APL1000 Hydroponic 1000 - Watt HPS MH Digital Dimmable Electronic Ballast

The dude at my hydro shop has been telling me to switch over from my magnetic ballast to digital ones for years now. I really never took him seriously since I thought he was just trying to over sell me these ballast, but recently I decided to do some research to find out if it was worth the switch (considering I have 15 lights) Here are my findings and why I chose Apollo Horticulture: Digital ballast is more efficient, quieter, cooler and softer on the bulbs. Digital ballasts do not have any of the usual transformers, capacitors or igniters; instead this ballast has electronic circuitry to do the same job, more efficiently. What might take a standard coil/magnetic ballast 680-700 watts to fire a standard 600 watt bulb, may only take a digital ballast only 600-620 watts to fire the same bulb to the same brightness. Magnetic ballasts are hard starting ballast; when the ballast fires the bulb it sends full power to the cold bulb. Over time, this shortens the bulb life and reduces the PAR output of the bulb. Digital ballast starts by sending a low amount of power to the bulb and steadily increases the power over the next few minutes until the bulb has reached full brightness. This is also known as soft starting, which minimizes the damage to the bulb and increases its PAR life (PAR represents the plant useable light; it’s what plants “see” and use, versus lumens which are what people see). After one year of use the plant useable light coming from bulbs that are run on digital ballast has decreased only by 20-25% whereas the same bulb being used in the coil type ballast would have lost 50-60% of its plant useable light over the same period of time. Magnetic type ballast is also known to cause the bulb to flicker or strobe. This takes place so quickly that neither human eye nor light meter can pick it up. Digital ballast provides a uniform power supply to the bulb, thus eliminating the flickering from the bulb. A great feature of digital ballast is the ability to run both MH and HPS bulbs on the same ballast without having to flip a switch. Digital ballast will recognize the difference between the two types of bulbs and fire them accordingly. This Digital ballast will also shut down if there is a short in the system. After some savvy research I found out that there really isn’t much of a difference from let’s say a Lumatek digital ballast to an Apollo Horticulture. The big difference I did find was its price tag. I was going to go with another well known internet brand (iPower), but the thing is that they do not offer a 3 year warranty. The warranty alone made me buy Apollo Horticulture. So far so good, if I have any Cons in the future with this brand I will make sure to update my review.

This product is very well made and does everything the information says it does. Upon receiving the item in the mail, I read the directions and they were very easy to understand and follow. The box it came in was sturdy, packed well. No defects or anything upon arrival. I hooked it up, and it started right up after getting everything hooked together. The ballast is not loud at all, it does make noise, but that because of the cooling fans. The ballast never has overheated ever, not once has there been a problem with any of it. You can turn down settings or wattage of the ballast. This is a dimmable digital electronic ballast, and you can run it at 100% power (1000w), 75% power (750 watts), 50% power (500 watts). I run my ballast at 75% just so it saves on electric and drain on the house. I have it connected to a analog timer, and it works like a charm. It does a "cool start" so it doesn't drain the electric from the house all at once. I wanted to wait to review this product, until I have used it for awhile, and I can say from all my usage of this ballast, I can say, I would recommend this product for anyone who needs a good, energy efficient ballast!

works great; just be careful not to overload your home's electric! I had to reset the circuit breaker a few times prior to settling on the 50% power option. It is nice that you can choose between 50 vs 75 vs 100%, so can regulate the lighting output. Simple to set up, easy to use, gets a little warm with use but not hot - so I just set it on a towel to insulate the floor below and make sure not to obstruct the unit's fan.

I received my ballast fast. Plugged it right in to my existing 1000w lamp and it fired right up. Thats 5 star to me. Just had a back surgery so I just put this on my one of my shelves under the blown out ballast. This unit is light, has it's own fan and runs surprisingly cool. These digitals are great. I have 5 Apollo's now and no problems. Highly recommend Apollo. To the reviewers who scream don't buy because theirs blew out or didn't start. Your dealing with electronics people and a few % won't work anyways but the other 97% of them will work fine. So far everything I've bought from apollo has worked fine. Good price and they work as expected. Take some of these reviews with a grain of salt. Don't forget to put on the little rubber feet if you set it on a shelf. Allows air under it, plus manufacturer says do not blow air on the unit anyways so just set and forget.

