Re: [APD] IceCap ballasts hype or not?--All the claims are true,sort of

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Well, mainly I unplugged them because I wanted more light
not less.  That was reason enough.  But truthfully, there
were other reasons, too.

IceCap told me they would work with some particular models
of bulbs I was interested in trying out.  These were Normal
Output bulbs (NOs) that IceCap said would work fine on
their ballast but it burned them out in just a few weeks. 
IceCap, after talking with me, tested the bulbs and
confirmed that the ballast burned out the bulbs in just a
couple weeks.  That's how I found out that they work with
NOs by overdriving them. 

The NOs were not my ultimate intended use for the IceCap
ballast, but this also led me to discover that IceCaps
underdrive VHOs, which were my ultimate intended use.  It
was disappointing to find out I had paid a lot of money for
a ballast that 'works with VHOS' but the ballast only runs
a 110 watt bulb at 65 watts  -- that's okay if you want
your bulbs to last longer than normal but not very good if
the reason you went with VHOs was fit more light under the
hood).  

Not a technical reason but part of the equation for me was
the fact that IceCap was so secretive, imo, about giving
out any performance data, such as as the wattage at which
it drives NOs, VHOs, PCs.  

Along the way I found out about PCs and how well the
Fulhams performed and how easy it was to deal with Fulham
and AHS;  after all that, I just didn't have much use for
the IceCaps. Besides, how could I learn anyting if I didn't
try diff things, diff brands?  

I never had a reason to reinstall the IceCaps.  I'm
thinking of putting them in the garage, which doubles as my
woodworking shop -- I can always use more light there --
and maybe use them to run some of the old bulbs in my stock
pile in the basement -- mostly VHOs and NOs, since I don't
find any need to replace PCs before they quit working.

IceCaps work. As electronic ballasts go they are well
constructed and the service is very good -- yes, one of
mine died after a few months, but they fixed it quickly. 
IceCap ballasts do what IceCap claims if you take the
claims literally and carefully and don't read anything into
them.

There is nothing super or special about the IceCaps, imo,
and there are better options for electronic ballasts.  The
main benefit of IceCaps, imo, is that they underdrive VHOs.
 That is not a useful feature for me -- well, in the
garage, providing supplemental lighting, I might not mind
that feature too much ;-) .

Scott H.

--- Jay Reeves <jreeves1 at mn_rr.com> wrote:
>> Scott, I am curious, what was it about the Ice Caps that
> caused you to pull the plug on them?  I can understand
> advising someone to start with a much less expensive
> Fulham,
> but why unplug the Ice Cap, unless, like myself, you want
> less light?


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________
Aquatic-Plants mailing list
Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/aquatic-plants