I woke up this morning to NO lights!

[Sr. Verde]

So I'm running a 250w MH in a tent. I woke up this morning, and the fans were running, but there was no light!

I tried to shut the system down, and start it again. The MH would flicker, then die. No light emmitted, I tried starting a few times and the MH just wouldn't start! only flicker!

So thank god I have my Hortilux 250w Super HPS ready. I plugged that in, and it works.

You guys think it was just a bad bulb, or should I worry about my Hortilux dying soon too? The most bullshit part is that it's sunday, so I can't go get a new MH bulb til monday



Thoughts/Experiences guys? I'm putting this out there because this was a bit of a scare this morning, and I'm HOPING it's not the E-Ballast, or hood!



Someone tell me it's just a bad $30 bulb, and not an issue with the $1,000 setup I haven't been using for more than 16 days. Please!

 

[two2brains]

probably the bulb. Had a dual arc 600w bulb that lasted less than 3 hours lol

 

[Sr. Verde]

Yeah man I'm new to HIDs... Some times you just get bulbs that don't work, or break after a few weeks or what?

The bulb that stopped working was a generic General Electric Metal Halide... which is why I'm thinking go with brand name hortilux so this shit doesn't happen again.. I'm absent mindedly checking my tent to make sure the lights on every 15 mins

 

[kevin]

i just went through the same thing with my 2 year old 1000hps. bought a $100 bulb that i didn't need. the ballast was bad and i couldn't find parts locally so i ended up buying a new one. it ended up being the starter/ignitor. so now i've got an extra bulb and ballast in case of break downs. good luck with your set up.

 

[Sr. Verde]

Shit kevin. How are you supposed to identify where the problem is?

I'm using a galaxy e-ballast

All this stuff is brand new, I still have the receipts.

 

[racerboy71]

see sr verde, your problem lies with the e ballast.. i've been doing a lot of reading on them as i have one as well.. they fire at a much higher voltage i want to say than regular old skool mag ballasts, and this is what causes the problems with bulbs burning out early... its a big problem that a lot of people are experiencing with the new e ballasts.. i have an e ballast myself, thats why i have been looking into this.. i have yet to have any issues with any bulbs with mine, but i've only been running mine for around two months or so..
they do make a couple of bulbs that are made just for the e ballasts.. i've been thinking of getting one of them, but like i said i haven't had an issue with my eye hortilux yet, so i haven't broke down and bought one yet.. digilux is one company that makes bulbs specifically for e ballasts as does a couple of others..

 

[smokebros]

uh oh spaghetti oh's

 

[Luger187]

a few weeks ago, i also woke up to no lights. luckily it was the new timer that failed, not the light. i just started using it the night before and it failed on me! POS....

 

[Sr. Verde]

see sr verde, your problem lies with the e ballast.. i've been doing a lot of reading on them as i have one as well.. they fire at a much higher voltage i want to say than regular old skool mag ballasts, and this is what causes the problems with bulbs burning out early... its a big problem that a lot of people are experiencing with the new e ballasts.. i have an e ballast myself, thats why i have been looking into this.. i have yet to have any issues with any bulbs with mine, but i've only been running mine for around two months or so..
they do make a couple of bulbs that are made just for the e ballasts.. i've been thinking of getting one of them, but like i said i haven't had an issue with my eye hortilux yet, so i haven't broke down and bought one yet.. digilux is one company that makes bulbs specifically for e ballasts as does a couple of others..

Damn, that's not cool. As long as I have the box and receipt I can take it back though, same thing with the bulbs..

The Hortilux super HPS is doing well for now... do you think I should just go for a hortilux MH like they have at the store, think that would be better than the GE?

I mean the GE is way cheap, so probably mass produced... I'm thinking the likely hood of getting a faulty bulb is higher when buying cheap?

I don't know... all I read is that bulbs when dying can just be really low light or barely start up..

I'll come back with pics in a sec of the bulb

uh oh spaghetti oh's

damn straight

 

[Sr. Verde]

does this look burned out? Looks black to me If it burned out, then it would be the bulb, and not the ballast, right? I have it all plugged into a surge protector

But hey, looks like they like it.. tops are growing now

 

[Irollfatties]

A lot of people use HPS during veg to. More lumens. I would buy a cheap bulb at lowes( i know they have 400 but not sure on 250 though) and plug it in and check to see if it works, then return it after the test is done.

if its trying to ignite, i would guess ballast over bulb. When bulbs go, they go.......Usually

 

[Sr. Verde]

I can see that logic.


