Timer Trouble?

Hey guys,
hoping somebody can help me with this one. I've fried 2 timers with my current setup, and was looking for answers. I have my ballast wired to a universal outlet , and then my 400 watt HID is plugged into the outlet. Now, first I tried one of the twist-dial timers(pretty basic setup) . The timer works when the light is off, but NOT when its on. I think I fried it, so I got another -Sylvania SA 130 digital light timer- Input 120V 1800W 15Amp max total. Am I blowing the b/c amps are maxed out? How else do you guys wire them so they afren't overloaded from ballast? Certain model? Help!!!

use the timer ONLY to control a relay (ebay "ice cube relay")
use the relay to control the ballast
industrial timers may last longer than the plastic ones, digital (with a battery backup) are better yet
if you have power outages, you will want an "on delay" timer to let the bulbs cool before restarting (some ballasts have this restart feature built-in)

more reliability = + $

damn, one more thing i need to worry about.. this shit is a full-time job!