# Dealing with RFI.



## fortphoenix (Mar 19, 2016)

hey guys Im wondering how you deal with RFI? I know gavitas, LEDs and magnetic ballasts barely produce RFI and shortening the chord and faraday cages help but are there any other real fixes for electric ballasts?

 i know theres ferrite beads/chokes and RFI paint and products like nanolux filter kits but has any body ever tried these to know if they work? cant find reviews anywhere. theres a few threads on this info but theyre quite outdated, theres got to be a good,simple solution by now. any e-ballasts/hoods/bulbs that dont produce RFI at all? any input is appreciated!!!


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## RubyRed (Mar 19, 2016)

Thats way DEEP


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## Hushpuppy (Mar 24, 2016)

Im not sure but in my experience, the electronic ballasts are typically encased in a grounded aluminum case and should barely give off any RFI to any distance. It may be coming from your bulbs. If you don't use "electronic" bulbs with electronic ballasts, they will begin to resonate in the gasses and elements which will give of RFI signals that are driving the bulb. "Electronic" are supposedly made to handle the high frequency signals without resonating. This also causes the standard bulbs to fail sooner because they degrade faster under the high frequency battering.

I am not a salesman by any stretch but I love the Digilux bulbs. They are a little pricey but I believe they are worth it. I have personally tested them against hortilux in a grow a few years ago and found that the Digi's outperformed the Hortilux by about 20% on lumens and about 30% on life. Now that was about 5 years ago when I tested them so that could've changed but the Digi's are still my favorite. 

 Ok I gushed enough about the Digilux bulbs. Just be sure you have bulbs specifically made to run on electronic ballasts and that should solve the problem. 

Unless you have a cheapo ballast  then theres no guarantees. :doh:


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## fortphoenix (Mar 27, 2016)

Hushpuppy said:


> Im not sure but in my experience, the electronic ballasts are typically encased in a grounded aluminum case and should barely give off any RFI to any distance. It may be coming from your bulbs. If you don't use "electronic" bulbs with electronic ballasts, they will begin to resonate in the gasses and elements which will give of RFI signals that are driving the bulb. "Electronic" are supposedly made to handle the high frequency signals without resonating. This also causes the standard bulbs to fail sooner because they degrade faster under the high frequency battering.
> 
> I am not a salesman by any stretch but I love the Digilux bulbs. They are a little pricey but I believe they are worth it. I have personally tested them against hortilux in a grow a few years ago and found that the Digi's outperformed the Hortilux by about 20% on lumens and about 30% on life. Now that was about 5 years ago when I tested them so that could've changed but the Digi's are still my favorite.
> 
> ...



damn was that 20% difference from using a digital or magnetic? and 20% on yield too or just lumens & life? but yeah I'm going to go with the Phantom II ballasts supposedly they have built in RFI protection and I've read nothing but good things about them so I'm going to try them out. I'm actually about to make another thread asking for reflector setup help because my life long friend who's been in florida all winter just came back and wants to put 4 flood trays in his house and we need suggestions


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