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Icecap vs Workhorse
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:53 pm
by Phisher
I have been trying to deceide if the icecap is worth paying about an extra $100 for. My main concern was bulb life, my current setup uses WH7. The vho bulbs last about 12 months before being noticible washed out by the mh so they prob needed to be replaced 2 months ago. I contacted Icecap to see what conparative info they would give me.
Using the IC 660, with a fan (or two) in the canopy to keep the lamp heat removed from the hood, you can get 18 (6552 hours) to 24 months (8736 hours) out of your VHO lamps and 24+ on T5s before they need to be replaced. Using a "tar" ballast you will only get about 6 to 9 months (2184 to 3276 hours).
Assuming this is even close to accurate, it would cost me an extra $110 a every 18mos for bulb replacement.
Just wanted to pass that info on.
Joe
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:19 pm
by Scott
WH& are also electronic. They are not tar ballast so if they both use the same starting method and current the lamps would last an equal amount of time on IceCap or WH.
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:29 pm
by ShagMan
Yeah, all Fullham Workhorses are electronic. It's easy to tell, because they're WAY too light to have the coil in it.
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:44 pm
by Phisher
Oh wow. I assumed it wasn't electronic because of the amount of heat it produced. Thought electronic ballasts ran cooler.
Joe
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:44 pm
by Brandon
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... +workhorse
Look down at the post from moonpod, don't know if this is true, speculation or whatnot.
The sad thing is that I have a couple of Icecaps and have not hooked them up, am still using the tar ballast for the moment.. Just had too much to do, I'll get them setup some day.
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:07 pm
by tbmoore
I have been running ice cap on vho for years with no problem....MH now is another question...the 120v/400watt ballast have been a problem....I am now testing a coralvue 120v/400w ballast I got from Progressive Marine and so far works fine....has built in fans..and cheaper than Ice Cap...I had gotten 4 Ice cap from customMarine and they gave me no help when then went out about a month later...the kept selling some they had in stock even though there was several post on the Ice Cap problem...It took about a yr to get replacements...(Ice Cap did send some tar ballast to get me thru..) but I am not sure they have the problem solved yet since I just had one go out and replaced it with a coralvue.
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:45 pm
by medikall
I dont know about the WH ballast, but the IceCap is actually more than just an electronic ballast. They use a much higher frequency in order to keep heat down and prolong bulb life than other ballasts.
I am running 2x250 MH IceCap, and 1 IceCap 430. I love this setup and I actually got almost 3 years out of my vho's they still looked good on the output I just thought it might be time to replace. (Im sure I probably should have replaced sooner, but the corals still looked good and flouresced well when MH's were completely overpowering them, which even happens brand new)
Dont know if this helps, I love my IceCap's
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 4:20 pm
by Brandon
medikall wrote:I love this setup and I actually got almost 3 years out of my vho's they still looked good on the output I just thought it might be time to replace.
I guess I need to hookup the icecap, I'm replacing mine every 6 months at $42 a bulb.
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:14 pm
by tbmoore
the only problem with icecap I have heard of or had is with the 120v 400 watt MH ballast and it has been kicking their butt....my other ballast from Icecap has been great.
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:27 pm
by Scott
I have heard of a lot of 660's having to be sent back for repairs. I had to send mine off when it was a year old. There was no charge for it but it was a hassle and that thing stunk when it went bad. I would use whichever was cheaper so that I could have an extra.
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 6:56 pm
by Brandon
Scott wrote:I have heard of a lot of 660's having to be sent back for repairs. I had to send mine off when it was a year old. There was no charge for it but it was a hassle and that thing stunk when it went bad. I would use whichever was cheaper so that I could have an extra.
Ditto.. $30 vs $150, you can buy a lot of vho's for $120.
Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 1:32 pm
by Phisher
I contacted Icecap about this comparison and got this reply.
The WH-7 isn't a fair comparison. It's an inexpensive ballast can't compare to the features of an IceCap Electronic VHO ballast.
IceCap's are UL approved to overdrive NO, HO T-5, T-8 & T-12 lamps as well as light VHO lamps using a feedback loop that measures the lamp load being used and reacts appropriately to it.
The WH is notorious for its hard starting of lamps as well as conventional approach to operating them. That is why lamp ends blacken as the filaments are slowly depleted. IceCap uses a different technology that isn't limited by the filaments.
An IceCap run lamp lights evenly and provides double the lamp life of other VHO ballasts.
We include safety features that turn off the ballast at the hint of an open circuit.
IceCap is backed by the best customer service oriented company in the aquarium business.
IceCap VHO ballasts are dimmable.
An IceCap ballasts saves you money on electricity, air conditioning (next to no waste heat from the ballast) and new lamps (expect 18 - 24 months or more with VHO and T-5 HO lamps).
IceCap is the only repairable ballasts I know of. Check E-Bay to see how they hold their value because customers know even a broken IceCap is worth more than most new ballasts.
And finally, IceCap ballasts are made in the USA.
Andy
Apparently this guy is the President of Icecap Inc. Pretty much an icecap commercial I guess. Still undeceided here.
Joe
Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 11:22 pm
by snoopdog
My 660 did end up burning up while in warranty, had a horrible stinch when it died, when it came back from repair it still stunk.
Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2004 1:18 am
by reeferpuffer
im going with work horse, ive sent WAY to many icecap ballasts back to the company for repairs, and i belive if you have the dimmer, it will work with the WH also. the guts are all the same, by the way, i think WH are cooler than icecaps, although ice caps stay cool, work horses are what im going for, lets put it this way, i dropped a WH ballast in the water while it was plugged in, and after my initial shock..lol, it still worked after it dried out, my lights from my icecap fell into the water a couple months ago and it blew the ballast up....so, theres my selling point
Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:08 am
by 110chadman
where can you get wh ballast at localy in mob or pcola