HID MH bulb works on HPS ballast??

Homergrown said:

It may take 5 minutes or so for the MH bulb to refire once it's been heated up. Try it cold and see if it works.


Yes MH bulbs will work in a HPS ballast. It's not dangerous either. It will not fire up the other way though.

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ok so if i go grab an mh bulb from home depot its ok to put that in my ballast?

you can get a 400 hps from home depot for your ballast..if you want a metal halide you should get a conversion bulb or a digital ballast to run both.

you sure it wont work putting a reg mh in an hps ballast? Homegrown seems to think otherwise.

MH in HpS ballast 100% works. Juat use the same qattage. Conversion bulbs are just retagged regular bulbs. HPS will not work in MH though. MH only takes 2 firing capacitors and HPS takes 3. HPS ballasts have three and will fire a MH bulb. MH only has two and will not fire the HPs bulb that takes 3. This is how it was explained to me when trying to buy a conversion bulb. Dude said he didn't carry them because they were not needed.

ok sounds good, i think im covered with a free replacement mh conversion bulb either way.

Yea bro i was just about to order a conversion bulb and the guy at my hydro store said its a waste of money he says theres no risk what so ever firing up a mh bulb on a hps ballast but it wont work the other way around happy growing and stop wasting your money