Apollo ballast users DO NOT USE USHIO BULBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so after rebuilding my grow room to take another 600w lamp, I decided to give USHIO bulbs a shot as I read a lot of very good things, plus supposedly they work in Apollo ballasts. I put 3 NEW ushio bulbs used in 2 perfectly good working ballasts, and in 1 brand new ballast. with in 30 mins ALL 3 bulbs were blows and ALL 3 ballasts are freaking toast. so im out 160.00+ for 3 ushio bulbs and 350.00+ for 3 600w ballasts.

imo, the ushio bulbs over work the ballast and it cant handle it, therefore frying the internals.

I could see a bulb blowing as a coincidence, but not 3 new bulbs and 3 freaking ballasts.

wow..sorry bro!..i had 2 bad runs with 2 lumeteks,so i bought a bloombastic off ebay..$75,bright as shit,all the bells and whistles,and i run ushio also...works fine so far..now i gotta replace my friends brand new lumetek(used 1 month total)since it fried in my posession,and im behind all that..hope you get it together bud!

I thought I heard something after I buttoned up my flower room. went and washed up, had a beer (mind you this is the 2nd day in a row ive put in a 12hr straight grow room shift (harvesting and rebuilding current grow tent), and puffed on some 3 month cured gorilla glue. I decided to check in on the flowering girls and total darkness. F'n bullshit. so I moved my single 600w ballast and bulb to give the girls some light until I can figure something out today.

which means ordering 3 new Apollo hps (been rocking these bulb brand for 3+ years and absolutely flawless outcome), and 3 new Apollo ballasts.


now ive read a lot of reviews saying the ushio work in Apollo ballasts, but imo they are FAKE reviews. cause 3 took a shit on my all at once.

sorry about your streak of bad luck. i've had stretches like that when i feel snakebit
i've run ushio for years and not had a problem until i got an apollo ballast. the ballast blew an apollo bulb and then blew a ushio. then the same ballast burned up 2 output cords. i smelled it for a couple days until i found it. thought it was a bad cord so i tried another one. it started melting too.
finally i took the apollo ballast out of service. replaced it with a lumatek ballast and it's all cool now. i still have one apollo ballast running but when it dies i'll get a better one

like I said ive used Apollo ballast/bulbs for 3+ years and never a problem. only when I went to ushio bulbs them POP.

Thanks for sharing. I was looking at the ushio opti-red but got the hortilux enhanced instead.

as long as you are happy with them. i guess that's all that matters. the apollo i had blew a digilux bulb too. i think something about their output is not consistent
i still use ushio. they are a great bulb but i won't buy apollo again

I'd say Ushio bulb users, avoid cheap ass apollo ballasts...

this thread is to inform Apollo ballast users not to use ushio bulbs due to risk of frying bulb and ballast. not that you prefer ushio over Apollo items, or horticulture products.

thanks everyone.

like I said above, my "cheap ass" Apollo ballasts, bulbs, and hoods (when I ran their hoods) worked awesome and NEVER any issues even after 3 yrs. I get well over 1g/watt in my grows with their product. so they cant be all that bad.

FWIW I have Ushio bulbs running on phantom, lumatek, gavita and magnetic ballasts. Never had a problem.

Ushio with a Solis Tek here, and I love it. I would definitely try to get my money back. Also, you may want to check the boxes and see if they have a batch number on them, if its a bad batch of lights, they may need to recall them.

Underneath the power cord inlet on the ballasts is a fuse.

Check them.

- Jiji

checked all fuses, and swapped with the new spare. nothing. put old hps working lamp back in, nothing. put old working mh lamp back in, nothing.

out of the 3 ushio bulbs, 1 looked to be an older model bulb. was slightly different than the other 2. but it doesn't make a difference, all 3 bulbs and 3 ballasts are toast.

I already have a return ticket for the ushio lamps, just waiting on ups to pick it up. also contacted the guy (low_baller on amazon) who I bought the ballasts from (ive ordered 8x fans, 4x ballasts, 6x bulbs, 4x light systems from this same guy in the past 3 years), so im sure he will work with me. I ordered 3 new hps lamps and 3 new ballasts yesterday from him, cause I cant wait for him to figure it out. when they do swap out the ballasts, Ill have some spares if needed.

Thanks for the heads up I use Apollo ballasts. Thanks man. I heard of this happening before. Your the third person say something. I know to stay away.

anything to help another fellow grower NOT eat almost 600.00 in blown grow equipment. then another 600.00 to replace said blown equip.

Id contact Ushio

Especially when it comes to the cheaper systems, the best bet IMO is to use their bulbs.

My Apollo 400 is a trooper. I run only their bulbs as well.

My more expensive ballasts get the more well known bulbs.

^^
truth!!

ushio refunded my money for the 3 bulbs, Low_Baller (amazon Apollo/ballast guy), is replacing the blown ballast, PLUS a ballast that's only been working on MH and not MH/HPS as it should. so 2 new ballasts are on their way. plus the 3 new bulbs and 1 new ballast that I just paid for with FREE 2nd day air (covered by LowBaller). so all in all, im only out return shipping on the 2 ballasts. win win for me. ill just keep to the Apollo bulbs in the Apollo ballasts for now on. another reason why I like dealing with 1 or 2 companies for the majority of my growing needs.

I was really hoping to give those ushio bulbs a try and see the results compared to standard hps bulbs.

I just bought 4 nanoluxs 1k ballast, 4 hoods and 4 plantmax bulbs for $1100 from 1000 bulbs.com. i was kinda iffy on the nanolux's. But I must say I really like them alot. They also run really cool, no more having to put my ballast in the attic. They are dimmable, extremely small, run cool dual receptacles that fit hydrofarm and sun light hoods, 3year warranty and only cost 150 bucks. Fuck yeah!

P.s I had ordered cheaper 8"AC hoods from 1000bulbs and they were out so the sent me the more expensive radiant hoods at no cost..

DemonTrich said:

^^
truth!!

ushio refunded my money for the 3 bulbs, Low_Baller (amazon Apollo/ballast guy), is replacing the blown ballast, PLUS a ballast that's only been working on MH and not MH/HPS as it should. so 2 new ballasts are on their way. plus the 3 new bulbs and 1 new ballast that I just paid for with FREE 2nd day air (covered by LowBaller). so all in all, im only out return shipping on the 2 ballasts. win win for me. ill just keep to the Apollo bulbs in the Apollo ballasts for now on. another reason why I like dealing with 1 or 2 companies for the majority of my growing needs.

I was really hoping to give those ushio bulbs a try and see the results compared to standard hps bulbs.

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Nice. I bought all my stuff from LowBaller as well. They seem like pretty good people. Shipped fast and everything was fine. I have ordered from them a few times and never had any issues.