And I know people use HPS during veg, but I wanted to use MH for veg as that does the best foliage.. like I spent this much might as well do the bulbs right, you know?

I have the receipt for the bulb, so i was going to take it back to the hydro store, and try to get them to charge me for the difference on a hortilux..

But now I'm reallllly thinking it might be the ballast with what you said



The hortilx. Super HPS working fine for now though. I had to start it up to see if it was working, then shut it down a little later to put the glass panel back in. It's been running for like 4 hours now..


However, the HPS fired up fine, twice. It DID start as a blue color though, then eventually flickered into the red/yellow color. I've never seen an HPS start up, is it normal to start up blueish? Again Hortilux Super HPS

 

[Irollfatties]

I believe so. I have no experience with Hortilux bulbs and to be honest i never pay attention when the bulbs turn on. I'm still running cheap GE's (i believe). I haven't looked at the bulbs in a while. I grew awhile back, 6 yrs ago to be exact and i can't remember how long i used the bulbs so i'm giving one more season, then i will buy a couple new hortilux bulbs. At the moment. I'm using a two 400mh ballast with 360hps conversion bulbs.

 

[ENDLSCYCLE]

Hortilux Blue.....you can't go wrong......I have a 1000w galaxy and it ran my Hort. Blue no prob...don't skimp on your bulbs....It's your only sun

 

[cmt1984]

we use 1000w mh shop lights in our shop...just before the bulbs go bad and need to get changed, they start to flicker and click. get a new bulb, you should be good to go.

someone up there said something about the ballast firing to hot....that would definitely decrease the bulbs life....if you get another bulb and that one goes out quick too, then i would get a new ballast.

 

[Sr. Verde]

This is why I love rollitup.org

Hortilux Blue.....you can't go wrong......I have a 1000w galaxy and it ran my Hort. Blue no prob...don't skimp on your bulbs....It's your only sun

Yeah man I'm finding that out now! At first I thought bulbs would be mostly the same, but now I'm starting to think about how they are manufactured, and the quality control associated with the 'generic' and the 'top of the line'.

I'm TOTALLY going with the hortilux blue I'm very impressed with the super HPS. It's great that your running the same brand ballast as me also, with no problems. Very reassuring.

we use 1000w mh shop lights in our shop...just before the bulbs go bad and need to get changed, they start to flicker and click. get a new bulb, you should be good to go.

someone up there said something about the ballast firing to hot....that would definitely decrease the bulbs life....if you get another bulb and that one goes out quick too, then i would get a new ballast.

Yes! Exactly what I was looking for. Bad bulbs flickering and not starting.

Good info about decreasing the life. Thankfully I got all this shit from the same store, and I have all the receipts.

I'm going in tomorrow, and returning the GE metal halide, and asking to pay the difference for a hortilux mh blue. Rather than get a replacement GE.

If the replaced bulb blows, then I will go in, and tell them the ballast they sold me is faulty, and burning out the bulbs they're giving me. I will then ask for a new ballast & bulbs


Don't throw out receipts folks. I still got my boxes too, in case of an event such as this!

 

[cmt1984]

well i hope it all works out for you...in my experience, hydro shops are always willing to wheel and deal to make the customer come back for more.

Don't throw out receipts folks. I still got my boxes too, in case of an event such as this!

best advice i've heard in a while. i have a few shelves in the basement packed with boxes from shit i've bought, i keep all the receipts in the boxes as well.

 

[Sr. Verde]

well i hope it all works out for you...in my experience, hydro shops are always willing to wheel and deal to make the customer come back for more.


best advice i've heard in a while. i have a few shelves in the basement packed with boxes from shit i've bought, i keep all the receipts in the boxes as well.

Thats for sure on the first part. There's a hydro store down the street, I had to get a tent there. They were nice people. If these guys don't help me, I'm going to tell them politely I'm sorry I spent a thousand dollars at their shop & that I will take all my future purchases to the shop down the road

 

[cmt1984]

lol yup, ive used that line a few times before...it usually gets them to work with ya.

 

[Sr. Verde]

For sure. It has definitely been less than a month since I purchased this equip.

Thanks for the help guys.