I walked into my room today to find a light out, no big deal I go to grab a back up bulb... doesn't work. I tried 3 different bulbs and they are not turning on. I have a Lumatek dual 600w ballast and its just one side not working so I am thinking something is up with the hood. Either that or there's a FREAK incident that all 3 bulbs were coincidentally busted. I know this isn't really a big deal but I was just wondering if anyone has ever had an issue with just 1/2 of their ballast going up on them?

Edit: I guess I could do the smart thing and just put the bulb I know works in the other side... doh.

Did you hit the reset thing on the ballast? One of my lumatek 600s randomly tripped out once, I was afraid it failed until I hit the breaker button on the back, came right back on. I did have a 400 die on me once though, no idea why.

I would never buy a dual ballast because of exactly what you described. I wouldn't want half of the ballast failing, or the whole ballast failing and taking out 2 lights. Separate ballasts are the way to go, in my opinion.

Dual or not, lumateks all have a 3-5 year warranty. If it's been longer than that, it's expected for a capacitor to burn out. Otherwise, take it back to where you got it and have them do a manufacturer swap out.

So apparently what happened was that when I went to do my most recent cleaning of the bulb and hood glass, the bulb must have adhered to the metal base plate(the little fragile flap of metal the bulb needs to touch to work). It looks like I could just take a phillips head and replace it, I still have the spring and everything. The question now, is wondering how hard Im going to have to look for the little replacement piece. Never had to really hunt something like that down before.

I may be wrong, bur isn't that the same problem ThaChoppa is having on his/her thread "Question about mogul socket repair" under General Growing?

If so, maybe one of the answers there will be your solution as well.

Hope this helps... 52.

Wow whats the probability? Unreal! Yea my tab broke off leaving broken tab, screw and spring. Go to hardware store or get one online. Parts can be swapped with the right one. I have seen mogul sockets with integrated (no screw on tab) so watch out and get the right one. Make sure to LOOK DOWN INSIDE to make sure the screw thread/pitch is the same.

No biggie!

Where your problems related to heat,as in dis-colorization on the broken piece, or were the broken pieces welded to the bottom of the bulb... anything in common? (other than they broke, lol)

No heat stress just junk metal. Nothing fuse either. Matter of fact had the light in storage while I moved. Got to the new house and after about six months of not using it, tried to seat the bulb and it happened. Strange really, I take excellent care of my equipment and even if I dropped the damn thing for a ten story building I highly doubt that the tab would break. Just shitty metal...

Hope it all works out for your Leroy!

P.S. Has your clan ever forgiven you? HAHAHAHA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU#t=1m10s

I still have the screw, and the spring. So I just need a new tab and I am good. Feels good to actually know what was up though. I hate scratching my head like that looking all around like WTF?!

And yeah... what a little shitty piece of metal. They should have made it more heavy duty.

Im such a space case. I totally forgot about the old hood for a 400 that was in the garage with the same exact tab inside of it.