blown bulb or ballast? HELP! (mag/coil)

[smokestack23]

I need a good guess if anyone has the time.

This morning I went into a flowering room and found that a 1K HPS bulb was blown. It's on a tracker and is powered by a mag ballast (not digital/electronic). So..it was this morning and I didn't have time to do a good inspection cause the room was shutting down but...
The bulb is black for about the bottom (non threaded end) third (vertically hung) and it looked like the arc tube had become detached from the bottom support. It wasn't hanging straight down the center of the bulb.
The bulb only had like 9 weeks of 12/12 on it...so like under 800 hours. The ballast was not new.
I realize that I should inspect the bulb further before asking for help but I have to wait a few more hours.

I don't have any extra 1K HPS bulbs...but...I have several 1K digi ballasts (HPS and MH) that came with HPS AND MH bulbs so what I CAN do is to try one of the HPS bulbs from one of my digi ballasts and just run a MH in the digi until I can get some new 1K HPS bulbs...BUT...I don't want to blow another new 1K hps bulb if it was the mag ballast that caused the bulb to blow.

What I SHOULD and will do is just order some HPS bulbs (need to have spares anyway...and am interested in maybe trying the SUN PULSE digi compatible bulbs) and I realize that I'm probably gonna have to bite the bullet and eventually screw-in a 1K hps and hope it doesn't blow..but without any backup, I don't want to risk losing another hps bulb till I get more.

So...my question is...and again..sorry to ask it without first inspecting the bulb and wiring and everything...what are the chances that the ballast caused the lamp to fail?
When a mag ballast "fails" should you be able to physically see a problem with it? Or smell a problem? You know...like some discoloration or burnt smell...?

Thanks for your educated guesses.

 

[wobbly goblin]

in over 3 decades i've never had a mag ballast blow a bulb
i have had multiple bulb failures though
if you look at the mechanics of a bulb closely?
you'll wonder how they are as reliable as they are
800 hrs? it might still have a warranty but typically a bulb will blow within the first week

fwiw

 

[hiboy]

I have replaced many hps lamps, mh lamps in the commercial field (not related to pot) that were exploded even and it was not a ballast issue.
hiboy

 

[smokestack23]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I've always used mag coil ballasts and never had a problem. Never even had a bulb failure. Had plenty wear-out but...

So...you won'tfuckinbelieve this. I'm waiting and waiting for this room to light up and it finally does so I go in to start my investigation. I have tons to do in there. I'm just finishing up a harvey and have new plants in the room ten days into flowering. It's a bit of a transitional mess right now. Anyway...I go in and one of my 600s isn't on!!?? WTF??
It's an electronic set-up of course. So I unplug the dead bulb from it's ballast and plug it into the ballast next to it...after first unplugging IT'S bulb of course and...NOTHING. Oh btw, the bulb shows no discoloration. I removed the faulty bulb from it's cooltube fixture and replaced it with a MH and fired it up.

So...another blown bulb. Same deal..about 800hrs on it but...it's running off an electronic ballast. DAMMIT!! Starting to wish I would never have switched to digital. Now I'm just waiting for bulbs to start popping one by one. All my ballasts (except the one 1K hps mag) are digital with non-digi compatible lamps.

FRICK!

So...I been trimming for the past 5 hours and STILL havent figured-out what happened to the mag 1K bulb. I just fired-up another digi 1K in it's place. Only took me a second and it was on to the 600 troubleshooting fiesta.

More fun tomorrow.

Thanks again for the replies. I'll assume it's the bulb and swap it tomorrow.

 

[hiboy]

Good luck,
Bulb issues suck. Might be worth investing in some cheapo regular mh/hps lamps that can be picked up at your local Home Dipo
hiboy