Magnetic vs Digital Ballasts.
- Thread starter Carthoris
- Start date
Spanishfly
Well-Known Member
You assume we are all in the same country??????
Wow, you must be a burn out. A 1000W is noticably brighter then a 400W? Thank you Sherlock Holmes. You must be the brains of the operation then.
The rest of this isn't worth commenting on.
lowerarchy
Active Member
Quoted in full because this was the best post in this whole thread.
One other point that I didn't notice in this flamewar - in my area at least you can buy magnetic ballasts used for half-price from any of the million people who tried to grow weed and discovered it wasn't for them. I bought six 1kw HPS for like 40 bucks each... no cases, work fine, fuck me I'm ordering so much pizza and drinking so much beer and staying up alllll night with my savings.
GRiMCreeper
Well-Known Member
i have been using (by using i mean i have only tried indoors twice now in past couple years lol) a 400w hps digital ballast from HIDHut...on my first grow, my ballast crapped out 4 weeks into flowering...contacted the fine folks at hidhut and returned the old one and received a new one and it worked fine..once i was finished, the set up went back into the box for almost 2 years....moved out of old place and set up shop in the garage of my new place...well in a corner i built a small room for it...after all..its only 1 400watter lol...so here i am couple weeks from flowering, and this ballast craps out yesterday morning. Now i was all convinced that digital was the way to go (convinced through my own ignorance), mostly because i liked the fact that i could wire it 240volts or 120...either way...kind of a nice feature i thought...so about 2 weeks ago i buy a 240 volt time clock which is still in the box as i have not gotten around to changing it over just yet....and thankfully so as im without a lighting set up...well except for my shitty 150w hps flood light...which is not hitting on shit for light lol...my only back up is about 50 miles away in my old shed...i have another 400w hps except she wasnt made for grow rooms as much as she was for high bay ceilings...im tempted to grab it and bolt it to the ceiling but the heat scares me a bit...bout ready to throw in the towel
CaptainCAVEMAN
Well-Known Member
I have 2k of light in flower room and I use the eye-hortilux dual arc bulbs. I have one magnectic ballast and one digital side by side. Just by judging the buds I'd have to say the digital must be brighter-need a lumen meter but buds are bigger and denser. Yes I put 2 new bulbs at the same time so I know that wasn't the difference. Can't comment on longevity as I've only had them 1.5 years.
Vices
Active Member
Whaa did OP just say magnetic ballasts are more reliable than digital?
/thread
Didn't read past there, seems like a bunch of hocuspocus.. 100 dollar difference? I can get a full digital 600w setup on ebay for $190.
There is no possibility you could get a magnetic setup for ~90 dollars. That is the first flaw.
Secondly, look who makes magnetic ballasts. MOST companies have done away with magnetic all together. Digital will ALWAYS be cheaper to manufacture than analog and will almost ALWAYS have better reliability as there are no moving parts.
This isn't about buying the newest hardware, it is recognizing there is a change and adapting to that change to better suit your lifestyle. I really hope your choice was digital and did not pursuade anyone otherwise.
EDIT: Checked ebay, the few magnetic ballasts were selling at the same if not HIGHER price points than the digitals.
/thread
Didn't read past there, seems like a bunch of hocuspocus.. 100 dollar difference? I can get a full digital 600w setup on ebay for $190.
There is no possibility you could get a magnetic setup for ~90 dollars. That is the first flaw.
Secondly, look who makes magnetic ballasts. MOST companies have done away with magnetic all together. Digital will ALWAYS be cheaper to manufacture than analog and will almost ALWAYS have better reliability as there are no moving parts.
This isn't about buying the newest hardware, it is recognizing there is a change and adapting to that change to better suit your lifestyle. I really hope your choice was digital and did not pursuade anyone otherwise.
EDIT: Checked ebay, the few magnetic ballasts were selling at the same if not HIGHER price points than the digitals.
First, I was upgrading from a 400w magnetic. My ballast cost me 60 dollars shipped and new. 30+30 shipping. 400w ballast, bulb, and wing are around 100 dollars new for magnetic. Thus, the 100 dollars difference for digital.
Second, digitals are not as reliable as magnetics. That is a fact. Also, the fact that you think there are moving parts in a magnetic ballast puts you solidly into the 'this is what I heard, and I repeat it, but don't know anything about it personally' crowd. If digital ballasts are cheaper to manufacture why are magnetic ballasts cheaper to purchase?
I went with magnetic ballast, I am on 9 months trouble free. My ballast makes no noise, and it doesn't get more than slightly warm. I do not regret it, and honestly the only issue is that it leaves lines in pictures when Im taking pictures of my girls.
If you don't know how to use ebay, thats your fault, noone elses. Quite simply hundreds of people agreed with me on the thread.
Second, digitals are not as reliable as magnetics. That is a fact. Also, the fact that you think there are moving parts in a magnetic ballast puts you solidly into the 'this is what I heard, and I repeat it, but don't know anything about it personally' crowd. If digital ballasts are cheaper to manufacture why are magnetic ballasts cheaper to purchase?
I went with magnetic ballast, I am on 9 months trouble free. My ballast makes no noise, and it doesn't get more than slightly warm. I do not regret it, and honestly the only issue is that it leaves lines in pictures when Im taking pictures of my girls.
If you don't know how to use ebay, thats your fault, noone elses. Quite simply hundreds of people agreed with me on the thread.
I actually got an entire truckload of 400w warehouse lights for free off of craigslist (30-40 of them) That got me really into lights because there was hps, mh, and others in the load, as well as hps and mh conversion bulbs I got for free.
The entire thread started with something I wrote for myself as I was itemizing strengths and weakness's. I didn't write it for the forums. I posted it because I figured newbies would appreciate information in a review type setting. Everyone doesn't have 1000 to spend on equipment for first grow. I might of spent 150 altogether on my first, it is a hobby for me, not a lifestyle. If I were growing to bank 10k a month, I might feel different. Here is the grow I set up after writing this for myself. Note the big red ballast.
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/364226-my-3rd-grow-room-setup.html
bird mcbride
Well-Known Member
One evening I decided that I was going to make the best rectifier ever built with a perfect DC output. While I was at it I smoked several large gaggers and started changing the circuit and adding parts as I saw fit. When I was all done I plugged it into the wall and tested for DC. 0vdc!?!? This is impossible I thought, there has to be at least 150vdc happening. I almost touched the wire and I thought, oh better not and tested for ac. 450vac!?!? That's impossible I thought!? How can I have ac by sending the ac through a rectifier? Must be the weed so I went to bed. I woke up the next morning thinking that must have been a dream but sure enough it was for real. Digital ballasts use a series of diodes and capacitor to step up the voltage unlike magnetic ballasts that rely on induction and windings of wire to step up the voltage. Of course digi's are more energy efficient because there isn't any primary to feed and the circuit offers very little resistance. Magnetic ballasts short the circuit so electrons are bumped off the primary and accelerated by the secondary coil.