bulb for HPS ballast. I got mine for $80-90 each. I suspect that for HPS the $20 cheapies can be pretty good. Power is so danged expensive here (about 30¢ the marginal kWh) that I went for the slightly higher output of the premium bulb. One day I'll have to try a premium v a cheapie on clones from the same plant ... it's hard to tell how much of what I'm doing is science v. superstition. Controlled experiment will be the only way.

The other thing I've been pondering is a cheapie HPS supplemented with 50-100 watts of actinic aquarium T5s. that really does strike me as the best of both worlds. ~sigh~ someday. cn

Like the yellow sun and the blue sky.

cannabineer said:

The other thing I've been pondering is a cheapie HPS supplemented with 50-100 watts of actinic aquarium T5s. that really does strike me as the best of both worlds. ~sigh~ someday. cn

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