Anyone have any experience with catalina bulbs quality ?

[candymancan]

I have a power compact light and I bought a catalina plant grow bulb its a pink bulb.. and I have a duel 6700/6700 bulb in there also.. Well I have had it only a month and sometimes the bulb wouldn't work.. was like this the day I got it.. but then it worked fine for 2-3 weeks so I thought nothing of it..

Well today when I turned on my light fixture the bulb blew up on the end where the 2 bulb are linked together. (opposite of the plug end) I thought it was the ballast maybe so I plugged the other light in there but it worked fine.. and that ballast never had issues with the actinic light that was in it.. So b ecause I was having issues with this bulb before im going to blame the bulb..

And the brand is Catalina.. Im a little ticked off because these aren't cheap $25-30 a bulb.. Im going to call the place I got it from on amazon and see if they will replace it.. Now im worried about mercury as this is in my bedroom.. I picked up all the pieces I could see and wiped everything down and vacuumed.. yea I know vacuuming isn't good but its a white carpet.. and I don't want to step on little shards.. opened the window and turned the ceiling fan on.. Not sure what else to do.. This is the first time in 20 years ive had a bulb explode on me

 

[candymancan]

well I called them like 4 days ago and they are not returning my calls... is catalina even still around ??

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

well I called them like 4 days ago and they are not returning my calls... is catalina even still around ??

I don't think it is a brand we get in the UK.

My experience with compact fluorescents hasn't been very good, other than the PL2 lamps. All the ones with a lot of folds have failed fairly quickly. I prefer linear T5 (and a PL2 is really just a T5 folded in half).

cheers Darrel

 

[candymancan]

I hear what your saying.. but a single PC bulb is basically 2 T5's in one and T5's are the same price as one PC bulb... with the right reflector or one you make yourself it can have the same intensity as a t5 ho... amd with the duel option... one 6700k and 10k or what not and all the other combo's... Plus I got this duel 65W pc fixture for free.. and modded the reflector so each bulb is separate from eachother much like good t5 reflectors..

But the catalina brand.. is something from California.. they have a website.. they sell there bulbs and lights in general everywhere.. yet they still haven't returned my calls... Figures... There must be a reason why the big brands never made plant grow bulbs for the PC lights.

 

[roadmaster]

Hamilton lighting Technology is where I purchased my PC bulbs.
I like em.