Lumatek vs Nextgen ballast

I personally own 4 Nextgen 1000 watt ballasts. They've been running for about 6 months now with no probelms. I also own a 400 / 600 nextgen digital which had to be replaced when one of the fans became as noisy as a shop vac. My local retail store replaced the unit with no hastle at all.

I really like my NextGen Digitals. 4 of them running 220 all power up to full brightness in 1 minute. The fact that you can run 110 / 220 or MH or HPS without any configuration changes makes it so worth it. If you run more than 3 - 4 I would recommend a dedicated power supply from a Hydrofarm 220 Volt ---> 8 X 1000 output.

High Country Caregiver

 

This good info for someone who's still figuring out how to set things up. Any other brands that might work well too? I want to keep my options open as I start to save up for my first setup...

 

Hey TuTone -

From you: I personally own 4 Nextgen 1000 watt ballasts. They've been running for about 6 months now with no probelms. I also own a 400 / 600 nextgen digital which had to be replaced when one of the fans became as noisy as a shop vac. My local retail store replaced the unit with no hastle at all.

sounds like you and I ought to meet someday. We have the same setup. NextGen has been working great for me so far too. After a few crappy experiences with Lumatek, it seems I'm hitting my stride with the NextGen brand...so far.

Let's keep each other updated!

 

uhhhhh I HAVE NO IDEA..just robbing your thread....whats the point of a DIGITAL ballast?...ive seen them,...heard of them....why not just get a cheapo ballast+reflector?...are they just cooler....and start up faster?...shit like that?

 

Digital ballasts CAN run cooler (not all of them do). They start faster, run the lights brighter, are usually more efficient, have better striking distance, etc.

There's some common problems with them so do your homework before you buy one to make sure you know whether that model has a history of trouble, but a good digital ballast is worth the money.

 

Look, cheap might work great for the check book, but it sucks in the long run.

Think about all the stuff you're going to have to fix if you get a cheapo piece of equipment and it fails on you. Plants aren't too patient about waiting for their light, you know.

Growing good canna ain't easy or cheap...

 

yeah but a digital ballast..?...it seems like a normal ballast with cooling would be fine...although ive never had really any experience with high pressure sodiums...and that WOULD indeed suck if all the sudden my HPS dies in the middle of flowering and im broke or something lol.

Anyways...from my point of view
Cheap(er than buying) and seems to be easy..(once you know what your doing)....plus fuck yeahs im growing my favorite plant

EDIT- also...i dont see how a ballast of any sort would actually make a light brighter....but then again i have no idea.

 

Digital ballasts will completely replace your classic ballast eventually. To answer some of your questions vic heres the scoop. theres no real way to cool a ballast. you can vent your room or cool your bulb but ive never seen a classic ballast with built in fans connected to an internal thermostat. this makes a huge difference especially in ambient temps of your room. Also as far as the ballast dying, most digital ballasts carry a 5 year warrant with 3 year replacement, 2 year prorated. this is a rediculously good deal. it guarantees a working ballast for 3 years and some kind of compensation for atleast 5. totally awesome. Also in response to your edit, it does make the bulb brighter. now that most ballasts are remote(the ballast is in one place and cord connects it to the lamp) it does affect brightness of the bulb. As the energy is transmitted through the cord from the ballast to the bulb, as much as 30% of the light intensity can be lost(your 400w is a 275watt). with digital ballasts there is virtually no energy lost no matter how long your cord set is.

To the OP. definately the nextgen. they are only slightly more expensive than the lumatek and heres why. they contain the builtin fans with thermostats. this is a unique feature as far as i know. also they contain a universal plug. they will fit absolutely any cordset you can find. lumateks however do not and you will have to buy an additional dangle($15) to fit your cordset. lumateks also tend to have more problems, atleast tahts what the guy at my hydro store said. hes a pretty straight shooting guy but he says theres lots of returns and malfunction type things. i found reviews to corroborate that. just some tips though. i was hung between the two when i picked my first digital ballast but ultimately went nextgen and absolutely love it.

 

thanks, sounds like i trust your word lol....maybe il check into some nexgen digitals

 

Of course, a more efficient ballast can make a light brighter. There's no such thing as a perfectly efficient electrical device, at least some electric potential will be converted to heat energy.

The reason magnetic ballasts are less efficient is because more electric potential is converted to heat energy as opposed to digital ballasts which in turn gives it a shorter lifecycle. Think of an incandescent bulb vs. a compact fluorescent, the incandescent bulb is only about 20% efficient whereas a compact fluorescent is around 95% efficient. The incandescent bulb burns much hotter than the fluorescent because most of the electric potential is converted to heat energy--this is why their lifecycle is so much shorter.

 

That makes sense, thanks for the explanations..this thread probably just helped me make the right decision.

 

This was a great thread to put up....i was planning to go with a lumatek but now and definetly changing my mind to nextgen....

I was just also wondering if there were anything like a bulb that worked better with the digital ballast like almost a digital bulb....

 

Any HPS bulb will do, they can withstand much higher temperatures than what they are exposed to. When looking at HPS bulbs, it's best to look at lumen output and spectrum. For the best results, you'll want one that is high on the red spectrum(low-kelvins) and emits more UV.(Such as Hortilux)

 

I highly recommend the hortilux SUPER HPS bulbs. i used to be all about finding the cheapest bulbs on ebay til the guy at my hydro shop cut me a deal to try one when i bought my nextgen ballast. The results were incomparable... Hortilux blew the cheapos away. first off the super hps is a multi spectrum bulb and it contains almost as much blue spectrum as a cheap MH bulb. This means that you can use it for veg and flower using only one bulb. i still recommend a separate MH but this last grow i couldnt afford one and used the hps to veg and results were phenomenal. plus they burn at 55000 lumens, which is several thousand more than your average bulb and the spectrum is much more plant specific. even if you dont go with hortilux go with some kind of grow/bloom designed bulb. it will get you better results in the end.

 

Great advice Buddha - thanks for the lesson on this. Lots to consider when you want to be serious about growing canna.

Too many people half a-- it, you know?

How long are those bulbs lasting you?

 

With all of this information, I am now definetly going to delay my project so that I can invest more money in lights

Did some research on the 400w Super HPS and according to the Eye Hortilux website (EYE Hortilux Super HPS) it is suppose to last 24,000 hrs.

 

If you have the money to spend I would definately go with a red spectrum specific HPS, they are much better for the budding cycle than those mixed spectrum bulbs. Go with a MH conversion bulb for vegetative cycle for best results, but if I were to pick between a MH and HPS I'd definitely go with the HPS because it just blows everything out of the water in terms of bud production.

Plants grow perfectly fine under an HPS in veg, you just have to take more precautions in order to keep the stretch down in the early stage(LST or SCRoG work wonderfully). There's also an organic nutrient solution called Flora Nova Bloom by General Hydroponics--Despite it's name, it works great in veg and keeps the stretch to a minimum.

 

not trying to be rude but none of this applies to digital ballasts. digital ballasts can use both hps and mh bulbs so there are no need for conversion lamps. conversion lamps cost lumens so its better to just use the real deal bulbs. i do agree though, use both MH and HPs unless you can afford only one, then i recommend the Super HPS from hortilux. stretch isnt a problem under these lamps(i use these lamps in my grows so check my journal to see how far away my light is and how short those plants are. My light never moves) but if you decide to go with cheaper bulbs then yes check for stretching and i would suggest supplementing with blue cfl's to decrease internode length.