Help deciding on lights.

dbkick

Well-Known Member
I have Lumatek and a Phantom and both work great but in my personal opinion magnetic ballasts are easier to fix than electronic ballast and that offers you the ability to fix it faster to give you less downtime. Trust me you get the same results as electronic ballasts plus having a friend who owns a grow store you see the returns.
I have those too, a 1kw phantom and a 400 watt lumatek. the comment on lumatek came from all my visits to the hydro shop, I notice things like half melted purple ballasts behind the counter. haven't had a problem with mine either though, but i have seen a lot of returns.
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
magnetic ballasts consist of easy to exchange components and are cheaper to replace than an electronic ballast component. if you could even pinpoint the problem.
I also have a cheap chinese knock of 1kw digital. used it 3 years and it still runs fine but I'm with you there, if a digital goes out you're pretty much replacing the entire thing, the magnetic only really has 3 parts.
 
I have those too, a 1kw phantom and a 400 watt lumatek. the comment on lumatek came from all my visits to the hydro shop, I notice things like half melted purple ballasts behind the counter. haven't had a problem with mine either though, but i have seen a lot of returns.
Lumatek ballasts are good if they are real Lumatek and not the bootleg ones. Phantoms are great aswell, but I have noticed that with magnetic ballasts I get the same yields and its cost me less and its easy to fix. I have 1000w per plant in my room and I also do supplemental lighting with t5 and I get solid buds without CO2. I have a 6000w room for 6 plants and im getting something like 80w per sq ft.
 
i also use adjust a wings and people dont like them due to them giving off heat but the light those reflector spread is a major plus. but you have to know how to vent your room out to prevent heat build up. But once you have your room setup to the proper settings its just easy sailing from there.
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
hell I do 6 plants under 1kw and they're turning out pretty large, although I keep forgetting I AM running 350 watt of LED on each side of that. why I don't know, probably because I have the led .
 
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