Hey Growheads! I have a question to pose to those who know more than I. Now, I'd never do this personally BUT I'm getting ahead of myself . . . I sold a guy an old ballast, reflector and bulb for $100 -- 1000 watt HPS. I get an email from him, he's a friend of mine, and he says that the ballast and bulb died. I figured that a thunderstorm came through a few nights back and a surge killed it -- I'm bummed as he's a pal (we share smoke and clones and stuff). I spoke to him on the phone today and he said that the bulb didn't spark up when he set it up, SO he put a metal halide in it and it ran for awhile and the ballast up and died. Now I know what you're all thinking, I thought it too -- why would anyone ever try it if he/she wasn't trying to blowup their gear. However, he says that he's done it forever and his son does it too -- run both types of tubes (mh and hps) on the same ballast. I know that some ballasts are set up for it -- some switch manually and some auto, just like most will run either 120 or 240 volt -- I run two CAP NextGen 1000s right now and they switch auto, BUT THE QUESTION IS MY FINE FRIENDS, will running an HPS ballast with a MH bulb kill the ballast? At the very least it can't be good for it. I'm really surprised that it even fired up. I personally wouldn't ever even think of it. I bought a HPS to MH conversion bulb when I was using that very same ballast. So, you guys are the jury -- what is the verdict???
I am pretty sure if you put a MH bulb that is not a conversion bulb into a hps ballast that is not switchable it is very likely that you will fry the ballast.I am not a proffesional electrician but I do know a thing or two about the subject.
the voltage is different betweeen mh ballast and hps ballasts i heard. apparently uness the ballast company used some voltage reducer a mh/hps ballast isnt a good idea.
I have opposite setup-one of my ballasts is for MH bulb 250w and it runs 250watts HPS bulb with no problem,already 1 mounts .
That's not possible... UNLESS your ballast is switchable! I've done A LOT of research on this and had the same dilemma... MH Bulbs WILL work off the HPS ballast but not vice versa! An HPS ballast requires a capacitor and a MH does not - therefore the HPS Bulb cannot light or stay lit due to this lack of part.... In return, the only thing you can F up by hooking a MH bulb to an HPS ballast is THE BULB! Reason being, because the HPS ballast has an extra tap in the transformer. This is to develop a higher voltage for the "igniter" (capacitor) in order to get the HPS going! AGAIN, you CAN run the MH bulb on the HPS!! NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND! **IT SHOULD BE NOTED TO NOT USE A HIGHER WATT BALLAST THAN BULB!! THAT EQUALS IMMEDIATE DISASTER! FAIR WARNING! TRY TO MATCH UP WATTAGES, REGARDLESS WHAT BULB IN THE HPS BALLAST (HPS OR MH)! IF ANYTHING GET A HIGHER WATTAGE BULB... YOU WON'T GET ALL YOU CAN GET OUT OF THE SAID BULB(S) BUT YOUR PLANT(S) WON'T GET A "GLASS SHOWER"! LOL... BEST BET IS TO JUST MATCH YOUR DAMN BULB/BALLAST WATTAGES!