bad luck with Plantmax HPS bulbs

I bought my 600 watt HPS setup in April 2013, and used a Plantmax bulb for 2 years (2 grows)

Purchased another bulb which I used for my 2015 grow, then half way thru my 2016 grow that bulb died so I finished the grow with the older one.

January 2017, I bought another Plantmax bulb and this one died yesterday (with under a 1000 hours of use) ......just going to use the original bulb to finish the last 2 weeks.

I just so happened to be in the grow room when it died.... my first thought was the timer had died, so unplug the ballast but confirmed the timer was okay as were all the electrical connections. So I let everything cool down for 20 minutes and re-plugged in the ballast and the light came on....for about 15 minutes then died again.....haven't tried again.

I believe Plantmax is a decent entry-level bulb, but I'm really disappointed with the last two.....anyone else having concerns with the lifespan of their Plantmax HPS bulbs?

Im not a huge electrical guy but I would guess that at this point its probably not the bulbs. Something is causing your bulbs to take a hard hit from somewhere or your ballast is taking a dump.what kind of ballast anf from who? Electronic ?

some ballasts just dont play nice with certain bulbs I've found. I've got no issue with plantmax or most any bulb, and two years use isnt unheard of, sorry this happened to you. my source will replace a bad bulb with a good one free of charge with a receipt. I did it twice too, with badass? bulbs. I really like them too, but they didnt play nice with my digi's for some reason, both blew out.

Jimmy Sparkle said:

Im not a huge electrical guy but I would guess that at this point its probably not the bulbs. Something is causing your bulbs to take a hard hit from somewhere or your ballast is taking a dump.what kind of ballast anf from who? Electronic ?

Click to expand...

it's a Quantum ballast....and considering the problem is resolved by replacing the bulb tells me it is not the ballast....and BTW I'm a certified electrician

ISK said:

it's a Quantum ballast....and considering the problem is resolved by replacing the bulb tells me it is not the ballast....and BTW I'm a certified electrician

Click to expand...

Had a cheap digital ballast I got for free. 600 watt vio? Hell I cant remember , anyway it would stop igniting the bulbs at random times and fail to re-ignite.... Results [since im not a eletrical guy] fucked plant growth, hermaphroditism, re veg ect. I checked everything!!!! One day I was in there screwing around and the lights went off. So, after all the bulb checking, connections, timer replacement ect. The digiballast was a p.o.s

Plantmax is a cheapo bulb. The old adage that you get what you pay for rings true here. I recently bought 2 MH Plantmax bulbs. A 400W and a 1000W. Haven't had any problems with them but I haven't used them much either. Seem to veg plants OK but their spectrum isn't much better than a standard MH bulb I could get for about $10 cheaper at any electrical supply store.

I was reading an article recently in a 2012 High Times mag about how there are almost no bulbs made that are truly compatible with digital ballasts. Some studies quoted in the article set the failure rate at 4 to 5x higher than with magnetic ballasts. SunPulse bulbs were the exception. I tried searching HT and the web for the article using the same title in the mag and couldn't find it there. The article is titled, The Bulb & Ballast Breakdown by Nico Escondido in the Best of High Times issue, June, 2012. I found an article by the same author about lighting and the various spectrum that may be of interest called, Electric Sunshine: Lighting for Marijuana Grow, Pt 1

All my ballasts are magnetics and I still use a 16 yo EYE Hortilux conversion bulb to get MH light from a 400W ballast. It still vegs just fine and it has thousands of hours on it by now. The ballast is probably 30 years old and doesn't even hum or buzz.

For flowering I prefer higher end bulbs like the EYE Hortilux Super HPS or like what I'm using now with my 1000W MH ballast, an EYE Hortilux Ultra Ace EN 940W conversion bulb tho that bulb cost me big at $170. Hoping I get 16 years out of it.

my ballasts are also digi quantums, they didnt play nice with badass bulbs.

I use my bulbs until my par meter shows a 25% loss compared to new, about once every other year because I'm scared and bought the hype. I've never seen plant loss in veg from ancient bulbs with plenty of loss over the years. my t5's are still lit at 24/7 since 2008 and 3 replaced bulbs of 8 only

I re-tested to confirm....I inserted the questionable bulb into the setup, works great for about 10 minutes then blacks-out

so back to the 4 year old bulb

I run Nanolux OG ballasts 600w only bulbs i ever use are hortilux and solis-tek

Jimmy Sparkle said:

Im not a huge electrical guy but I would guess that at this point its probably not the bulbs. Something is causing your bulbs to take a hard hit from somewhere or your ballast is taking a dump.what kind of ballast anf from who? Electronic ?

Click to expand...

Exactly.....He's got a ballast issue!

ISK said:

it's a Quantum ballast....and considering the problem is resolved by replacing the bulb tells me it is not the ballast....and BTW I'm a certified electrician

Click to expand...

I'm not sure about that yet ISK......I had the same issue and one like it.....It was the ballast spiking the the bulb too hard. Cooked 3 different bulbs in several weeks before I swapped out the ballast with a new one (always have a spare) and low and behold.....No more problems....

Had about the same thing another time, except the bulb would seem less bright.....Metering it said it was down over 50%. Put a new bulb in and a week later i noticed it seemed dull again. Meter said I was right....Swapped ballast's out again - That was it!

I know of Plantmax from the greenhouse industry......Cheap way of lighting a larger area for less money....Never had quality issue with them and still buy them by the case for my home use.....never a problem! I want to give their 1/3 the price dual arc bulbs a shot....

