What halide ballast do you have?

Sunpark, and I'm very happy with it.

 

Ok guys.. I decided to go with the Lumatek 400 Watt dimmable yadayada.

I like the idea of having a good solid 250 watt ballast that will also be good when I do my next upgrade, which never seems to be far away in this hobby.

Will be sure to let you guys know how I like it.

Thanks for all your input.

 

congrats on the new selection.

 

Just be careful with that thing. My buddy has the same one but the first one caught on fire. They warrantied it with no questions asked.

 

I have an old PFO dual 250w ballast. Its great, no problems with it.

I also may be picking up a used PFO 400w complete setup for $60, we'll see! Cant go wrong at that price, even as a spare.

But you guys got me thinking I should replace and change all to Icecap...

 

Cool Touch Lighting.. they are bulletproof.

 

Good choice on the lumatek. Those are very good ballasts with great PAR output and bulb life. Icecaps would be a close-ish second, mainly because they don't offer the flexibility the lumateks do.

I have the old style IC electronic ballasts, the non aluminum extruded case type. These were found used for a good deal, so that is why I have them. Apparently only 1 brand of SE bulb can't be fired with these (radium???). The new style IC can fire any brand.

But if I had to buy new, lumatek would be easily the top choice. My friend switched to them from IC and is very happy with them. he's an electrical engineer, so if he approves of them and they perform as they do, that's more than I need.

vedub, how long ago was that lumatek failure? I have not heard of any other issues with them. The fact they took care of it tells a lot about the company.

 

It was right at the beginning of the year and the ballast was about 4 months old. They said they had a bad batch of them and were taking care of it on a case by case basis. It was hard for them to contact the customers who had them because most people don't fill out those registration cards that come with everything.

 

Lessons learned.... Fill out and return the registration card.
On it.