Ballast Fuse keeps blowing

Help! I am on my 3rd crop with my 1000w electronic ballast. It is one of the automatic MH/HPS switchable ballasts, but doesn't have a brand name on it. I'm just into week 3 of my 3rd crop and I came in the evening to find the lights off. DEVASTATION! The white fuse button was blown out, so I pushed it back in. It immediately pops out and a few sparks. I have run an extension cord all over the house to see if a different plug/circuit might help, but it doesn't. The ballast fuse button can still be pressed in, and the thing sounds like it is going to startup, but then pops. Is it a bad ballast? Am I running too much amperage? Why am I not getting light!?

PS, My third crop is being started in a different house, so I'm not familiar with it's electrical wiring.

sounds like u have a bad ballast .............
how long have u had it
how much did u get it for (cheaper made ones use less materials and lower grade soder )
was it running hot (as in u were not passing air over it to cool it )


most of the decent makers offer a 2 or 3 rebuild or replace on the ballast look on the box for the info ..................right now u need to make up a CFL or T5 set up to get the light on them while u order and replace the ballast u have.............repairing it is done tho the mail so u are looking at a few weeks


i like this ballast .............it is good ............it is a select a watt 400 600 or 1000 watt digital (the bulbs they offer have a higher lumen output 1000w HPS is 150k lumens .....40 extra k.......and they offer a 10k deep blue with UV for finishing them off )

http://www.amazon.com/Solis-Tek-Exclusive-Digital-Ballast/dp/B0070193PU
u can one day order and have it saturday if u act fast

here is a better pic and tech info on the ballast
http://www.solis-tek.com/digital-ballasts/matrix-1000-digital-ballast.html

u can click on the bulbs and get that info too

420DankStank said:

PS, My third crop is being started in a different house, so I'm not familiar with it's electrical wiring.

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that is easy ..................get the year the house was built

it will have been built and wired to code then just open up a wall outlet/light switch and look inside u will see if the wire is copper or aluminium..........u will need to ask a electrical person the wire in older houses is thicker then the newer wire not sure what year it change (know this house was 1979 and has the thicker wire) this will let the system run little more amps then what the code saids today

odds are the breakers in the place are 15 ...........if u have the spare slots open u might want to change out to a 20 but that would need a bonded person that knows what they are doing (not replace a blowen or bad one but opening up the board messing with it some )

Thank you for the reply justugh! I think it is a bad ballast too since it is made from China, I think I got it off Ebay, and I have used it for like 2 years. I just moved across country into a rental house, and have been here for only about a month and a half before this happened. You can imagine the scare to walk in to darkness.

The breakers we have here are the ones that have an on/middle/off position. The house I moved into was probably built in the 40's, but at some point the landlords converted the garage into a bedroom and redid the kitchen. I imagine they brought the house up to code, but who knows if they just connected shit to the old wiring.

I don't have the box, but I'm going to go through old paperwork and see if I can find info on the ballast. I got it cheap on a deal with my cool tube and bulb. I didn't have air blowing over the ballast, but it always felt cool to the touch.

I opened up the ballast to see if it had a fuse to replace, but everything is coated in a thick black plastic that was used to cover up all of the electronics. No fuse to be seen. I'll see if I can check out the Solis-Tek ballast, but right now I have absolutely $0 to my name. I feel so f*cked right now.

I took my babies out of my grow tent and placed them next to the window and have the bedroom light on. Luckily it is still summer, so we have a little longer natural light schedule. I was planning on getting a t5 setup for making clones, but now I am just going to have to invest in a new ballast.

ok to save your plants

good call on the sun ...............gather all the mirrors u have (if u have large hanging ones great

make a super reflective area u need near a mirror on the ground one up top one under the window and one one the back part it is off to the side of the plants hanging at a 45 degree angle

this will help keep the plant going good and strong until u can get the ballast


this is my back up plan................might work for u
u have buddies (we all do) ones that has been tho the shit with u and u trust to keep their mouth shut about certin aspects of life ..................u walk up to them and go i need 200 bucks for gear ...........in return when i make anything extra i will give u a call ask if u want it a permit set price of (i do 300) if u say no then i will sell it to someone else for a higher cost .....but u get the choice first for helping me out

Sounds like its a bad ballast. And mirrors are what uneducated growers use. They absorb and trap PAR light, not reflect it. You would be better off with tin foil. And tinfoil itself sucks! lol

Thank you, Gentlemen. I'm going to see what I can do with borrowing money. I hopefully can get someone to invest in a 3 month return. I agree with Alexander Supertramp about the mirrors. Even if I wanted to go that route, I only have one small hanging mirror. As you see, the reflective mylar from inside the tent is wrapped around to reflect a little. I'll let you know how things go.

Alexander Supertramp said:

Sounds like its a bad ballast. And mirrors are what uneducated growers use. They absorb and trap PAR light, not reflect it. You would be better off with tin foil. And tinfoil itself sucks! lol

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I think you missed his point, he's recommending mirrors to reflect outside light in, to keep them from flowering, not from a lamp

greasemonkeymann said:

I think you missed his point, he's recommending mirrors to reflect outside light in, to keep them from flowering, not from a lamp

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PAR light is Par light. From the sun or a bulb. Only difference is intensities.....

420DankStank said:

Thank you, Gentlemen. I'm going to see what I can do with borrowing money. I hopefully can get someone to invest in a 3 month return. I agree with Alexander Supertramp about the mirrors. Even if I wanted to go that route, I only have one small hanging mirror. As you see, the reflective mylar from inside the tent is wrapped around to reflect a little. I'll let you know how things go.

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I noticed that you had the door folded around as a reflective back drop. As long as they are getting 6 hours or so of direct sunlight a day you will be fine.

Alexander Supertramp said:

PAR light is Par light. From the sun or a bulb. Only difference is intensities.....

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yeah I gotcha, but what i'm saying is that he's reflecting the light from outside to keep them from flowering, because his ballast is bad, a diffused reflection is more efficient at reflecting light, but very poor at directing light in distances.
If you used mylar to reflect the light it wouldn't work as well, up close? Sure, but not far away.
That's what i'm sayin, of course mirrors are crappy reflectors, if I remember correctly they lose like 35% of the light to them. Mylar is much better at reflecting light, but imagine you are stranded on a boat in the south pacific, would you prefer a handheld mirror to signal planes, or a piece of mylar?
that's my point

i was just telling the guy how to jerry rig something to increase the yelid of the plant while he is replace the bad gear

mirrors are something most ppl have ................hell i hate them and i have like 6 in this house (mirrors on the walls to help reflect natural sunlight for light in the house )

your calling mirrors bad............but then u are calling a phototron bad and if u are old enough u know a phototron was the orginal weed growing system from back in the 80 and 90s
http://www.phototron.com/index.php/phototron-original.html

if the guy was in smaller room with white walls and a north facing window i say no worries about it .............but from the look at the pics that is not the case the floor is aborbing the light and the black tent

why go out and spend money when mirrors will do the work for a short time

Alright! So, I was about 1/2 day in the dark, and 2.5 days in the window, but now I am back in the tent! The ballast I had was a 1000w digital ballast from Earth Worth. The guy at the hydro shop plugged it in to test it and it blew his circuit. Got a 1000w Magnetic ballast this time. It was refurbished by a guy from Hydrofarm, so it only cost me about $80 + the little connector converter for $10. Also got a 4' single t5 for $20. I'll be taking cuttings in a few days!