Quantum 600 watt digital ballast
- Thread starter PuffNPass
- Start date
Screwnuts33
Member of the Month 3rd Place Winner (Dec 09')
I just picked up 2 600 watt Galaxy's. Very nice. Nearly completely silent and after a two hour test run they remained cool to the touch.
Can anyone give me a first hand review of the Quantum 600 w ballasts. I've been to Quantum's web page but would still like some input from anyone that has used one.
I got the Quantum ballast in last night and got a chance to hook it up before going to work. Couple items to note right away.
The dimming feature reduces electrical consumption.
The dimming feature is not linear.
I tried each setting (100%, 75%, 50%). I have my kill-a-watt meter hooked my entire grow. Normally, with the lights off and no pumps running, the consumption is 210 watts. Total wattage observed at each setting were 890, 670, and 620. So, the net wattage for the ballast assuming my pumps weren't running were 680, 460, 410. The actual power ratings I observe are 113%, 77%, and 68% respectively. We shall see if this overdriving of the lamp causes any issues.
The ballast itself is much smaller, lighter, and cooler than the magnetic ballast.
plantpot4fun
New Member
green island has a few of these and speaks very highly of them, i went with the lumatek myself, mainly because the quantums have a fan and ive heard they sometimes tear up, just one more thing to break IMO. the lumateks work great, and are completly silent.
It actually has two fans and operate at a low speed so are practically silent. Also, the circuit board has been treated to resist environmental conditions typically found in a grow space. If simplicity was the goal, you can't beat a quality coil and core ballast. I just like the overall flexibility of the quantum. It will be some time before I discover its durability though.
EDIT: I just checked out the ballast when running at 100%. I noticed that the fans do run at a higher speed and they are audible making a low whirring or whining sound. Not an issue for my grow space but could be an annoyance for a bedroom grow.
Grrrr, remember when we spoke about the quantams munks? I found a place selling them for $169 and it woulda cost me $185 shipped for the 600w. Actually I was going to cop it tomorro when I got paid. But i've got a 400w digital ballast that has fans and it makes a really annoying sound during operation. My flower tent is in my bedroom, and sometimes i think im used to the sound but at times that sh!t does annoy me lol. Looks like ima end up getting a lumatek, cause i'd prefer not to deal with the noise....
Erggg, thanks for the heads up tho munks.
Grrrr, remember when we spoke about the quantams munks? I found a place selling them for $169 and it woulda cost me $185 shipped for the 600w. Actually I was going to cop it tomorro when I got paid. But i've got a 400w digital ballast that has fans and it makes a really annoying sound during operation. My flower tent is in my bedroom, and sometimes i think im used to the sound but at times that sh!t does annoy me lol. Looks like ima end up getting a lumatek, cause i'd prefer not to deal with the noise....
Erggg, thanks for the heads up tho munks.
Glad to help. My inline fan's noise covers the ballast fans' noise pretty well though I could still pick out the sound of the ballast if I listened for it.
As with all transformers, which is what a ballast is essentially, there is no such thing as 100% efficiency (digital included). An interesting point to note from your data is that this ballast seems to run most efficiently at the 75% setting, which is good to know. Only losing 2% when coverting your input to output, as opposed to the 13% loss at either the 50 or 100% settings. I wouldn't consider this as overdriving the lamp as much as transformer efficiency. If you still have an old magnetic ballast laying around somewhere, you should hook that thing up and see how much input power you are applying compared to the rated lamp wattage. It would also be interesting to see these efficiency data under both available input voltages. Sorry for the nerdiness!
