Review on 🌱 VIVOSUN Hydroponic Electronic Horticulture Protection by Nick Brunner

TL; DR He died after 3 months. I gave it 2 stars because at the time of writing this article there was no light in my garden for 3 days: the ballast blew up and reset my circuit breaker while I was on holiday. My friend who was helping with the watering thought he only showed up when the timer was off so unfortunately he didn't think anything was wrong. However, when I got home, I immediately knew something was wrong and began to understand. After attempting to restart the circuit, the device does not activate the circuit breaker immediately, but within the time it takes for the light to turn on after the device is turned on (about a second before it trips), the circuit off again. That's when I checked the ballast and immediately smelled fried electronics with powdered charcoal spewing out of the exhaust. I bought the device 3 months ago and it has worked well for that time. The device fed both the MH and the HPS, both of which were designed for electronic ballasts and 600 watts each. Although it worked at the time (that's why I'm giving it a 2 and not a 1), it still failed very early on. The attached figure shows the cause of the error. It appears that the output capacitor either punched through the thin insulator or burned out causing a short circuit. The insulator seems very thin for the high voltage on the output line, so it could be a bad design (no expert on that). I have emailed the manufacturer to discuss the issue and am awaiting a response. EDIT: The manufacturer contacted me a day after sending the support email. They send a new block to my address. Very pleased with the speed and ease of device replacement. UPDATE: The manufacturer responded to my email very quickly and offered a replacement. They shipped it and the replacement arrived the same week I notified them (emailed Monday, replacement received Thursday). Overall very happy with the ease of getting a replacement and the support provided. Upgrade to 3 stars based on excellent support. I'll try this new module and update if it outlasts the old one.