Old Reviews Stinky ballast

[Oldbie]

last night I wired up my new Lumii Metta 600 watt HPS. man what a chemical stink!
it was stinking straight out of the box when I bought it earlier in the week, so I left it sitting for a few days, hoping to let any chemical vapours dissipate.
power supply and cord lengths do not allow to place it outside the grow room.
I left the extraction vent on all night, but still this morning...whooooeeeee,
no chance of smelling any growing odour; the ballast is by far out-stinking everything!.
what is this chemical smell? is it toxic? will it affect my plants?
for obvious reasons I am a bit reluctant to contact www.grow-lumii.com directly and grill them about it.

 

[Oldbie]

UPDATE
man that ballast had to go; well...out of the grow room. the chemical stink was over-powering; it just has to be bad for the plants. another two hours spent re-wiring. I extended the power
lead so that I can have the ballast in the next room, which is now the stink-zone; even with all the windows open. it would be interesting to get the company's explanation, but really what are they going to say? some apologist would come along, make all the right reassuring noises, whether they believed what they were saying or not, because that's what has to happen when business is at stake. on the plus side, it was reasonably priced, starts up beautifully quiet, un- like my 400 watt MH, which sounded like someone putting a tank into first gear.The amount of light that the plants are now getting is a big improvement. BUT, that toxic stink; if I'd known it was going to be so strong I think I might have stuck with my old MH. I am going to have to have windows open for the duration of this grow, just to ensure I am not getting poisoned in some way.
oh well.

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

like tcp ? its welding something inside the box.get it out of there before it goes bang.

 

[Oldbie]

like tcp ? its welding something inside the box.get it out of there before it goes bang.

Hi archie, don't give me a heart attack man!
seriously I don't think its a hazard in that respect; it had the chemical stink as soon as I opened the box to have a look at it,
and yes now that its running it has the same stink cos of the heat generated, but its more a petro-chemical thing, and not a burning smell.
I am sure it will dissipate over time, but until then, its all windows open.
the dude in the grow shop said hes been selling different brands for 15 years and Lumii is the most reliable with the fewest problems yet.

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

he wont have problem in swapping it with another ballast of same make,model that dosnt stink.
my tcp smell ended in a fire.

 

[Oldbie]

sorry to hear Archie, no wonder you gave such a stark warning.
strangely I didn't see an alert for your response, hence my getting back to you late.
I 'll do the @archie gemmill thing to alert you to this message.
the ballast is still a bit smelly but it is diminishing; its a resin thing I think;
I saw some a review on amazon for a slightly different model from same company (therefore more than likely similar components) , freaking out about a plastic smell and wondering if it was a fire risk, and someone who seemed to know what they were about responded with reassuring noises about resin used in the manufacturing being a bit odourous when it was new. maybe I ll give the dude a ring today-I know i know , I shoulda done it sooner.

 

[Cat]

I would try change for another

 

[Oldbie]

A FURTHER, FURTHER UPDATE
ok, I rang the dude at the shop; he obviously doesn't like the sound of it and encourages me to "bring it back".
so despite doing too much driving yesterday, I resign myself to doing THE 3 HOUR ROUND TRIP!
I power down and put "stinky" back in its box.
later, I get there, straight away a new one is plonked in front of me, and I say
"can we open it and do the smell test, cos' I don't want to go all the way home with exactly the same problem"
we open it and theres the same smell, though perhaps not quite as "whoah daddy" as the first one.
anyhooooooooooooooo, I decided to purchase a spare 600 watt Lumii HPS bulb (naturally I blag a discount to partially make up for this inconvenience),
and before I leave I notice a few single seed samples on the counter and ask the dude, whats going on here?
he tells me someone came in, says he didn't want them and left them for anyone to have.
dude says I can have one. two were total unknowns, the third, Dinafem Critical+ (photo), so i said this one.
that's it, I drove all the way home. powered up, SAME STINK.
was the swap worth it? well yes because now I know this is normal for this product (either that or its from a bad batch),
and theres considerably less worry about fire-risk etc. also if he (and he should) tells the Lumii rep why it was returned,
and perhaps some other people do the same, the message might get through that this is unacceptable.
strong petro-chemical smells are never good news on the health front., so I am kind of sorry I bought this product, however well it functions.
LUMII-YOU NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE STINK!
maybe some day the Dinafem Critical will make up for the whole sorry saga.
here endeth the review.