Who makes the best MH bulbs?

Hi everyone,

I am going to be buying new bulbs for my 250 wat lights.
Who makes the best bulbs? I have Mogal socket type fixture. I need 10.000k bulbs and have never had to buy them b4. What brand?

Anyone please?


Thanks for your time. Everyone here is so helpful with everything.

 

Well the 'look' of some lights is pretty subjective so it's hard to say what is the 'best.'

That said, I think Ushio is pretty good overall, but there are a lot of choices just find one that pleases your eye and make sure it has a good par rating - kind of the intensity it puts out.

Check these bulb comparisons out:

250w bulb comparison

Bulb colors

 

Thanks again Matt. Even though I dont ask alot of questions here on the forum I am reading all the posts and you certainly have helped me more than once with your input .


Thank You for the links [smiley=thumbs_up.gif]

Jat

 

Make sure your bulb matches your ballast. Bulbs for a probe fired ballast willl not last long in a pulse start for instance.

 

I bought my hood used and it came with a ballast that was black aluminum. It had no cooling fan on iy but had mounts for a fan so I opened the enclosure and put in two fans. Runs almost cold now but I still dont know what kind of ballast it is and what type bulb to get so I found a picture on line of the ballast. Can anyone ID ot and recomend a type to buy? Heres a pic,

http://petsupplyliquidator.com/htm/aparts_miscparts.htm#mp5

Thanks Craig for the heads up!

Jay

 

Jay I hope that these links help
http://www.spectrumsa.com/pulse_start.htm

http://www.businesslights.com/index.php?cPath=194_150&osCsid=64591b9a87e517a09ecdd3cf63c05970

............................................. John

 

Check and see if the ballast type is printed on the bllast label. If not call the manufacturer, Rhat is what I had to do.

 

Jay,
The Ushio 250w 10000k metal halide does NOT require a pulse start ballast. So, if your ballast is not a pulse start this could be a good thing. http://www.ushio.com/files/GL pages65-80.pdf
Go to page 11 or search for the s250aq bulb. Note that there is no asterisk next to the Ballast number (standard m58 ballast)
Good Luck
Jim

 

If I had it to do over again, I would get electronic ballasts for sure.

 

Good points guys. Gotta know your ballast.
Looks like you have a magnetic ballast Jay.
(thanks for the karma by the way!)

A lot of bulbs will work with that.

If you want to know more about ballasts, check out this link on ballasts from the 3reef links page.