Hello all,

I bought a ballast from from ebay, and when i was looking at the label i noticed it said hps/mh. I tried looking online for this model but couldn't find it. does anyone know if i can use both types of bulb with this ballast.

Cheers

Looks identical to a maxibright compact ballast, maybe they have the same supplier.I only use mine with sodium as mh seems to expensive for a drop in yield.

I was thinking of maybe running MH for growth and then hps for flowering. I have heard that the plants respond better to mh during veg

Looks like it from that sticker...

Mrm

Exactly what i thought... what the worst that would happen if i plugged on in and it turned out it wasn't meant to be... new ballast/bulb? Potential fire out break? House gone? etc ...

oh and its there much of a difference in veg between mh and hps?

I use a 250mh bulb and ballast for veg then switch to the 600hps when i go 12/12 as a 600mh is quite dear to run 18-24hours a day.

I hope you have something safe to place that ballast upon, cos that thing gets fecking hot, you cant literaly touch it. I had about 8 of these had em only for three weeks, got rid of em all, Know got the future tech ones, much better

I am guessing that requires 2 sets of ballasts?



Yes it gets bloody hot, i have it on a heat proof pad at the moment sitting outside the tent, i had it in their first of all but it sent temps upwards of 31 degrees!!!

So out it came, seems to be doing the trick though

I had mine placed on thin peice of wood (stupid of me) after work when i came home, could smell as is something was burning, went to have a look, the ballasts had scorched the wood,

also these ballasts the side walls get slightly "scorched"/turn slightly brown

yes it does but a 600mh bulb alone costs around 40 sheets and would cost around 40-55ish sheets a month to run 18-24hours.

My heads in a particular place so all I can see when I look at this post title when I view new topics is, Does My Ballast Look Big In This.
Hope that's helped!

Remember u need a contactor when running HID lights on timers, these prevent the surge on startup from frying your timer and home.

Ouch! Fair enough, i was thinking of maybe cfl for the next veg rather then mh/hps due to the heat. But i will get this grow out the way first before i start thinking about it



Absolutely, i feel much better about my ballast now haha!



Wasn't aware of that, is that something simialr toa surge protector or am i miles off.

Thanks for your input so far guys

Hiya mate

You MUST buy a contactor if you are running a HID light. If not you will constantly be blowing timers causing your light not to come and possibly worse!

Here is an example from greens which would work with your light - http://www.greenshorticulture.co.uk/Grow-L...er-10A--888.asp

£33 but it is really a must Im afraid

e2A - Here is a thread about the need of using a contactor with HID lights - http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=54514

Hope this helps mate

Yes can't believe I forgot contactor, very important.

as soon as they're big enough to go in the flower room they're big enough to veg under 600w MH's, vegging to 4 foot wide needs more than a couple of enviro's.

Everyone's grow space is different and mileage will vary accordingly.

had mine for years, still only pulls 679watts, not bad, considering an electronic ballast is around 630w, gets quite hot, but nothing spectactular, just normal running temp for a ballast, the actual running temp of the ballast inside an open cased ballast will be close to the same temperature, you just can't touch it directly obviously being inside a casing.

e2@: and yes you can run both HPS and MH lamps no problems