Beware of the apollo 1000hps...2 blowed in a month

recently i purchased apollo 1000watt ballast and 1000 watt mh bulb and 1000 watt hps..while the mh done excellent and hasnt had one prob nut when i switched to flower cycle my hps blowed 3 weeks in ...THEN i get replaced by amazon thinkin packin was rough and maybe had hairline crack when i got it...NOPE 2 ND ONE DID SAME THING I WATCHED IT BLOW I HEARD SOMETHING FUNNY CAUSE IT HAD JUS CAME ON BY TIMER THOUGHT IT WAS JUS WARMING WHEN BOOM POW TINK AND IT WENT DARK ...BACK TO MH FOR NOW WAITIN ON ANOTHER TO BE SHIPPED BUT IMO NO APOLLO HPS FROM NOW ON...DOES ANYONE HAVE A SUGGESTION FOR A HIGHER QUALITY BUT AFFORDABLE 1000WATT HPS BULB LEME KNO...DEUCES YALL

Check out plantlightinghydroponics.com

I'm about to buy a lumatek or galaxy off the web and looked at plantlightinghydroponics... but a quick google turned up quite a bit of shitty reviews. They are cheap, but shipping is expensive. Kinda just looking at ebay at this point... had bad luck with htgsupply being 1. expensive, 2. the mogul cord was hard wired into the ballast, and 3. the 150w hps lamp blew in 2 days and I didn't feel like the hassle of sending it back.

I had the opportunity to pick up a 600w apollo with only a few hours on it like new for cheap and passed. I'd rather just put that money towards something else than sketchy electrical equipment.

I just realized you're talking about a light bulb... I'm stoned.

The phantom ballasts are great.

I replaced a welthink 1kw digital ballast due to rfi and interfering with the neighborhood cable (apollo I hear the same thing about, not rf shielded or not shielded well), I replaced it with a phantom . The phantoms have very low failure rate but for some reason the one I bought failed at under 2 months use.
I sent it back and decided not to get another phantom and got a solis tek matrix instead, I won't be looking back.
The matrix is advertised as having a very low thd rating and is rf shielded very well. Where the phantom in specs may keep up with the matrix the matrix has more bells and whistles and really doesn't cost that much more than a phantom.
Oh he is talking about a lamp, I must be stoned too.
Hortilux all the way, it won't seem affordable though.

I really like Apollo..no issues here

be glad it did not set your place on fire !, also I had the same problem with thebadboy ballast, the real problem was the hood had a short in the reflecter

When I upgraded to HID I just went on amazon and bought the cheapest MH/HPS multi setup. This one right here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003810CVA/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And now 3 years later after being dropped, left in my garage for a year and being used on a couple grows it still works 100%. I do have a Hortilux bulb in it though.

Maybe your ballast is MH only?

dawgfather said:

Maybe your ballast is MH only?

Click to expand...

Apollo ballasts are digital. Can switch to either.

Had the same thing happen, two bulbs, MH and HPS. Purple 1000 watt digital Apollo. I bought it from psych frog fish, when questioned he called me right away. Sent me a new one within days. Apparently, there is a problem that they know about with the ballasts, they said the new batch was fine. I have been running the new Apollo ever since with no issues. And yes, the weird thing was is it ran for three weeks with no issues. Call the seller and see if they will take it back.

okay to all the replies thanks for real...needed info on what to get if i upgraded and that im not the only one who has had trouble with an apollo setup..but does anyone know if when the ballast goes bad if it starts brightening and dimming on highest setting...had to turn mine back to 75% to operate till amazon gets new one here but if ur gettin stuff for apollo i recommend amazon cause they replaced the whole light kit price and had me another ballast overnigfhted supposed to be here tomm...and b4 knew it was ballast they replaced 3 bulbs awesome freakin service

Lowballer don't f around.....not that I advocate Apollo or amazon.or him for that matter..but same dude is on eBay as well. Hes Known for great customer service

Yeah but lowballer wasnt who handled it amazon did...although 12 hrs after amazon handled the issue i finally got email back from lowballer sayin we see amazon has already resolved issue so yes they did respond within 24 hrs but imo amazons customer service is why i shop there..my ballast is out for delivery now.....so 36 hrs after mine starts goin downhill amazon has one here i dare to say low baller it wouldve been monday or tues

I'm just glad your all taken care of. I have a definate bias towards amazon and Apollo, love both for many reasons

yeah i got all kinds of goodies on the way..new dwc bucket new advance nutrient flush...and new hps bulb so back to 100% at 11 pm est for the grls....11 days left for the blue dream round 4 weeks on buddha cheese...THANX EVERBODY