Metal Halide Ballast

[brick-brothers]

2 of my luxcore 400w ballast died. My question is, is there a difference between luxcore/ icecap ballast vs the cheaper 400w ballast thats for sale on Amazon? What's makes them different?

 

[Peace River]

2 of my luxcore 400w ballast died. My question is, is there a difference between luxcore/ icecap ballast vs the cheaper 400w ballast thats for sale on Amazon? What's makes them different?

Let's see if we can get some help...

@Bpb @Vette67

 

[Vette67]

Are you driving double end or single end bulbs? The double end bulbs need more power to drive them, using the HQI setting. I definitely wouldn’t try to run a double ended bulb on a generic ballast. The bulb may not even fire, without the pulse start.

I personally just changed my electronic ballasts out for magnetic ballasts because of their ability to overdrive double ended bulbs. I may lose a little in efficiency, but I’m getting the most out of the bulbs this way. If you have double end bulbs, I would get the ice cap. It’s most comparable to the luxcore ballast. But the M59 magnetic ballast may drive the DE bulbs better than the ice cap.

So I guess it depends on what bulbs you have. The generic ballast will probably work on a mogul base bulb. I wouldn’t even attempt a generic ballast on a double end bulb. @jda probably knows more about these ballast / bulb combos than me and can probably explain things better.

 

[jda]

For standard 400w, then nearly all of them are the same. Look at Hydroponics ballasts - usually cheaper and are high quality.

If for some reason you are using 400w HQI with ballasts from PFO, then let us know since this is an ENTIRELY different animal.

 

[brick-brothers]

Are you driving double end or single end bulbs? The double end bulbs need more power to drive them, using the HQI setting. I definitely wouldn’t try to run a double ended bulb on a generic ballast. The bulb may not even fire, without the pulse start.

I personally just changed my electronic ballasts out for magnetic ballasts because of their ability to overdrive double ended bulbs. I may lose a little in efficiency, but I’m getting the most out of the bulbs this way. If you have double end bulbs, I would get the ice cap. It’s most comparable to the luxcore ballast. But the M59 magnetic ballast may drive the DE bulbs better than the ice cap.

So I guess it depends on what bulbs you have. The generic ballast will probably work on a mogul base bulb. I wouldn’t even attempt a generic ballast on a double end bulb. @jda probably knows more about these ballast / bulb combos than me and can probably explain things better.

I'm using 400w single ended bulbs

 

[brick-brothers]

For standard 400w, then nearly all of them are the same. Look at Hydroponics ballasts - usually cheaper and are high quality.

If for some reason you are using 400w HQI with ballasts from PFO, then let us know since this is an ENTIRELY different animal.

Ok thanks