Mastercolor Retro-white bulbs?

Hey, I was just wondering if anyone else is using these? I believe their Philips Mastercolor retro-white bulbs. I picked one up before switching to flower. Price difference is huge as a regular 400w HPS is only $11 and this one ran me $70. I have seen a few people talking about them and that they are supposed to give off a much greater light spectrum than pretty much anything I've seen on the market and it's not even rated as a grow bulb. The light in the room is a big difference too. check it out. The first is the regular bulb and the second one is of the retro white.

I just ordered 2 of the phillips conversion bulbs myself. (Here, a MH 400w is $20 @Home Depot, the Phillips bulb cost me $55)There really is a lack of info on them, so I guess you and I get to be the guinea pigs. I bought it cuz I am worried now about working/getting exposed to MH in such close proximity. (Had a broken UV shield inside the bulb, and a severe skin reaction resulted)
From what I can gather, they are a HPS bulb, with the addition of some sort of ceramic element to compensate and extend the wavelength range to somewhere between 4000 and 4500 deg K. They are designed for use with an HPS ballast. I also read that the output (lumens) are not QUITE that of a TRUE HPS, but I cam probably live with that since I have alot of HPS units, with access to as many as I want. We'll soon see.
Right now, they are under both MH and HPS lighting. I'm gonna switch to the 2 conversion bulbs today. Looks like we'll see, the plants are 3 weeks into flower, so results will be posted here pretty soon.


Fingers and toes crossed!!!!!!

There is a long thread on these here:

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/42835-hps-mh-floros-phillips-cermamic.html

Like most long threads, read the first couple pages and last couple.

(I have no opinion really, just sitting on the sidelines watching)

Well shit!!! I thought I had bought a GE "Chroma-Fit", which has 40,000 lumens at 4200k. I ended up with the Ushio version called "UltraArc". Same principle, except I lost 17,000 lumens, and its CT is 5200k.
Ultra-Arc™ - Metal Halide - General Lighting - USHIO

On a more positive note, Ushio makes a bulb specifically for vegging and flowering (I shit you not, they say it is for maximum flower yeild) They call it the HiLux Gro.
HiLux Gro - Grow Light - Horticulture - USHIO


So looks like I paid double for less light!!!! If the stats are true for the chromafit bulb, it's the shit!!!!

I was sittin around in my grow room the other day when all of a sudden the light went out.... F*** SH** A** M*THER F*CK*R. So all in all the $70 bulb lasted me about 2 weeks and died. Back to the reg. HPS.

Man, I hate that for ya. What caused them to blow? Did you notice a drop in lumens with the phillips bulbs? I am beginning to think that unless you are on a real tight budget, conversion bulbs aren't worth it. Convenient, yes, practical for growing, no. Too big a drop in lumens from what I've seen.

damn they are jacking these bulbs up, i got 4 of em like 4 months ago for 35, I never had an issue with one blowing though still using the first one i unpacked. sorry bro i feel for you.

OnSolomonsGrave said:

damn they are jacking these bulbs up, i got 4 of em like 4 months ago for 35, I never had an issue with one blowing though still using the first one i unpacked. sorry bro i feel for you.

Click to expand...

What brand do you have? Did you lose light? Are you happy with them? I hear that GE and Phillips dont have a lumen loss, but the Ushio surely do.

mine are Horizontal phillips bulbs, I have almost no lumen loss, i will use em for about a year and just stash em incase of emergency. Forgot to mention i use a comination of CMH and MH during veg and HPS and CMH during flowering and i am happy with the results.

See, thats what I hear is ideal. I might have to re-think this. I was just disappointed with the light loss.

to start with i think that bulb up top looks to whit to be flowering, should be redder like the first pic. your k should be up around 7200 for nice buds

except it has the best spectrum when mixed with HPS. Look at the Phillips spectrum charts on advanced lightings site.

i use a 430 watt hps and it gives me the 30% more blue than a regular hps and was only 30 bucks. cheeper and probably same results. but i cant say i have never even heard of the other ones.

This is what I found for light spectrum. It's not rated as a grow bulb but while it was running my plants seemed to grow fine and I had alot of THC building on everything from the fan leaves to the stalks of the plants. I guess I'll never know what the end outcome would have been because I'm back to a regular HPS bulb.

bonz said:

i use a 430 watt hps and it gives me the 30% more blue than a regular hps and was only 30 bucks. cheeper and probably same results. but i cant say i have never even heard of the other ones.

Click to expand...

Is your bulb a Phillips, or GE? From all I have read that 430w is a conversion bulb. An HPS with an additional metal Halide (Ceramic or Quartz) element for the blue spectrum. (Hence the additional 30w) How many lumens is it rated? I ordered a GE "Chroma-Fit", but got an Ushio. 17,000 lumens less than my HPS 400w. But HEY!!! It's got the blue!!! $60 just sitting on the shelf now.

Here is where they are at.

I'll take some pics when the light isn't messin up the picture. The bigger plant is really frosty lookin' but doesn't have the THC on the larger fan leaves like the clones. I can't wait for the clones to look as good as the mother. I started the mother off in soil as well and switched it to a hydro grow 3 weeks into flower. I also plan to cut the 4 clones at different stages to compare the high. Probably taking 1 early, 2 when I think they are just right and then leave one even longer.

hey pirate here`s the info on my bulb. this runs on a regular 400 hps ballast and if you want the ballast to be switchable for veg using mh just bypass the igniter on the ballast and it will run a mh bulb. i only paid 30 bucks for my bulb

Buy 430 Watt Son Agro HPS Light Bulb Here!

So you're telling me if I cut out the igniter in my HPS ballast I can run MH bulbs?

heres how to

How to wire your own Marijuana Grow lights &Save Money & Wiring 2 Rooms With 1 Ballast,