analog or digital timer.. ?!??

hi everyone, i ordered abunch of gear couple weeks ago.. with this gear, i ordered a analog timer upon the hydro sales guy's advice..

Here's the said timer & link to it; http://www.ehydroponics.com/titan-controls-apollo-6.html

Should I send it back and get a digital timer (what I wanted to go with to began with) or just keep it and use it.. ?? Thanks in advance..

use the analog timer. I have a digital timer on one of my grow cabinets and an analog one on the other, I never have a problem with the analog one, but the digital one is a huge pain in the ass to program. The analog ones are idiot proof.

Go with a digital! There not that hard to program, it will have instructions too. Ive had a lot of trouble with the analog timers. Some time they will be half hour to fast or half to slow.

mrboots said:

use the analog timer. I have a digital timer on one of my grow cabinets and an analog one on the other, I never have a problem with the analog one, but the digital one is a huge pain in the ass to program. The analog ones are idiot proof.

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kingi95012 said:

Go with a digital! There not that hard to program, it will have instructions too. Ive had a lot of trouble with the analog timers. Some time they will be half hour to fast or half to slow.

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There you go, problem solved. Thats kind of a problem with getting advice from the internet.

Analog timers are fine and perfect for timing your lights and fans.
Digital timers are great too and work even better if you use a timed watering schedule like top drip recirculating. Anything made by Titan is good gear so you will be fine with whatever.

I have Both Analog and digital, I like My digital more than the Analog, reason being my digital has a back up battery.
So if the power goes out in the Night cycle and comes back on before the day cycle the plants never have a time problem.
if power goes out with the analog your fucked and time gets all fucked up. if you didn't know the power went out.

hahaha... thanks guys.. yea thats what the Hydro guy said "digital timers are hard to program".. I have a Quantum digital/dimmable ballast & thought since I had a digi ballast it'd be a good idea to go with a Digi-Timer.. Hhhmmmm...

I have one of the little cheap timers $9. How do you use with power strip. I tried plugging to wall socket and then attaching strip but would not work that way.

mackey said:

I have one of the little cheap timers $9. How do you use with power strip. I tried plugging to wall socket and then attaching strip but would not work that way.

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Thats why those timers suck ass. They break and sometimes dont work. I have used lots of cheap timers and all of them break or break during use like when your lights are on they just arent worth it by a good timer from the grow store like hydro farm, Titan, etc etc they will last you a really long time.

i dont mind either type .. but the big thing is the contact rating .. most are rated too small for more then a few cfls ..

digi for me. holds memory for power failures to not loose timing settings. and more accurte times to the minuite

and more choices of settings, and some have 2 outlets

Analog all the way. I've had two digital timers in the past. One was a Brinks and I can't remember the brand of the other one. They both went tits up. The Brinks took on a mind of it's own although it was programed correctly. It worked for about 6 months and then just started coming on when it wanted to. It went off at the right time, but came on later and later each day. The other one quit for no apparent reason. Just died all at once.

Analog or digital though, make sure that you're not going to overload it. That'll fry a digital or analog timer in no time.

i have same meter and been fine for 3 years. sometimes equipment was faulty from day 1. there is junk in both styles

I do not know how to wire things so I have 4 of the hanging lights w/ silver round hood, which I took offf. A 300watt cfl and on each of the other 3, I have splitters w/ 2 23 watt soft white 2700 k and 1 23 watt daylight. Is that too much for the better timers?

And thanks guys for your replys.

First grow even though been smoking 40 years. Only have 3 plants right now but they are beautiful 20inch. really to enter flowering stage.

no. cfl have hardly any amp load so its fine. look at amps and wattages on the meter and your lights or whatever you add to a timer. cfl are usuly just in milliamps takes alot to make anything blow with cfl

Thanks guys.. I decided to keep the Analog Timer I have & skip the digi timer..

The digital timers have problems if you use cfl's with them. If the digital doesn;t have a battery in it, it will stop working if power goes out, analog won't.

analog keeps goin when its plugged into a power source and power goes out????...how/ it looses it times analog dont work without power to. at least any ive seen in the stores do. and have yet to see any ill effect on any form of timer with cfl...can you explain what it does and how a timer with no pwer and backup bat can work if they need power to run