Twin Arc metal halide bulbs
- Thread starter nigerbang
- Start date
king_neptune
Active Member
I need to order some MH bulbs next month, are these lights available yet? All I see is pre-orders.
king_neptune
Active Member
thanks. im gonna order them in a few weeks.
anyone used them yet? i cant find any reviews anywhear.
anyone used them yet? i cant find any reviews anywhear.
king_neptune
Active Member
had mine a week. honestly i dont have anything to compare them to since Its my first MH light. but they do work as promised.
on a cold start i get a 20k blue light. let it run a while to warm up. then shut it off for 5 min and back on...you get yellow on a warm start. i dont know how they do it. but it does work as advertised. im happy.
i havent hooked them up to a timer yet, i dont know how that will work out since my timers are all in 15 min increments, and im not sure if 15 min is too much cool down time for the bulbs.
on a cold start i get a 20k blue light. let it run a while to warm up. then shut it off for 5 min and back on...you get yellow on a warm start. i dont know how they do it. but it does work as advertised. im happy.
i havent hooked them up to a timer yet, i dont know how that will work out since my timers are all in 15 min increments, and im not sure if 15 min is too much cool down time for the bulbs.
scsinet
Active Member
Originally Posted by King_Neptune
http:///forum/post/3159437
had mine a week. honestly i dont have anything to compare them to since Its my first MH light. but they do work as promised.
on a cold start i get a 20k blue light. let it run a while to warm up. then shut it off for 5 min and back on...you get yellow on a warm start. i dont know how they do it. but it does work as advertised. im happy.
i havent hooked them up to a timer yet, i dont know how that will work out since my timers are all in 15 min increments, and im not sure if 15 min is too much cool down time for the bulbs.
15 minutes is usually enough to restrike a hot lamp, so I'm betting you would get undesirable operation.
I'd change to a digital timer that can do down to 1 minute increments. HD has a nice basic one for $15.
http:///forum/post/3159437
had mine a week. honestly i dont have anything to compare them to since Its my first MH light. but they do work as promised.
on a cold start i get a 20k blue light. let it run a while to warm up. then shut it off for 5 min and back on...you get yellow on a warm start. i dont know how they do it. but it does work as advertised. im happy.
i havent hooked them up to a timer yet, i dont know how that will work out since my timers are all in 15 min increments, and im not sure if 15 min is too much cool down time for the bulbs.
15 minutes is usually enough to restrike a hot lamp, so I'm betting you would get undesirable operation.
I'd change to a digital timer that can do down to 1 minute increments. HD has a nice basic one for $15.
king_neptune
Active Member
Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/3159452
15 minutes is usually enough to restrike a hot lamp, so I'm betting you would get undesirable operation.
I'd change to a digital timer that can do down to 1 minute increments. HD has a nice basic one for $15.
i was pretty sure too, but didnt test it out yet. i can stomach $15. i was worried digital timers ran 10x that.thx
http:///forum/post/3159452
15 minutes is usually enough to restrike a hot lamp, so I'm betting you would get undesirable operation.
I'd change to a digital timer that can do down to 1 minute increments. HD has a nice basic one for $15.
i was pretty sure too, but didnt test it out yet. i can stomach $15. i was worried digital timers ran 10x that.thx
king_neptune
Active Member
OK ive had them a couple months...
DONT GET THEM!
It seemed to work the first week, but now it doesn't fire consistently.
Sometimes it fires 10k on a cold start...sometimes its 20k
It defeats the purpose, nuff said.
Bottom line...when your away and cant see whats going on....you don't know if your getting 10k or 20k. Also the cool down doesn't work well either...yo need a 5min cool down before going to the other spectrum...this isn't always the case...sometimes it needs 3 min...sometimes it needs 10min. Sometimes it doesn't even swap spectrum's. Over all I got what I payed for...$100, doubtfully manufactured in the US...probably China.
DONT GET THEM!
It seemed to work the first week, but now it doesn't fire consistently.
Sometimes it fires 10k on a cold start...sometimes its 20k
It defeats the purpose, nuff said.
Bottom line...when your away and cant see whats going on....you don't know if your getting 10k or 20k. Also the cool down doesn't work well either...yo need a 5min cool down before going to the other spectrum...this isn't always the case...sometimes it needs 3 min...sometimes it needs 10min. Sometimes it doesn't even swap spectrum's. Over all I got what I payed for...$100, doubtfully manufactured in the US...probably China.
yerboy
Active Member
a buddy of mine has these bulbs and the first few weeks he had the same problems where it would randomly fire in the cold start. now almost 2 months later the 10k always fire when cold and 20k when hot. Not sure if there is some type of break in period or not, he also has the ballast that are recommended for these bulbs so his on/off is like 30 seconds and always fire the correct spectrum.
king_neptune
Active Member
I took down my MH lights. Swapped to LED's.
At the time, i was still dissapointed with the Twin arc lights. 15min cool down was too long. Usually 5min was about right, but then again it would often miss fire, and would require a few attempts several minutes apart.
At the time, i was still dissapointed with the Twin arc lights. 15min cool down was too long. Usually 5min was about right, but then again it would often miss fire, and would require a few attempts several minutes apart.
blackjacktang
Active Member
This is very interesting. Does anyone have any videos of this?
And do they still sell these? I havent found any anywere
And do they still sell these? I havent found any anywere
blackjacktang
Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///forum/thread/358181/twin-arc-metal-halide-bulbs/20#post_3350128
Blackjacktang....they just never really panned out as intended......
That is kind of what I thought, I never found any anywere. Oh well im not shure if i would want any because it woulg get annyoing waching my tank lights turn on and off
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///forum/thread/358181/twin-arc-metal-halide-bulbs/20#post_3350128
Blackjacktang....they just never really panned out as intended......
That is kind of what I thought, I never found any anywere. Oh well im not shure if i would want any because it woulg get annyoing waching my tank lights turn on and off
nikesb
Active Member
maybe i can shed some light on these bulbs. neptunes case was from a bad batch of bulbs i believe. i have my hands on one of these and cool down tends to be different depending on the ballast. i ran a regular mh and turned it off at the same time and the twin arc refired 10 seconds shortly after. so nothing wrong there. i wouldnt go out and say dont purchase these bulbs as they bring growth and color to the table if you ran 10k/20k. i have the 20k/20k, mainly to test if itll last longer than a regular 20k bulb.