Digital ballasts trip electric !!!!

[devious d]

HI all been growing with regular ballasts for over 8 yrs, this week thought it was time to go digital.bought a lumatek 600 and a siegung 600, as soon as conected them to my 13 amp contactor tripped the power out and blew my 10 amp cotactor totally when tried in there, now i cant even run my magnetic ballasts without it tripping out ? has any one had similar probs and how did you manage it ? going looking for a weed friendly sparks as im on week 8 one to go !!!:anim_10:

 

[FLB]

Your contacters are shot. Put some new ones in and hire a sparky if you dont know what your doing. Contacters/breakers wear out with age and trying to run to much through one. Every time they trip, it's that much harder and shortens the life that much more. Sparky doesnt need to know unless your breaker panel is in your grow room.

 

[SomeoneYouKnow]

You should also be dedicating slightly more power to those circuits to run 1200W.

FWIW.

SYK

 

[devious d]

nice one guys got a weed friendly sparks coming round this week to do a dedicated run on my board, but also got a letter from the power company they had fitted a faulty batch of mini breakers on the houses on my estate !!! just what i needed to happen at week 8 ??:rasta2: but also there is a problem with the ballast 600 lumatek blows the power what ever socket its in and gave me a belt when the plug pins touched my hand as i unplugged it, ringing lumatek support this morning see how there customer service is !

 

[SomeoneYouKnow]

Let us know - I too use lumatek ballasts

 

[devious d]

got the sparks coming later this month , but lumatek give a tech help number on there uk site i have rang twice daily for the last three days no response but will keep trying

 

[AlienBoyD7]

I have been running 2- 600 digitals and now 1 of them trips the breaker . It,s got me puzzeled. Good thing I got a metal for back up. The ones I got are from HID Hut sunway or sumtin.

 

[Seamaiden]

So, ya got zapped there, eh? Don't touch the metal bits! What's your current out there run? I've been nailed by household 110 and industrial 240. The 240 gives you tunnel vision and makes you curse out vice presidents.

 

[Gro]

So, ya got zapped there, eh? Don't touch the metal bits! What's your current out there run? I've been nailed by household 110 and industrial 240. The 240 gives you tunnel vision and makes you curse out vice presidents.

did you get the free hair style.lol

 

[Seamaiden]

Still sportin' it. <grin>

 

[SSHZ]

As I see it, you have 2 options: #1 is replace with a brand new breaker while hoping the old one is wearing out or #2 replace with a 20 amp instead of the 15. This depends on your wiring. I never could run my 2 600 watt lumateks on a single 15 amp circuit- from day one. Now running an extension cord to another plug on a different circuit. No problems since.....

 

[REGISTRD]

So, ya got zapped there, eh? Don't touch the metal bits! What's your current out there run? I've been nailed by household 110 and industrial 240. The 240 gives you tunnel vision and makes you curse out vice presidents.

tunnel vision is an understatement!! I swear I go into another world for an eternity when in reality it was like 10 sec and im jumping up in the air to unground myself.. lol..

And yes either way your running 2 600's on the same circuit for 8 years...youve been overheating your wires and know your contactors(breakers) are finally working.. KInd of a scary situation IMO..
Know you can run 2 600's on one 15 amp circuit but you have to realize if you start them together the spike will be greater than 1500watts.. With an old breaker or a faulty breaker it will trip every time.. set your timers to start one about 20 min after another and you should be fine..
.Yes look at your wire size and if its 12awg solid you can up your breaker to a 20amp..
As said.. GEt a NEW BREAKER..eitherway.. Make sure you know everything thats running on that breaker..YOu should have NOTHING else on that run besides your 2 lights..

 

[devious d]

yes getting the breakers replaced , funny gone back to my old ballasts cos one of my lights started flashing and no problem since. the breakers were replaced early in the year but been told it might be a faulty batch got a letter just after i started this post ? lumatek dont answer there tech help line any time ive tried it just rings and rings and tried in work hours not impressed, i thought the start up off the digi,s would be less than the magnetic,or the same .so digi ballasts collecting dust.,

 

[budboy299]

Here is the result of 2 600watt ballast firing up at the same time. The two ballasts are the only thing on the circuit. Really scared the shit out of me!!!
Buddy who is an electrician is coming today to set up a dedicated 240 line for me for these.

How close was that to a fire???

Timer was rated for 1500 watts...obviously it was spiking over that.

 

[Seamaiden]

Holy fucking SHIT, budboy! Holy SHIT! Yeah.... that'd scare me, too.

Devious, I'd be bent in two if I were encountering that kind of 'customer service' on a piece of new(er) equipment. I'd also be on the phone with my credit card company telling them I'm disputing payment until I get some sort of response from Lumatek. Based on previous experience I can say that vendors suddenly become very, very available once a cc company has taken funds back.

 

[cemchris]

Yea its all about amps. 120 will pull alot more. Specially when striking. Also cheap ass timers will cause fires. My 240v lumateks 600s use according to lumatek 3.8 to 4.5 amps to run but when they strike they pull almost 8 I believe. 120 will be more to put it in perspective.

 

[devious d]

payed cash dont like leaving plastic trail , but will keep on the case jars me bad that there sitting there still while im using old ones. all about waiting for the sparks once my breakers are replaced(prop owner) my weed friendly sparks gonna uprate dedicated feed to take at least 4 600,s. bud boy that timers scary bro,i had 1000w running last year went up to check, the lighting lead had melted to the ballast smoking !!! very scary

 

[cheyenne]

...... Now running an extension cord to another plug on a different circuit. No problems since.....

(shiver).....Im sort of a freak about over doing my electrical specs and the thought of running a ballast off an extension cord would give me nitemares.

 

[brownstormy]

Here is the result of 2 600watt ballast firing up at the same time. The two ballasts are the only thing on the circuit. Really scared the shit out of me!!!
Buddy who is an electrician is coming today to set up a dedicated 240 line for me for these.

How close was that to a fire???

Timer was rated for 1500 watts...obviously it was spiking over that.

Was this the result of 2 600watt digi's or mags?
I thought one of the big woops of digital ballasts was a clean strike without a huge spike?

 

[onlyinfo]

Yea rly. Would also like to know. 8 Amps on 240v 600w Lumatek startup? Cant believe...