Ive been reading a lot lately, and im looking at digital ballasts, and from what i understand the main and only problem with them is that they all run at high frequency that the bulbs were never made to use, which causes issues. So why is it that everyone recommends lumatek, who outright claim to have THE highest frequency ballast on the market like that is a good thing.. The only ballast ive been able to find with low frequency is the badass ballast by advanced nutrients, which im sure is a good ballast, but what really is THE BEST BALLAST?!
If I were gonna buy a new digital ballast today I would most likely get a Phantom digital ballast. As for bulbs I just buy the cheap ones. Regarding which brand is best is more or less gonna be personal opinions from either owning a certain brand or knowing someone who does. I dont think I would get a Lumatek, read a few post here where several different people had problems with theres within the first month and were having problems with the company honoring the warranty and secondly I talked to a hydro shop owner that I get most of my supplies at and he quit carrying Lumatek due to the same reasons. He said that in a few months he had a bunch returned to the store that quit working within 30 days and was also having problems with Lumatek regarding warranty replacements.
I have a Baddass and I've had several other brands. The other brands I'd say are pretty much all the same. I never saw any real difference between them. They all use the same old tech. The Baddass is different. It's better. The low-frequency is good to have, it means you can use any bulb without worrying about it getting cut short by internal vibrations screwing up the bulbs (like you often see with digital ballasts.) But what really kicks ass IMHO is the square wave tech. A sawtooth or sine wave output is like a rollercoaster. Your bulbs are only getting full voltage at the very top and bottom of the peaks, and it doesn't spend very much time at the top or the bottom. Most of the time the voltage is moving up or down. Square-wave means that virtually all the time is at max output. It jumps from max positive to max negative almost instantly. So for the same power you're getting a hell of a lot more output. I can really see a big difference in brightness in the bulbs. It's significant. More light, same power, good bulb life, there's literally no downside.
I spent few month of researching, comparing and reading about different components of the indoor grow set up ,including ballasts. At the end I ended up with the dilemma.I liked both :NextGen and Lumatek but end up getting Lumatek - No moving parts. So far so good , I have it for about a year . Here is the link you might find helpful when shopping for ballast and reflector:Ballast & Reflector/Hood Compatibility Chart