questions about HPS and other things

Hey all im newish to growing (ive grown before) and i have a few ?s i thought you guys could maybe help me with. ill list em in order for easy readin.

#1. and the thing im most worried about is my 400w hps overheating the fing thing is a cheapo unit and the ballast gets so hot itd burn ur hand if you pick it up ive used it before and ive lent it out so its seen some use but im a little worried about a fire. this a normal thing?

#2 ive been vegging for a month under t5s and plants are 14" tall and bushy as hell is it to early to flower i have 8' of ceiling. or should i wait longer?
Any advice would be apricated and ill post some pics later righr now im doin this on my fing phone from work it sucks

thats pretty hot. i run a 600w mag ballast and it gets warm to the touch. if it's literaly burning your hand theres def something wrong. personaly i would get a new ballast even if theres nothing wrong with it, thats too much heat for me. 14'' is prob fine to flip if your using a 400

if it burns your hand its definitely TOO HOT. you would be ok to switch it to the flowering stage (12/12) a good rule of thumb is to expect your plant to double or triple in height during flowering

^ what he said... I cloned the piss out of a couple i put into flower like about 3 weeks ago, so there root ball was that of a plant easily twice there size... i would say 1.5-2 feet high when initially put in flower... HOLY FUCK... they are already over 3 feet tall, although they are sativas and known for these shenanigans. they also had some stretching due to there lower stature in a room with mature plants about 3 feet tall, they are already taller then and way more healthy looking (mature plants were done wrong in many ways hahaha) than the OG's of the bunch.

ok got some pics not good ones but better then nothing.
so u guys think i should replace the ballast? i was afraid of that.
I got one more ? Whats the reflective material u guys line your grow rooms with?

mylar or panda cloth. i use panda cloth for my veg/clone area bc its strong enough to use for the walls. also as a liner for the floor.

This thread has me worried now. I have a single 150 hps from HTG, and I would be foolish to keep my hand on the case where the ballast is for more than a second or two, maybe three. It's pretty warm/hot.
Brand new light too. Oh well......

I suppose it is going to depend on the ballast itself, I have noticed the cheaper mag ballasts are not fully enclosed. I just bought a brand new 1000 a month ago and the transformer is part of the housing,so to speak.This is definitely going to make it hotter vs. a fully enclosed unit that is just retaining ambient heat from the transformer inside.

Throw a fan pointing directly on it, I had a 400 with. Built on balast ..shit got hot but the fan took care of it

I worried about fire until I found out how inexpensive automatic fire extinguishers are.
Picked mine up at HTG for around $40each and no longer have to worry about it.
Its the one piece of equipment I strongly recommend to anyone setting up a room or tent.
Small price to pay to save your life or just your property IMHO.

PinkFloyd426 said:

This thread has me worried now. I have a single 150 hps from HTG, and I would be foolish to keep my hand on the case where the ballast is for more than a second or two, maybe three. It's pretty warm/hot.
Brand new light too. Oh well......

Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry about a 150w that much as long as its well vented space anyway, which you would want to keep temperatures down below whatever is your preferred max (example 80 degrees). Mine has hot air venting around 95, and the top of the metal ballast is around 115ish, I have 5,000 btu ac clearing the room temp keep plants below 80 degrees anyhow, I think the 150w is like 500 btu of heat max for the light output(although this was just estimated roughly based on random google searches from what I gathered around forums).

I wouldn't be too concerned if your vented well, Besides capacitors would most likely fail and kill the circuit before any real likeliness of any fire, I don't know much about HPS lights at all, but speaking from general quality assurance practices they probably have very few models that would overheat to the extent of melting itsself, I think thats more common among high spike surges in power storms ect rather then just ambient heat, I don't think it was made to be safe to rest your hand on or anything anyhow, as its a grow light =P.

I have not heard too much negative about HTG, although I am aware they offer better quality bulbs then the default HTG ones you get normally, they seem to be relatively ok on customer service when replying to inquiry about a product. With 150w you have a lot less of a temp to worry about then 600w/1000w, you could always send them an email if you wanted, and they would probably advise you what the operating temps are ect.

http://www.htgsupply.com/contact.asp

Thanks for your reply and info. I would have got back to you faster but I still haven't figured out how to see if I had any replies to any of my post. I end up going thru all of them till I see a reply. I suppose I will not worry about it to much. Think I will look into the auto fire extinguisher someone mentioned earlier in this thread from HTG. Thanks again!