The best quality for the buck 600w hps electronic ballast out there?

Hi yall, I'm adding a 600W hps to my existing 600w electronic hps. What ballast should I get? I can get a cheap one on Ebay for like $120

I don't know if it matters if its a cheap one, or are not all electronic ballasts created the same?

Common sense tells me to just buy one thats a bargain, it will probably be at least 95% as good as an expensive one.

Any and all input is appreciated!

You get what you pay for matey, buy the best one you can afford..

budhastalin said:

Hi yall, I'm adding a 600W hps to my existing 600w electronic hps. What ballast should I get? I can get a cheap one on Ebay for like $120

I don't know if it matters if its a cheap one, or are not all electronic ballasts created the same?

Common sense tells me to just buy one thats a bargain, it will probably be at least 95% as good as an expensive one.

Any and all input is appreciated!

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Craigslist im allways scoring good deals sometimes you just have to wait

amazon.com

or http://www.amazon.com/Grow-Light-Hydroponic-Reflector-Comparable/dp/B005DOS0R8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338000484&sr=8-1


or better yet
http://www.amazon.com/Grow-Light-hydroponic-Dimmable-Hydrofarm/dp/B006DS3BA4/ref=sr_1_3?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1338000505&sr=1-3

I like the Phantom @ Greentrees Hydroponics (hydroponics.net) or other hydro stores online, maybe ebay.
Greentrees also has package deales w/bulb, ballast & reflector of your choice (ballast would be $160.46).
IMO a bargain!

Thanks for the input folks! I think my final plan is to get a new electronic dimmable ballast and bulb only for $120 (they are probably all made at the same factory anyways) and then grab a couple 6" cooltubes for $125 from HTG's ebay site. So I'll hit the ground running 2 x 600w hps for like 225-235 ish. Then in a couple months I'll upgrade to hortilux bulbs. I hope the 6" cool tubes can in fact keep it cool because my ceiling is only 4.5 feet tall! I figure 1200 watts should be ok to grow 4-6 monsters in a 16-20 sq foot space. I am so psyched to get 2 lights going!

Cheers!

Wow some good deals on Amazon, I can't believe I didn't think to check. I can get the 600w ballast I need for about $100 tHANKS yall

Please come back and tell us about all the problems that you have with the cheapo equipment that you buy. It will help the other newbs learn from your mistakes.

I appreciate the input, I definately will follow up on this thread. If anyone has seen any bad things happen with cheap ballasts, I'd love to hear about it . In reality, you don't always get what you pay for. Take for instance a bottle of Cristal, a new Land Rover, Advanced Nutrients, or a Ferrari. You can almost always get something better or at good as the most expensive for less.

I'm more concerned with value. Is there a really really good one that costs less than the most expensive one? Does anyone have any evidence that one is better than another and why?

Cheers!

Well I got impatient and I found a hundred bucks I forgot about, so I got this one:

http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-Digital-Greenhouse-600-watt-HPS-&-MH-Ballast.asp

Thanks for the frank advise.

I allready have 1 of them and I've had good luck so at least I am familiar with the performance I can expect.

Salud

For that price I would have gone with one of these.

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/phantom-600w-120240-dimmable-digital-ballast-p-3146.html

don't have time to look for it now but if I remember I'll send you the ebay link I got my 6" from, was $72 shipped to africa...

stak said:

For that price I would have gone with one of these.

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/phantom-600w-120240-dimmable-digital-ballast-p-3146.html

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Dang that does indeed look like a legit rig. I'm definately going to spend time shopping that site!

I'd go for quality. You can get a 600w lumatek for ~$170 - http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=600w+lumatek&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=280516005862310661&sa=X&ei=-dvBT5beE8aliQLB6ZXVBw&ved=0CLcBEPMCMAA

I have a cheap ballast and a Lumatek and they both work but the cheap ballast is loud in many ways (fan, outer casing, buzz) and runs much hotter.

I bought mine on ebay, ballast, reflector and bulbs and am on my third grow with the rig still using the same bulbs it came with, with awesome results.. I've had no problems at all and glad I didn't fork out extra $ for a name.

stumpjumper said:

I bought mine on ebay, ballast, reflector and bulbs and am on my third grow with the rig still using the same bulbs it came with, with awesome results.. I've had no problems at all and glad I didn't fork out extra $ for a name.

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I bought my 1000w from ebay as well, I think it was like $150 for ballast light reflector, the only downsides I experienced was loud ballast (buzzing), it also got fairly hot which isn't nice but the results for lighting were good.