630W DE CMH - Anyone running these?

blazeaglory420

blazeaglory420

Well-Known Member
Lucky Luke said:
Yes the lamp has been designed to work on a HPS Ballast but the Ballast is not designed to run a CMH lamp efficiently.

Its a nice experiment that You and Renfro are doing (and Renfro is a nice grower) but its a hard ask wanting to make a HPS Ballast run anything better than a HPS. And it so far shows that that's the case. This is the first thread I've seen on running these lamps so its interesting the differences that we are seeing. Good square wave ballasts are expensive so I could see a huge market if they could get a CMH lamp to run nearly as good on a Hi Freq ballast
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Well we'll see. If I can keep my temps down, I might just stick with my 600w HPS and sell the CMH bulb, so keep an eye out for a cheap CMH that can supposedly run in a high freq ballast haha

Really, I'm happy with HPS results by far. I've had buds longer and thicker than Pringles cans and round as 2 liter bottle with HPS, so not really needing a change other than for lower heat.

I buy things I think I need, then realize after trying to make them work in my area, that I really needed something different. For instance, I bought a nice 2'x2'x53" grow tent. Its made fairly well although a little on the thin side but no light leaks. I didn't think I could fit anything longer in my closet. Well I can, so now I'm getting a 3'x 2'x53" tent, or another "2 in 1" style . Anyways, point I'm getting at is, not everything I find fits in how I expected, so I'll be reselling a brand new grow tent, never used, and possibly a 630w CMH bulb. I've currently got slightly used 240v Gavita type ballast up on eBay, no hood, ballast and 1000w bulb only. Check back for the grow tent soon, with box and everything. Only opened to setup and verify function.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/183853251641
 
blazeaglory420

blazeaglory420

Well-Known Member
F*ck, this entire thing has me stressed out. If we could cool these DE bulbs with forced air things would be so much easier.

At this point, I'm going to run it in an open hood designed to allow the heat to escape the sides and rise. I'll try putting the ducting end or inline filter right on top of the hood (or close enough) and see how it drops temps, if any. Fingers crossed it doesn't explode. If it does, ill be running the 12/12 from 6pm to 6am, so ill be home just in case. If successful, ill change out the bulb for a DE HPS and see if anything changes in yield or quality

Anyways, didn't mean to thread jack, I'm just "venting" so to speak
 
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AlaskaRob

Well-Known Member
welshsmoker said:
HI alaska, I move my plants one place per day, no hotspots at all, and they are in 40Lt pots and maximum 2 foot when finished. Just using a cheap dutch wing reflector. Don't get that problem.
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My plants were about 5' tall and height space started to become a problem.
 
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AlaskaRob

Well-Known Member
digging said:
What heights off the canopy are people running their 630 watt DE cmh lights ?
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I ran mine 24-30 inches above the canopy. Hardest part was the hot spot the hood created so I had to keep them around 28 inches above until I cut the side seams out of frustration and opened it up to look like a gull wing cheap reflector. It got rid of the hotspot fast and I was able to lower the light to 24 inches from the canopy. Would've done better with 4 plants, but I pushed it too far with 6. Ended up with 2 plants with spindly stems that couldn't support the weight of the buds, and I had to tie everything on those 2 up to the ceiling.
But, for my first grow to pull nearly a pound from a 630w and it is fairly impressive buds.....im very happy.
 
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Apalchen

Well-Known Member
The acde hood is about the best air cooled de hood I've seen but it's pricey. I have some knock offs that I got at a grow store that are built like the acde but I've yet to see them for sale on line anywhere. They were about half the price of the acde but Im not sure if they spread the light as well as I've heard those acde have same spread has the blockbuster hoods which is one the better hoods.

Here is a link to the square wave cmh ballast I got and it works goods, regardless of what growers choice says they originally made these bulbs for square wave fixtures the problem was they were getting too many returns because some of the complete fixtures wouldn't fire new out of the box. As far as I know this ballast doesn't have that issue and mine has been fine for over a year.

https://www.amazon.com/Growers-Horticultural-Lighting-Ceramic-Ballast/dp/B073PNRKFC/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=growers+choice+630+ballast&qid=1561144452&s=gateway&sr=8-3
 
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Apalchen

Well-Known Member
Also if they are cooler than hps it's not much at least not in air cooled hoods. At least it didn't seem that way the back of my hand def felt warmer under the de 630 than the se 600s. And plants burned easier under it, that could be because like I said they werent real name brand acde hoods just a knock off with the same design as far as air not hitting the bulb.
 
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AlaskaRob

Well-Known Member
That's the light I have. It works great, and I can use one or both 315w bulbs with this. The hot spot under the focused hood was easily fixed by cutting the weekend spreading the hood open. I didn't realize until near the end of my first run that the ballast can be disconnected from the hood and run remotely! I'm doing that for next run. Damn I learned so much so quickly! Next run is going to be amazing
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Are the DE CMH bulbs like the DE HPS bulbs when it comes to air cooling? Something about it cooling the arc and changing the spectrum?
 
blazeaglory420

blazeaglory420

Well-Known Member
Renfro said:
Are the DE CMH bulbs like the DE HPS bulbs when it comes to air cooling? Something about it cooling the arc and changing the spectrum?
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Yeah. They need to be at a certain temp to run properly, hence the special air cooled reflector that acts more like a heatsink, pulling air over the top of the hood, as opposed to across the bulb itself
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
GoBrah said:
i was think about runs a CMH and HPS in the one hood with 1 ballast. like drive a 400WCMH and a 600W HPS with a 1000W ballast
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Tell me more about this idea? Is it something you guys are making? Would it work? Would the two spectrums blend well or be sorta half and half?
 
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GoBrah

Active Member
Renfro said:
Tell me more about this idea? Is it something you guys are making? Would it work? Would the two spectrums blend well or be sorta half and half?
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the CMH400WSE samples will be ready in a week, we will see how it performs. I think you can hang this CMH400W vertically between rows. About the blended spectrum there are two ways 1. changing the CMH spectrum (in progress) 2. mix two lights in one fixture, some brands have done this, but we will try to use one ballast instead of two, i was told this could be done. will contact ballast maker to see if they are willing to push forward.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
GoBrah said:
the CMH400WSE samples will be ready in a week, we will see how it performs. I think you can hang this CMH400W vertically between rows. About the blended spectrum there are two ways 1. changing the CMH spectrum (in progress) 2. mix two lights in one fixture, some brands have done this, but we will try to use one ballast instead of two, i was told this could be done. will contact ballast maker to see if they are willing to push forward.
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I would be very interested in trying some of the cmh400wse bulbs, I have 6 lights in each room that can run that provided the bulb will operate in a base up position.

I set that light I am running the cmh1000wde in to 750 watts and it did strike an arc the next day.
 
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GoBrah

Active Member
Renfro said:
I would be very interested in trying some of the cmh400wse bulbs, I have 6 lights in each room that can run that provided the bulb will operate in a base up position.

I set that light I am running the cmh1000wde in to 750 watts and it did strike an arc the next day.
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what ballast you have for those 400Ws?
 
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