Hamilton lights ARE USELESS!!!!

[grigsy]

I totally disagree.

I have used Hamilton 250 watt HQI ballasts for over 6 years now. Never had one problem. Still use those same ballasts today. My original fixture was a Hamilton 2 x 250 watt + 2-96 watt that I bought 6 years ago.

As for their staff - I have visited their office twice before in person and talked with them on the phone several times - nothing but a positive experience. I find them to be helpful, honest and considerate people to deal with.

[Mikep503]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I was looking at a Hamilton set-up but will now be spending my money elsewhere!

[05TurboS2K]

Originally Posted by bhammer

Ahh, yup... I have one but will never again. Have your moon lights toped working yet?

Yes they have, only (1) light of the original (5 I think) is still working.... what a joke.

[05TurboS2K]

Originally Posted by cerobbins

I am not here to discredit anybody, but threads like these are typically somewhat silly. I seriously doubt Hamilton refused to offer you support. They probably did not offer you what you wanted though. They are a pretty well established company with as far as I am concerned a favorable reputation. I hope your problem is solved, but I am very skeptical to take any of these heated threads seriously. Every manufacturer will at one point or another have defects the question is how the respond. If you could show some direct correspondence between yourself and Hamilton then that is a different story, but until that is done I believe you may just be unhappy.

My correspondence was done by phone, I didn't bother to use a tape recorder so I'm sorry I can't PROVE this one way or the other. I much agree with you in general and I'm quick to be skeptical of threads like this one, being that this is mine... and that I'm in the manufacturing business myself I know what poor workmanship looks like as I'm careful to not let it occur.

Every manufacture has defects you're correct, mine included, but the thought processes of those who designed the said units is so primitive it's simply ridiculous. Basically the warranty is up though I didn't even run the units the first half the time I owned em but even so, I can pay for repairs (expensive) or buy new ones from them.

You're assumption is correct.... I AM UNHAPPY!!!!! But I think probably everyone was able to piece that much together from the title.

If I get email responses etc. I'll be sure to post them via screen shots w/ time stamps.

[05TurboS2K]

Originally Posted by grigsy

I totally disagree.

I have used Hamilton 250 watt HQI ballasts for over 6 years now. Never had one problem. Still use those same ballasts today. My original fixture was a Hamilton 2 x 250 watt + 2-96 watt that I bought 6 years ago.

As for their staff - I have visited their office twice before in person and talked with them on the phone several times - nothing but a positive experience. I find them to be helpful, honest and considerate people to deal with.

That's awesome to hear, I'm glad you had great luck! I however....haven't. In fact it's been far from it. Perhaps it was better 6 years ago, I've only been in the hobby for a few years so perhaps the tides changed, I can only speak from my experience and other's.

If when I visit in person they surprise me and handle this professionally and fairly I'll be sure to post that they did so. I'm a fair and honest man. I don't mind things like the glass cover that didn't slide inside because they made the troth too skinny, I'm not picky, I'm a Jeep owner, I fab my own parts... if there was a little tweaking to fix this I'd do it but this is simply poor design.

The good news is people who were gonna buy this product can perhaps avoid the trouble I've been through. That makes a forum worthwhile.

-Greg

[HaroldT]

"Call the cops to remove me"
"I called them, they basically said screw off" (I doubt that)
"Tape recorders to PROVE" stuff......

Seriously......calm down. Its sounding semi-psychotic.

I have two of their lights. They work great and the people at Hamilton do a good job.

If you have an issue with their product, be an adult and simply ask them for help. I am sure they will provide it.

Freaking out and flaming them is the wrong way to go about handling your situation.

[locomotive282]

All the LFS around here push hamilton products big time. I have been told is because the allow LFS to have the highest margins. I actually have a 48 inch retrofit on my cichlid tank and for that purpose it is decent. I was interested in the belize sun fixture for my reef tank but have heard several horror stories.

[grigsy]

+1 Cerobbins.

I have a very difficult time believing the notion Hamilton refused to offer you support and basically told you to "screw off".

To me, that is the ultimate in hyperbole.

After dealing with Hamilton for several years - most recently just two months ago - and using some of their products on my tanks, that type of claim makes me take this thread with a grain of salt.

[Suzukibusa06]

Love their bulbs, hate most of their pendents. We have used some of their pendents lately and I am not a fan. This is a classic case of a company cutting the costs on manufactuing and now it's bit em in the butt. They used to be the Benchmark in Metal Halide back in the day and now I wouldn't say that. Their bulbs are great but anything else I wouldnt' use.
Oh and I forgot to mention I had two of their new pendents put on a 180 and I had to open them both up and take out the mogul socket and re tighten the wire nuts as the Ice Caps on them would not fire the bulb. For whatever reason neither a new style ballast or old style would fire the brand new bulb in the brand new fixture. I thought almost surely it was the bulb or ballast thinking how could screw a pendent up and by process of elimation by making sure both bulbs worked in other fixtures and both ballasts as well I tore open the new pendents.

