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my local store in sacramento sells a new line of ballasts called Prodigy. Between me and my friends we have a few dozen and we have all been very happy and impressed. They have every feature of all the older name ballasts and the prices are amazing. No bulb chatter, dimmable, and selectable watt. 5 yr warranty!!anyone looking for good electronic ballasts should check them out good nature garden is store name and website is goodhydro.com....time to blaze.later
Digital greenhouse are great ive got two 1000 from htg like everyone says gotta make sure you have the right bulbs. Grow bright and sunmaster seem to be working great. Htg's service is great and they will always take care of you and fast. So if your lookin to save a little money they are pretty reasonable.
I get more Lumatek return than any other ballast. My top three based on lumen out put (with Ushio bulbs) and amount of returns per sold are, in order...
1- Solis Tek
2- Quantum
3- Galaxy
I sell and return ballast all day and these are the only ballasts that I will run.
I built my whole lighting setup around magnetic ballasts, for several reasons:
1. I wanted reliability, or at least a quick fix. Last time a ballast blew a capacitor, the local hydro store had it fixed in 4 hours.
2. Guaranteed compatibility with most bulbs. Some bulbs don't work well with digital ballasts and I couldn't afford the super duper stuff.
3. Cost. At least up front, they're very reasonably priced. I guess I'm spending the savings through lower efficiency, but...?
4. Flip box compatible- too many digital ballasts have issues running through flip boxes, and I wanted to be certain I had this option open.
I am always ready to upgrade to better gear, IF said gear is really better and the price isn't prohibitive. I haven't heard enough about Solis Tek to know if they adequately address my concerns above? I too was warned off Lumatek ballasts, and this was from a hydro store that sells them!
I'm sure they're good ballasts due to the technology, Theyre so new that its premature to compare them to quantums. most retailers are pushing them since they are getting more of a mark up
Which are the retailers pushing? The quantums or the solis? I just picked up 5 solis 1000K's and am going to fire them up this weekend. In comparison to what I paid, I don't think there was much room for any mark up in the solis. In fact, I think I got a really good deal because they want to get them out in the field and folks familiar with them. I'll report back on my first experience with them, but so far, from what I can tell in the initial fire up, they are gonna do the trick.
Lumatek and Advanced Badass Ballasts are the best hands down