Bulbs specifically for digital ballast??

My 600 watt hortilux hps bulb burnt out after about 6 months of use.

It is powered by a Quantum 600 watt digital ballast.

I took it to the grow store where I bought my entire setup at, the owner laughed at me like I was some sort of idiot, telling me that I needed a special "digital specific" bulb.

At this point I was really irritated with the pompous store owner, " I bought the entire setup here, you see me 3-4 times a MONTH, and you are just now telling me that I need a "special" bulb for my $190 digital, dimmable ballast??? Give me a normal one for now and order up a new one." i said shortly. Payed for the bulb and walked out.

Anybody have any info on this? I've never seen bulbs marketed as "for digital or magnetic ballasts".

Any help greatly appreciated.

someone told me in the new HighTimes there was an add for a new bulb.But ive been telling people forever about Hortiluxs probs but also that Hortilux knows this and will honor their 1 year warranty no questions asked if where you bought it marks it prpperly,now the only place i know that does this is HTG Supply.

Thanks pilgram, anyone else?

Buy a cheap chinese bulb to match that chinese ballast.

hortilux bulbs are known for this problem. Just by any other manufacturer and you should be fine unless you have an extremely cheap and/or defective ballast. Lumatek, the maker of digital ballasts makes bulbs now that are very bright. Try those.

Hortilux bulbs are made to work in any ballast, you can find the information on their web site under FAQ. I have had the opposite experience when I used a cheap bulb I had bulb failures but since going back to the Hort Eye no issues. Your bulb should be covered for one year! so he should replace it. I would find another dealer.

I run digi 600's and overdrive them to 630 and the bulb runs fine. Had issues with cheap 400's bulbs in degi's kept blowing them, went to hort and no problems. No issues with 1000's.

1) Do HORTILUX lamps work on electronic/digital ballasts?

HORTILUX lamps work equally well as any
competitive brand on electronic ballasts.
Performance really depends on the quality of the
electronic ballast and the ability of the ballast
manufacture to produce consistently good products.
Magnetic, core and coil ballasts are made to conform
to ANSI Standards. ANSI is the American National
Standards Institute that establishes specifications on
how specific HID lamps are to perform electrically.
This designation ensures that all lamp brands work
interchangeably on the ANSI compatible ballasts.
For example, all major brand LU1000 lamps comply
with ANSI S52, and when matched with a ballast
designated ANSI S52, the consumer is assured the
lamp and ballast are matched correctly. All major
lamp brands currently comply with these ANSI
standards, and have for decades.
Most electronic ballasts do not comply with ANSI
ratings. This means that each e.ballast brand can
be different. Compound this with actual variations
in the production runs from the same manufacturer/
brand and you can see why system dependability is
easily compromised. These are clearly NOT lamp
issues but ballast challenges to be improved upon. If
you chose to operate our lamp on a ballast that does
not meet these ANSI specifications, lamp life and
performance MAY be dramatically reduced. Since
the quality of artificial light is paramount to successful
plant photosynthesis and optimum growth, it would
seem ill-advised to compromise lamp performance
in favor of unproven ballast technology.