Swap out the ballast and see if that works......Could get costly if it carries over to expensive bulbs!

Dr. Who said:

Exactly.....He's got a ballast issue!



I'm not sure about that yet ISK......I had the same issue and one like it.....It was the ballast spiking the the bulb too hard. Cooked 3 different bulbs in several weeks before I swapped out the ballast with a new one (always have a spare) and low and behold.....No more problems....

Had about the same thing another time, except the bulb would seem less bright.....Metering it said it was down over 50%. Put a new bulb in and a week later i noticed it seemed dull again. Meter said I was right....Swapped ballast's out again - That was it!

I know of Plantmax from the greenhouse industry......Cheap way of lighting a larger area for less money....Never had quality issue with them and still buy them buy the case for my home use.....never a problem! I want to give their 1/3 the price dual arc bulbs a shot....

Swap out the ballast and see if that works......Could get costly if it carries over to expensive bulbs!

Click to expand...

I agree, Some ballasts just can't strike the bulbs properly. Is the connection nipple getting burnt?
(digital ballasts)

just seems strange that the 4 year old bulb works with no issues....now if that old bulb were to black-out, then I would feel very confident it's the ballast

I'll likely buy another Plantmax bulb as that's a cheaper option than another ballast....so I'm hoping it's just an abnormal bulb

Besides, I only have 2 weeks left on my current grow....then it's my 2017 indoor sunshine grow

ISK said:

just seems strange that the 4 year old bulb works with no issues....now if that old bulb were to black-out, then I would feel very confident it's the ballast

I'll likely buy another Plantmax bulb as that's a cheaper option than another ballast....so I'm hoping it's just an abnormal bulb

Besides, I only have 2 weeks left on my current grow....then it's my 2017 indoor sunshine grow

Click to expand...

Does your local hydro shop exchange blown out/damaged bulbs?
Maybe you are getting bad bulbs just from shipment or what be it, It's just weird like you say that EVERY bulb you throw in there blows, but old ones do not. You seem way smarter than a lot of people but.... The bulb box doesn't state not for digital balasts does it? Easy to overlook something like that. Sadly im not an electrician at all really so i don't want to start suggesting things, Don't want to see anyone burn their house down.

If you got the spare change, I'd look into Nanolux. They are on gavita level and quantum level but not nearly as expensive. They're really smart ballasts too, Mine has like oh idk 10-12 features. No RF issues, Comes with a filter to add on to it. Never had issues with any bulbs in it, HPS or MH. Very cool running aswell. Light too

CriticalCheeze said:

Does your local hydro shop exchange blown out/damaged bulbs?
Maybe you are getting bad bulbs just from shipment or what be it, It's just weird like you say that EVERY bulb you throw in there blows, but old ones do not. You seem way smarter than a lot of people but.... The bulb box doesn't state not for digital balasts does it? Easy to overlook something like that. Sadly im not an electrician at all really so i don't want to start suggesting things, Don't want to see anyone burn their house down.

Click to expand...

I currently only have 2 bulbs, only the new bulb blacks-out, the old bulb works fine (I had mentioned a previous bulb that had died, but it flat out died after 2 years, so not overly concerned with that one).

I am going to bring it to my hydro store and get them to test it, if it fails on their ballast then I know it's the bulb, but if it work just fine in the hydro shop, then we have a smoking gun (the ballast)

Sounds like a good plan to me bud. Hope it all goes well. Bulbs and ballasts get expensive...

ISK said:

I currently only have 2 bulbs, only the new bulb blacks-out, the old bulb works fine (I had mentioned a previous bulb that had died, but it flat out died after 2 years, so not overly concerned with that one).

I am going to bring it to my hydro store and get them to test it, if it fails on their ballast then I know it's the bulb, but if it work just fine in the hydro shop, then we have a smoking gun (the ballast)

Click to expand...

Not so fast again.....If your ballast fried the bulb....It won't work on theirs either......if that ballast has begun over powering the rated output value.....It'll keep doing it do more bulbs.....If they can test the output and the initial "spike". Might be good to call and see if they can...

Dr. Who said:

Not so fast again.....If your ballast fried the bulb....It won't work on theirs either......if that ballast has begun over powering the rated output value.....It'll keep doing it do more bulbs.....If they can test the output and the initial "spike". Might be good to call and see if they can...

Click to expand...

agree...the ballast could have damaged the bulb which would fail on any ballast, so it could be the ballast damaging the bulb, but I still question why the 4 year old bulb runs perfectly fine.

I'll likely buy a new bulb and see how that fairs, unless my bulb does runs okay on their ballast, then that would indicate my ballast is in fact the culprit

I brought the faulty bulb to the grow shop, he just said no problem and handed me a free replacement

I asked him to please test the faulty bulb.....so the bulb turns on, within 5 minutes it blacks-out, then we were chatting away and the light comes back on but was flicking like crazy....then blacks-out again.

The brand new bulb has been running for about an hour now, and all look great so far......but time will tell

ISK said:

I brought the faulty bulb to the grow shop, he just said no problem and handed me a free replacement

I asked him to please test the faulty bulb.....so the bulb turns on, within 5 minutes it blacks-out, then we were chatting away and the light comes back on but was flicking like crazy....then blacks-out again.

The brand new bulb has been running for about an hour now, and all look great so far......but time will tell

Click to expand...

Maybe just a shitty filament?