I purchased this a little over 2.5yrs ago when it cost around $100 and for the first few months it was great however I have had many dangerous issues with it. At about the year mark of ownership I happened to be walking by and heard a popping sound. Found the grounded plug it was plugged into completly melting and sparking and shut down within seconds afterwards. Called an electrictian, he came out and he gave me a lists of reasons this could have happened so we replaced the grounded plug and purchased a timer he recommended. Another year passed and things seemed to be fine until one day I came home to the smell of electrical burning and smoke. Found the timer completly destroyed and the new plug melted again. Contacted same electrician, followed the same steps and at his recommendation purchased a different timer and put into a sturdier, safer plug completly on its own curcuit but have been keeping an eye on it (he said it was probably a ballast issue but it could have been a timer malfuction so either replace both or replace the timer but be aware of the potential dangers). Its only been about 3 months since that occured when a couple days ago I again smelled the faint scent of smoke, went in and found the timer smoking. It hadnt quite melted anything or done any serious damage but if I hadnt been here who knows what could have happened. After calling the electrician again he highly recommended I replace the ballast completly since it's almost impossible that every other item I tried had all malfuctioned in the same exact manor. All I can say is that I'm extremely lucky to not have had a deadly fire or done any serious damage. I won't order from this company again, I wont even bother trying to get my warrenty honored after reading issues other people have had with them. I suggest not purchasing this product and spending the extra money on a higher quality. In the end, after all the electrian visits and replacing items I could have bought 3 high quality ballasts and that doesnt even include the fact that I have to still buy a new ballast anyways.

They are cheap they do the job but really you get what you pay for, I am transitioning into newer technology but these were a cheap fix for older degradated equipment. I have had one go on me, 1st ballast of over 30 I have EVER fail in less than 6 month constant use.

So glad that I found this. This has been much more cost effective alternative of hydro ballast...It's a quiet and smooth running unit with built in cooling fan. Came quickly and nicely packaged with simple set up. No problems to report after multiple cycles so hopefully it will continue run like a champ. The fan helps it stay cool, so I don't have to worry about it overheating when I am not home. A very professional company to deal with when I called for questions. I will definitely purchase from then again in the future regarding any future projects. Thanks Apollo for making growing more affordable and effective. Wishing everyone out there a great harvest this year!

Bought this product last year and received two of them for this price. Definitely disappointed when I received it and there was only one for the same price as two last year.

The ballast is nice, the option to use only half or 3/4 power is awesome. For some reason, the ballast died during the second year of use on low setting. I contacted low.baller... and he replaced it promptly as it was advertised as having a three year warranty. Low.baller is an awesome seller. Thank you for the awesome customer service Low.baller.

What can I say, works well and has a 3 year warranty, you would be hard pressed to find a better quality ballast for this price, and the warranty speaks for itself

garbage! no mogul, parts missing, you cannot plug a light into this it doesnt come complete you have to buy other pieces for this ballast p.s this is the 7th item i have purchased thru amazon that has a catch like this! It should come with a mogul so stupid. /Okay so iam updating it has been three weeks now Iam from Canada I finally got out to the hydroponic shop to get the Mogul and it works wonderfully now that it is a full ballast and for the price even with purchasing the extra piece is still amazing my local shop sells this ballast for $399.00! So please before buying make shire u look into getting the Mogul it otherwise it is a great great ballast I also dropped it from 4 feet and it works wonderfully still I dropped it about a week ago and it works great nothing broke honestly a great ballast

I bought this on September 8th 2016 which is just over two years ago, it was hardly used and today it stopped working. It seemed to be working fine for the last month I have been using it. I read it has a three year warranty. I bought two of them so I hope the other one doesn't crap out too. I will be trying to have it replaced through Apollo warranty, if they I'll change my rating on this unit. Update, got in touch with Apollo, got a brand new unit in less than a week. Therefore the new rating is a 5, customer service was a 10 and their warranty was awesome, on point. Will buy again.

Thing popped with smoke and everything on a properly grounded and tested line. Waste of time and uses crap parts.