What Ballasts Are These?

Edit: Sorry this is in the wrong section, noobed it up real good...

Sup RIU,

I've been looking for lights on Craigslist for my first grow and I found this girl selling two hoods, two 1000w lamps, and two (apparently) 1000w ballasts. I asked what brand the ballasts were and she told me that one was a Sunmaster and the other was without a label and she didn't know. There is a picture of them however, so I'm calling upon your forensic analysis skills here.

Here's the pic:





Any clue what ballasts these are? I can only really make use of one right now for the record.

Thanks for looking, rock on!

Umm yea wrong forum section man

old magnetic ballasts, not very efficient. Also used from Craigslist? I wouldn't do that to my house. Running 1000w of power through a used older tech ballast is fucking scary especially if you're not home all the time while it's running. This is how people burn their houses down.

hoss12781 said:

old magnetic ballasts, not very efficient. Also used from Craigslist? I wouldn't do that to my house. Running 1000w of power through a used older tech ballast is fucking scary especially if you're not home all the time while it's running. This is how people burn their houses down.

Click to expand...

Yeah, with a little more research, I agree entirely. Thanks

I have a ballast that looks just like the one on the right. Definitely old, got it out of a school gymnasium, 175w MH. so far its workin great. I had it running 24hrs for like 2 1/2 months straight, now its goin on a 12/12 schedule starting tomorrow night... also have 2 100w HPS runing right next to it, tho not as old, just as gerry rigged....

I have an old magnetic ballast, ... the guy at the hydrostore made it for me a couple years back... what makes them catch fire? I have always been kinda worry about it, .. but at the same time I started to invest in LEDs so I didnt want to buy a digital ballast. I am hoping that I get good results with my LEDs so next time around I will use only one of the 2 400s, and next year stricktly LEDs ... assuming they work for me.

I honestly don't know exactly what causes this but it can and does happen. I had a new 400w digital ballast from GYO (cheap Chinese crap), paid close to $100 for it with a air cooled tube new HPS and MH bulbs. After I switched to led I sold it to a friend and it nearly burnt his place down. I didn't see it but he said that it had been running really hot for a couple days, he later went down to his grow room and saw the bulb wasn't firing and the ballast was broiling hot to the touch. Could have been a short but the morel of the story is - whatever you grow with HID, CFL, LED whatever spend a couple more dollars and get a good brand with a warranty. The GYO wasn't more than 6 months old when it failed and considering it burnt his hand when he picked it up after it failed I'm guessing if he hadn't been home to catch this things could have gone in an entirely different far worse direction. I would have felt super shitty if I sold my buddy a grow lamp that cooked his house.