Seems the Lumatek 600's are lamp specific....they work fine with older generation Horti 600 lamps, because this is what they were designed to do. Newer lamps cause premature lamp and ballast failure. I had a Lumatek 600 running a new Horti 600 and got maybe 250 hours and my ballast looked like purpleberry's when I returned it. The guys at the garden store said they had a shit load of Lumatek 600's to return and Lumatek's rep have been giving them a run around. They dropped Lumatek and are going with another line of ballasts.....from what I've heard and seen the Lumatek 400's are working great.
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I did find this on the internet awhile ago concerning the Lumatek 600's........
"My name is Jason and I am the founder of Lumatek Electronic ballasts. We try to stay away from these forums but I think this is important. Some customers are currently experiencing problems when using some 600 watt lamps. I do want to point out that the
Hortilux Solarmax Grolux issue applies to ALL brand of electronic ballasts.
The lumatek ballast is a true Eballast. It has a micro processor cpu. This cpu allows the ballast to make adjustments according to the lamp that is being used. A eballast can compensate for degrading bulbs and slight power fluctuations. It can also sense the exact specifications of the lamps it is using. the Lumatek ballast is up to 27% brighter than a core and coil ballast. We do have one problem with this technology the cpu can not detect the lamp until AFTER the initial ignition. Once the bulb is lit the ballast can then take over and drive the bulb to its exact specifications. Industry specifications for a 600 watt hps lamp call for a 4000volt ignition pulse. This is what Lumatek and all other digital ballast use for a starting voltage.
Hortilux ignition used to be 2000-3000 volts even though this is less then the ignition pulse of the Lumatek we did not experience any problems with the
Hortilux I have lots of customers with
Hortilux lamps that are over a year old However about 6 months ago we started to notice an increase in
Hortilux failures. We also noticed that the font of the text printed at the base of the bulb had changed. When we tested this lamp we found that the ignition range was lowered to 1500 volts. These new
Hortilux lamps are different then the ones we originally designed the ballast with and have a higher frailer rate. The problems that customers are having are NOT a ballast problem they are a bulb problem the
Hortilux 600 watt is not designed to industry specifications regarding ignition pulse. Furthermore it is also manufactured with a special gas in the arc tube that no other lamp maker in the world uses. The
Hortilux lamp design is unique. We are currently adapting our ballast for this bulb it may require a switch to lower the ignition pulse for
Hortilux.
Solarmax and Growlux lamps are the opposite problem these lamps require a 5000-6000 volt ignition pulse Again the standard ignition for a 600 is 4000 volts. The Lumtek ballast can light these bulbs with the 4K pulse for a while however over time the lamps degrade and they require more and more voltage to start after a few months the bulbs will not ignite in any digital ballast. "
"With the introduction of the electronic ballast, we have to consider lamp technology again. Electronic ballasts need a lamp that is rated for use on electronic ballasts, and the old core and coil lamps won’t work on them. You cannot use a 60Hz lamp on a 22,000 or 45,000 Hz electronic ballast; doing so causes premature lamp failure, lamp blackening and component decay. It won’t make a difference if your 60 Hz lamp is a MH or an HPS if you destroy the lamp with your electronic ballast."
