LED lights

I am using the the Mars Old model 100x3w panels , they are well built have heat sinks and come with a good warranty.
For the person with a tight budget I don't think there is a better light. If you have a wider budget there are better lights,
for triple or more the money.
 
LEDBud said:
I am using the the Mars Old model 100x3w panels , they are well built have heat sinks and come with a good warranty.
For the person with a tight budget I don't think there is a better light. If you have a wider budget there are better lights,
for triple or more the money.
Click to expand...

Linkorien said:
cool thanks guys ill look in to them
Click to expand...

I plan to get three of the old model 100x3s soon. :cheesygrinsmiley: I'm usually here every day, and have followed Sara's Mars-Hydro thread from the beginning. She handles stuff, period, :cheesygrinsmiley: I also monitor dozens of journals and I don't think I ever read about a failure of one of the old models, or many Mars-Hydro panels at all. The current cost per watt on the 100x3 is under 60 cents. :thedoubletake: You can pay three times as much for a top-line panel, but I'd rather have three times the light. These panels are 6-band anyway - 2 blues, 2 reds, IR and white, in good ratios that have proven to perform well.

:thumb:
 
You can't go wrong with the mars hydro's. I got one 2 weeks ago, and it's doing pretty well. Won't know for sure until a bit later, after a complete grow.

A lot of people on these forums use them, and highly recommend them.
There is a whole thread dedicated to the company, and they have a rep from the company posting there daily, to sort out any problems and to answer questions.
Mars-Hydro LED Grow Light Discussion

From what i hear, they aren't the best of the best, but they are dirt cheap, and they can be shipped out pretty quickly.
They are based in china, but they have warehouses all over the world.

Mars Hydro LED - the Best Solutions for Horticulture and Indoor Plants
 
I have Advanced LED's XTE series (the 300's) and I absolutely love them. They do cost more, but also use premium LED chips that last longer and put out more light per watt (better efficiency) and also have extremely high PPFD readings. I think anyone that went with Advanced LED would be very pleased in there decision. They are very well built, cool running and extremely bright. I also love how you can control the spectrum and intensity with 2 dials instead of just on/off like other lights..

Feel free to visit my last 2 journals to see the Advanced LED XTE 300's in action.

Here is a comparison of Advanced Vs Mars II of equal wattage. You can judge for yourself which is better.

comparison-ds-200-vs-mars1.png
 
The issue that I see with the Advanced LED's XTE 300 is the $850 price tag for a single panel with a draw of 250w

For $850 you can buy 7 300w mars hydro old model 3wx100 led panels @ 180w draw each for a total power draw of 1260w

Its not a typo for the same price the Mars package mentioned will pull 1000 more watts , lets see how that looks on the charts ..


The old model are my personal favorite due to the affordable pricing / warranty.

They are made for and good for the person with less capital , more then to compete with the higher priced panels.

Its nice to see that Advanced LED wants to compete with the mars line , a nice compliment and free advertising at the same time.
 
"The issue that I see with the Advanced LED's XTE 300 is the $850 price tag for a single panel with a draw of 250w"

Completely agree. With LED tech geting cheaper i find you can get real good lamps for close to 1$ a watt. I do grasp the significance of the distinction between par and watt. But basic (high wattage)1$ a watt LED lamps are already putting out close to max usable par depending on your application. Also i think lots of growers and especially LED mfgs overstate the significance of lighting in the overall cultural environment. Top of the line LED lamps are not required to grow top of the line green.

Be cool if hoseb dropped in with some observations.
 
If the price of your lights doesn't make you say "Holy Fuck! There's got to be a cheaper way!", you can't really be guaranteed that you are getting the best.

There are lots of ways to get more light per dollar than top shelf panels like Advanced LED, and I would never suggest someone on a tight budget go with them.

