Hi there, One more last mintue ?. Do the ballasts on HPS lights burn out. I ask because I found a nice used lamp, but its been used for two years. Are the ballasts something that burn out like the bulbs? Cheers,
the ballasts shouldn't burn out assuming it's not a complete junker and it has been treated properly. two years isn't that much honestly, ballasts are built to last quite a long time. to put it into perspective, a single HPS bulb is supposed to last about 20,000 hrs. assuming the lamp you were buying was used for growing, that's less than 10,000 hrs of use in those two years. my bet is that that ballast is good to go.
monstermann68 is correct. Get a new bulb though. After 1 year of continual bloom room use, my provider changed out his bulbs and noticed an immediate improvement all the way around.
Yes ballast do go bad or burn out! As an electrician with 19 yrs. exp. I have replaced many ballast's in all kinds of lighting! Now if your light that your using was bought new then I would think this would be a rare notion but not entirely unpossible. If you are using a light that was given to you or you found this light or picked it up at the swap meet....used is what im getting at! Then a bad ballast would be very likely if your having problems with your light. Check your capacitor as well!(depending on your light)
