Digital Ballasts

Digital ballasts offer growers several important advantages over magnetic ballasts. First they give you up to 30% more light from your bulbs. Dimmable digital ballasts give you the ability to run a single bulb at different wattages and tailor your lighting to your grow. Finally they give off much less heat than magnetic ballasts which is great if your ballast is inside your grow room.

With so many brands of ballasts it can be hard to decide which one is best for you. That is why you will want to read my Solis Tek Matrix 1000W Digital Ballast Review before you buy one.

I recently purchased a Solis Tek 1000w ballast from Amazon for $188 with free shipping and wanted to review it for you. I am expanding and have set up a new grow closet and that meant buying a new HID lighting set up. Read more about my Super Closet Grow Room Set Up.

 I have a spare 1000w magnetic ballast but chose not to use it and go with a digital ballast for all the reasons above.

Upon unboxing my Solis Tek ballast it seemed very heavy, solid and well built. It is almost twice the size of a Lumatec or similar ballast. I think this is because with more surface area it can dissipate heat better. It does get warm when running but not hot.

It runs silently. I had a pair of Quantum ballasts that I returned because they made an ungodly hum so I was really glad this one was quiet.

I also own a pair of Phantom 600w ballasts and they are very good but I like the Solis Tek better. If you want you can also read my Phantom 600w digital ballast review.

The Solis Tek ballasts have a reputation for being extremely reliable and are the choice of many commercial growers. They are also cheaper than the Phantom 1000w ballasts and only a few dollars more than the 600 watter.

I will give you a rundown on this ballast and what its features are but if you don’t want to read a full review and just want to buy this ballast you can click the link below:

Buy The Solis Tek Matrix 1000W Digital Ballast From Amazon Now

Here are some of the features:

• Ignition Control – the only ballast(s) that will ignite your lamps sequentially, one at a time, with soft start technology for true efficiency
• Sensesmarttm technology – (pre-ignition checks) – Solis-Tek ballasts will not ignite without a complete and proper connection
• Dimmable,with Multi-wattage Capabilility, Only 1 Remote Needed for All Solis Tek Ballasts

Here Is What I Like About The Solis Tek Digital Ballast

If you run more than one light at a time you will like the fact that this ballast is smart enough to ignite one at a time and not overload your circuit.

It runs 400/600/1000 with standard settings but this ballast allows you to use the 40 watt overdrive on all your settings.  Many others only offer overdrive on the highest setting.

Another nice thing is it runs on either 120 or 240 volts and includes both power cords. If you can run on 240 you will save  money because you will use half the amps and amps are what you get charged for.

Built In Timer

It has a built in timer allowing you to run different light cycles.The Solis Tek ballast can run the following cycles: 12/12, 18/6, 19/5, 20/4 and 23/1. The timer is set to start counting from when you activate it.

Solis Tek Remote Control

If you want to start your lights at a specific time you will want to get the Solis Tek remote to set an exact time. It only cost about $20 and can be used to activate multiple ballasts and I would definitely recommend buying it. It has to be ordered separately, also you will need 3 AAA batteries to run it. I didn’t buy it at first and ended up getting it a few days later anyway.

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Works With A Splitter

Solis Tek also makes a splitter that will allow this ballast to run 2 600w bulbs. It runs them at 500w each but if you run 600 watt bulbs you only need one ballast and not 2. If I had known this I would not have bought my 2 Phantoms and could have saved a bundle only buying one ballast.

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I am using this ballast with a 1000w Eye Hortilux HPS and it lights it perfectly. The bulb comes on and off gradually to help your bulbs last longer. The remote also works great and means I can change settings from outside the grow room.

What I Don’t Like

Nothing really. I think this is a great ballast. The only negative is that the digital read out is hard to see in a brightly lit up grow room, but if you have the remote that is a non issue.

Solis Tek Matrix 1000W Digital Ballast Review Final Verdict

I would highly recommend you buy the Solis Tek Matrix 1000W Digital Ballast. There are ballasts available for less but if your cheap ballast dies during a grow did you really save any money? The Solis Tek is battle proven by commercial growers and is very reliable. It offers some features not found on more expensive ballasts too. It also is favorably priced compared to the competition. You can scroll down to read Amazon customer reviews or click the link below to go to Amazon and buy the Solis Tek digital ballast.

Special Offer! Save Over $200 On A Complete 1000W HPS System

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I recently updated my grow room with a better light system choosing the Phantom 600 Watt digital ballast. Besides going from a single 1000w HPS to 2 600 watt bulbs I went from using the standard magnetic ballast to a digital ballast.

I had been hearing horror stories about Lumatec ballasts at my local hydro shop and wanted to avoid those. I originally started out trying a set of Quantum ballasts but the results were quite disappointing. The price was right and they had good reviews but mine sucked. They got very hot, the fans were noisy and they also had a weird throbbing, pulsing sound, like out of Dr Frankenstein’s lab that I could hear all over my house. So back to Amazon they went.

Personally, I think these ballasts are all made in the same factory and are basically the same ballasts, they just paint Lumatec purple and Quantum orange.

Instead of giving up on digital ballasts, I decided to spend a bit more money and get a pair of Phantom Digital Ballasts, also dimmable and also 600 Watt. Boy am I glad I ponied up the extra cash.

My magnetic ballast was bullet proof and worked pretty well too. But my grow room is small and since it is in a closet ventilation is tricky. It has exhaust into the attic area but there is no where to put an intake vent that wont be seen by prying eyes.

Intake is from the adjacent room under the door which is fine in the winter but not the summer. I needed a way to keep temps down and needed to replace my old ballast. I also added 2 air cooled blockbuster reflectors to my room. So this is a total rework of my grow room. Temps are now at least 10 degrees cooler.

The real reason I switched is in the video below. Watch it because it’s a real eye opener. Although there wasn’t much difference in PAR output among digital ballasts they produced 39% PAR than a comparable magnetic ballast. This is huge, especially when you consider how much you are paying for electricity. Not to mention plants can never really get too much light. So I was sold on digital ballasts from that point on.

Phantom 600 Watt Digital Ballast Review

OK so now that you know why switching to a digital ballast is a good idea here’s my review of the Phantom ballast.

This is a solid well built unit. No knobs falling off like on my Quantums. Actually there are no knobs, it is push button. It is quiet, in fact it is silent.

Even though it doesn’t have a fan (one less thing to break) it runs very cool. Yes it gets a bit warm but definitely not hot. You can comfortably leave your hand in place when you touch it.

The power cords are heavy duty and long enough to easily reach a power source. It also has built in breakers as an added safety feature. There is a dual plug so you wont have to worry about different plug styles on any reflector you want to use.

I really like the extended handle on this unit too. If you want to mount on a wall you have airflow around the entire ballast. So the Phantom offers the versatility to be wall mounted, stood on end or set flat.

This unit is dimmable and offers 60, 75 or 100% power. What I noticed is this unit powers up gradually which can save bulb life. Other ballasts seem to switch over immediately and are full on when activated. But the Phantom powers up gradually over about 10 minutes time. It also dims gradually when you lower the settings.

These units have a reputation for being bullet proof and extremely reliable too. This was a big concern for me initially, especially after hearing all the horror stories about other digital ballasts. So far I have been running mine for about 6 months without even a hiccup so they live up to their reputation.

I highly recommend the Phantom 600 Watt Digital Ballast if you are setting up a new grow room or replacing an old magnetic ballast. You will get more light, less heat, and use less electricity too.