Cool touch lighting on Ebay?

I bought my previous dual 250 watt MH setup from them about a year ago. Absolutely no complaints with mine. Seems like real nice stuff to me, I would still be using it but I just upgraded to HQI pendants.
 
I bought a 4 ft. light with 2 175 W MH bulbs and two actinics. I was very disappointed with the quality. The transformer was nicely built but the fixture had all the class of a food warmer at McDonalds. The construction was garage build level: unfinished sheet aluminum, no switches on the lights or the fans, fans that didn't fit right, the lucite shield that sagged and didn't fit snugly, etc. When I upgraded my tank I purchased an Aqua-Medic model and the couple hundred dollars more that I paid were more than rewarded by having a beautiful and beautifully made light. Considering what we pay over several years for a nice reef tank it makes no sense to try to save a little money on a part of the setup you will see every day.
You get what you pay for.
Mark Spencer
 
I got a retrofit 3x400wMH kit. Reflector was just average. But 8 ft/10ft quick disconnects, good mogul bases, good mounting hardware, excellent aluminum encased ballasts with indepedent switches. All in all, a great value.

My take on them: great for DIY, but not so much for finished products!
 
mark....could you look on ebay and see if it still looks like the same model. seems to me now there are independant switches for the mh's and vho's. i was looking at the 48 4 vho retrofit kit at hellolights and after the extra ballast which is needed for dawn/dusk feature it's only $50 more for the cool touch like you had{ 2 175 mh's and 2 110 vho's}.

as far as the biuld quality ...is it something that could be polished up on the edges with a dremel? what about high temp black paint on top of fixture?

any ideas on this?anyone?
 
I could not find the E-Bay listing but I am certain the unit is the same. (You can send me the link to confirm my suspicion.) My unit did have separate switches on the MH ballast but none for the fan nor the VHO bulbs.
The unit was made with bent stainless steel. Painting it black would result in the housing heating up so I wouldn't suggest it. There's a saying "You can't shine sh_t" and that applies here. The quality is appropriate for a prototype built in someone's garage. The ballast is nice but the canopy is substandard. Check out the aquaspace light by Aquamedic. It's app. $300 more but that's a small price to pay for such higher quality.
Mark
 
Addenda:
I accidentally stated that the canopy was stainless steel but the material is Aluminum.
I did check out the Cool Touch website and confirmed that the canopy remains unchanged from the one I purchased. The picture looks MUCH nicer than the real thing.
Mark
 
I've been extremely dissatisfied with my cool-touch ballast. I bought it second hand off a reefcentral member. It blew a capacitor and they wouldn't send me a replacement. The unit was not very old and Kim (responsible for customer service) gave me a 3-day runaround for something I needed ASAP. I ended up buying a new core and cap from reefgeek.com for $50.

Not too long ago, it blew the other cap. in the unit. I sent an E-mail saying I actually wanted to just pay for one... She didn't get back to me until the following day on something I needed ASAP. I decided to go with Atlantalightbulbs.com for my capacitor and I'm glad I did (even though it was a few dollars more).
 
hmm

hmm

so.. do the vho's come on as soon as the first mh lights? and the fans as well? seems to me i could just wire in a switch to the vho-s . as far as things blowing out.. seems to me that with all thesehigh output lights some things just happens sometimes. sure good customer service is gret but i dont want to have to spend 600-1000 to get it.

jive the same price huh... not that i saw for cool touch im looking at $450? cheapest light s i saw here and there were like 650
 
I also purchased a lighting fixture from them. Everything went ok except the one of the vho bulbs that i purchased with the fixture. Kim, like SHOmuchFUN said wasn't the niceist person to deal with i had a broken bulb and she told me to send the pics

I did and she claimed she couldn't see where the bulbs was broken! So i just said forget and but my concern is if the mh slots doesn't work then what. I haven't used the complete setup yet only the vho's and i am kind of nervous as to what if one of the MH Sockets for the bulbs doesn't work!
 
I had a similar experience w/them also. Capacitors burnt out twice on a 3x250 setup. After a lot of talking & complaining, she finally agreed to send me a replacement, however it was a 2x250 as they don't make the 3x250 anymore due to the caps burning out. So I was still out of a ballast. With them being a sponsor here you'd think they'd give you better customer service. My advice......STAY AWAY FROM THEM.
 
I bought a 2x250 setup from them more than a year ago... nice equipment, nicely packed.. and still works today. I'm satisfied.
 
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