This Hps bulb blows me down

I'll just have to get three hps bulbs from HTG . . . one for the fixture, one on deck, and one in transit from being replaced. Wish I'd have known. Oh well. At least my bulbs should always be brightest.

Some time ago I tried one of those growbrite bulbs in my HTG rig and the first one never fired up so the guy sent me another and the same thing happend. I emailed Tony and he said growbrite is garbage and I should use an HTG bulb and all was well as soon as I started using those.

That's great . . . I was just at HTG and I don't see "their" brand? Is there a secret?
What is HTG's brand? You name names?

High Tech Garden Supply

Ive had good luck with HTG......there in house bulbs are not the best.
A bulb actually exploding or breaking is apparently not common.
I clean all my bulbs with pure alcohol and a clean towel before I screw it in. I also try not to overtighten the bulbs. Tight but not over tight.
I have seen top of line bulbs with construction defects right out of the box on two occasions.
When you get a new bulb inspect it very closely to catch any potential defects.
Hope you get it working again soon.

It's kinda funny. Now I'm finding that the 600W bulbs aren't widely available, like the 400 and 1000's are . . . and are almost always the pricier. Seems I'd have read this important info on RIU somewhere. I mean, I took a LONG time changing over and did a lot of research here, yet had no idea hps bulbs are prone to defects and blowing, nor that I'd bought into the hardest to maintain/most expensive sized bulb.
I'll certainly be advising 400 or 1000 watt hps should anyone ask, like I did before I made this error in judgment.

So, any of you 600 watters care to share where a grower can get a decent bulb in a decent amount of time for a decent price?
Thanks everyone for your replies.

Htg is supposedly notorious for this kind of thing with there bulbs and ballsts, but You never here about when something goes right....

I had a problem when I bought a Growbright ballast bulb, and called them instead of e-mail 3 days later got a new bulb....

Thats the key to call them, they are super bad at e-mails....

Finally heard back Monday a.m. and ended up calling to order 2 more back up bulbs, trying to save on the shipping and have new added to replacement shipment. Not gonna be shipped until tomorrow, which kinda threw me. I'm at least a week away.
$100.

Even though the bulb cost may be higher and they're less common it'll save you money in the long run electric wise.

Depends on the size of your grow and cost of electricity there if 1000 would have been a better choice. I'd choose 1000 here cause we have really cheap electricity so the savings wouldn't matter much.