How to test a magnetic ballast

[BlazingBill]

Hey all,
I have a guy wanting to sell me two xtrasun 1000w ballasts, these are the magnetic ones for 65.00 for both, he states his friend went out of business and hes helping to sell,
Now before I jump on the sold wagon, I want to test them.
anyone know how I go about doing that without a light?
thanx!

Bill.

 

[iwltfum]

that's pretty cheap... I'm not sure how you would check them, but I'm pretty much positive there is a way to do that will a multimeter.

I would make sure that the ballasts are switchable/adaptable in every way. These things can get really annoying when you have pieces that don't match up. I don't use big lights anymore, but there were three things that I would always check for when buying balasts:
1)cordset adaptable (the main two different light cable connections).
2)metal halide/hps adaptable. You never know when you're going to want/need an extra veg balast and realizing that you only have an hps ballast in that situation can be a huge let down - buying a new balast over just flipping a switch on the old one and plugging in a different light.
3) 110/240 switchable. I always ran my lights on 240 because it uses half the amount of amps and you can run double the amount of lights that way. This one isn't so important unless you're planning on moving sometime soon or rewiring your grow room for efficiency.

Anyway, just some friendly advice about those concrete blocks you're thinking about buying. Geez, I don't miss having to move those things around all the time.

Cheers