315 cmh vs led

hillbill said:

Got my first official “grow light” from HTG, 250 HPS

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Same here. It was one of those 400 watt CMH retro lamps that worked in HPS fixtures.

TheRiddleOfSteel said:

UPDATE: HTGsupply is sending me a new bulb to replace the used one.

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And another update, the 'new' light that HTG Supply sent me as a replacement was covered in hairs, dust, and had marks on the bulb. It is obviously used.

TheRiddleOfSteel said:

And another update, the 'new' light that HTG Supply sent me as a replacement was covered in hairs, dust, and had marks on the bulb. It is obviously used.

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Shady AF

GrownAtHighAltitude said:

Same here. It was one of those 400 watt CMH retro lamps that worked in HPS fixtures.

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I'll take those 330w retrofit CMH or color master 360 CDM bulbs that fit in regular old magnetic HPS and MH 400w ballasts any day over current LED tech or the newer digital square wave 315 ballasts/fixtures.

You can still find box loads of those retrofit bulbs on ebay for cheap. They still got the bigger 860w for 1000w ballasts too. Get em while you can before they're all gone forever! Analog CMH is king of the HIDs!

It’s chilly outside so I have an old Philips 250 CMH 4000k keeping my Boards company for a couple months. Spectrum runs into UVA and IF. Used these and the 400 watt for years about 15 years ago. Plants always looked like they loved em.

Drop That Sound said:

I'll take those 330w retrofit CMH or color master 360 CDM bulbs that fit in regular old magnetic HPS and MH 400w ballasts any day over current LED tech or the newer digital square wave 315 ballasts/fixtures.

You can still find box loads of those retrofit bulbs on ebay for cheap. They still got the bigger 860w for 1000w ballasts too. Get em while you can before they're all gone forever! Analog CMH is king of the HIDs!

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I have experience with all three of those. I like the 315's with newer ballasts over the old HPS due to the frequency of the light. You can really see the color bands when you take pictures with those 400's. The 315's are superior in this regard, and also with the 5 pointed reflector technology that eliminates lamp hot spots by projecting 4 light images in a cross pattern, with the one center source pointing towards the plants. These are better than any other 400 hood I could come up with.

All that said, I put up my 315's and 400's a year or two ago and went all-in on SpiderFarmer units. The SF2000's. I also use Phillips T5 LED replacement bulbs for a couple of old Fluoro fixtures. I really think the LEDs are good so far. I utilize the dimming functionality a LOT. None of my cheap CMH's had this feature.