[squirrel]

I've been running hamilton mogul base on my mh for a couple of years with no problems. Maybe they only have problems when assembling fixtures, not with the components.

[moondoggy4]

Today is the day. Good luck, hope cools heads prevail.

[eshark]

I have been dealing with Hamilton for over 10 years here in LA and they are a great lighting company! They have a walk in store with a good helpful staff! I dont know of another lighting company that will talk to you in person or on the phone. My lighting systems from them are working great! Once I had a 6 year old power compact ballast that went out and they fixed it in just the few minutes I was at there shop for a very reasonable price.

[DJREEF]

Originally Posted by grigsy

I totally disagree.

I have used Hamilton 250 watt HQI ballasts for over 6 years now. Never had one problem. Still use those same ballasts today. My original fixture was a Hamilton 2 x 250 watt + 2-96 watt that I bought 6 years ago.

As for their staff - I have visited their office twice before in person and talked with them on the phone several times - nothing but a positive experience. I find them to be helpful, honest and considerate people to deal with.

That's the problem. They used to be top notch, but something's going on. The last MH retro I got from them 4 years ago was crap. When you can deal with guys that bend over backwards to service u (like hellolights.com) why would you mess with doo doo like that?

[tufacody]

[QUOTE=HaroldT;16277795][B]"Call the cops to remove me"

If you have an issue with their product, be an adult and simply ask them for help. I am sure they will provide it.


This is where you would be wrong. When my first set of LEDs went out, they said "hmm, never heard of this. You are the first person."

When my second set of LED's went out, the said, "hmmm, you obviously installed them incorrectly, its easy to do"

When my third set of LED's went out they said, "hmm, this is really strange, I'm not sure why you are having this problem."

When my fourth set of LED's went out, they said "the LED's we ordered from are defective. We are changing suppliers and will send you out another set in early to mid December."

When I told them I was mad about this, I was told I could only have store credit. This light is only a few months old and I still have not received functioning LED's. And don't even get me started on the rest of how poorly this unit (Belize Sun) is constructed. And we all know damn well that the LED's are not to blame. They are being powered incorrectly, and the only fix for that will be to send the unit back. I know it, they know it, and now you know it. If you are lucky you will still be under warranty when this is admitted.

[05TurboS2K]

Haven't got to make the trip yet, been swamped with work, which is a good thing these days.

Should have some response shortly though.

Surprisingly the last couple days the lights have kicked on... but I know that won't last long and my corals will suffer.

[eshark]

I was at Hamilton yesterday to pick up replacement bulbs. I have always been happy with their products and their service. Ethan and Alex both do a good job.

[burton14e7]

I pretty much don't consider customer service good unless they ship you a replacement with a pre-paid fedex packing slip for you to return your defective unit. They just fix them and send them back out to other people who have problems. To me, thats the standard to be met by any company.

[widmer]

Bought a hamilton retrofit 2x 55w PC setup years ago when they were just hitting the market, paid $180. The ballast got hot enough to power a nuclear reactor, and then the wire tips broke off at the endcaps during standard unexciting handling of the fixture. Only problem, the endcaps were not designed to take a wire insert more than once (no release mechanism to allow the wire ends to fall out). Other only problem, there was no diagram on the ballast or elsewhere which described which slots the wires were to be jimmy rigged back into...Thus, it's been sitting in my basement for something like seven years now.

No Hamilton products for me since. It's really too bad too, they had some powerful magazine ads several years ago...

[pciscott]

First off customer service is the most important thing in any company, the problem is most are not willing or at least the majority of the public is not willing to pay for it. There was a time that business was done by word of mouth, now the internet has opened us all up to new companies. Do you buy from your local LFS or do you price shop on RC? What I am getting at is all of us in manufacturing have to deal with selling against Chinese knock offs of what we design and sell. This lowers the perceived value of a product and forces even the best companies to use lower costing options to build product. On top of that suppliers we use are sourcing parts overseas to save on cost without us even knowing? I used to only by AC Delco parts for my chevrolet to find out through quality issues that their parts are now sourced in China to the lowest bidder. People want more for less these days and when you pay less you get less. Not every company has the resources in a bad economy to stay on top of their poor decisions to put cost over quality, the paradox is we the consumer and the internet have forced their hand and some of these companies are holding on by threads to get through this economy. I am sorry to hear your problems with your light, and I hope you find a way to resolve it. My advice to you would be to ask for the owner of the company, I own a business that is based on customer service and once in a while my employee's can make one of my customers blood boil. I do my best to resolve the situation and have only had to tell 2 people in 25 years the name of my competition. Good luck.