However, I didn't hesitate to buy what I knew would be the best quality now and down the road. After many years working with high end laboratory equipment, I can almost immediately tell the difference between professional grade gear and stuff that is made to look like professional grade gear. Before I even turned the switch, I could tell I had bought something really top notch. Little things like the machined brass eyelet hangers that could have just as effectively been stamped and punched sheet metal show that they didn't skimp anywhere. Hell, the paperwork was hand signed and printed on quality paper that looks like it cost a dime a sheet instead of the thinnest, cheapest copy paper you could buy at Office Depot.

I bought the DS200 to start some seedings in order to get my feet wet with their lights and help decide what my future purchases would be. Despite a written warning that seedlings and clones should be 30" away, I threw caution to the wind and moved four seedlings under the light at at 24" with both switches turned on because fuck yeah, two switches! After a day, those poor plants looked like they were trying to crawl back under the soil, with their leaf tips literally digging into the soil surface, trying to turn away from the overly intense light. I switched off the second switch, raised the light, and it took two days for them to one again reach for the sky and begin to take off. I really should have believed Advanced LED's warning. Ha!

My response to nearly killing my plants with my brand new rather small LED panel was to call them up right away and order another bigger panel! My only real problem right now is that I expected this light to create a bit more heat in my unheated space. I've actually put two 100w incandescent light bulbs in the space temporarily to keep the temp above 70'F when the light is on.
 
Re: LED lights
"if the price of your lights doesn't make you say "Holy Fuck! There's got to be a cheaper way!", you can't really be guaranteed that you are getting the best. "

I dont think so.

Platinum pricing isnt nuts and many of the bysen lamps are inexpensive.
In my investigation the most expensive lamps are simply bloated with add on " technology" or decals after they were purchased from chinese manufacturers. LED tech is improving rapidy. i dont think it is well advised to pay considerably extra for service life. Lamps are getting, brighter, cheaper and more effective at delivering correct spectrum all the time.


Also efforts to copy the sun and it spectrum through the day and the seasons seems, to me, like pure marketing. Is there any science establishing the efficacy of such an approach. Even if it helped what fraction of improvement could it possibly provide and at what price.

420 is full of journals with successful LED grows using basic gear.
 
Plants are not at all like people who do appreciate the sunrise and sunset , Plants appreciate the bright mid day sun as its much much stronger then the beautiful but weak sunrise and sunset. What a scam , like they say there is a sucker born every minute , add them up you have a market for your ploy products.

Remember how well the pet rock did back in the 1970's , it did amazingly well. The sunset feature is just as useless and once again people are buying them only this time they are expecting good if not great things.
 
LEDBud said:
Plants are not at all like people who do appreciate the sunrise and sunset , Plants appreciate the bright mid day sun as its much much stronger then the beautiful but weak sunrise and sunset. What a scam , like they say there is a sucker born every minute , add them up you have a market for your ploy products.

Remember how well the pet rock did back in the 1970's , it did amazingly well. The sunset feature is just as useless and once again people are buying them only this time they are expecting good if not great things.
Click to expand...

Some science might help better than the Pet Rock analogy.....but not doubting you - i have too much garbage marketing here :(

I am actually testing that next grow. I am running the CTlite/Igro flower Schedule but turning it off next grow with out changing ANYTHING else..........

But pretty damn satisfied the way it is working now as well..........

WG
 
they are nice lights , the sunset setting is there if you want it not that you need it. I will contend it is a gentle way to wake up and to go to sleep , at least from the human perspective .. and since humans are buying the lights .. they gave the light that feature IMO.

Its a neat premise really , It seems a little eccentric but neat/ cool at the same time.

i can understand why people would like the feature.

If it was my company i would market it as the Hawaiian edition ,to grab peoples attention.

And call the standard lights the Polar edition.

perhaps they need me for a marketing agent , I like those names..lol
 
Sorry to have possibly offended those who made solid informed decisions and chose to maximize their return on their investment with the highest performance most affordably priced LED panels your research identified. You didn't waste money on the fancy stuff that costs a lot extra but doesn't actually emit more light for your money. Your informed choice is exactly what I would have made 25 years ago when i was first grew indoors.

When I was in my 20's, growing in a rented basement, getting the most number of grams of buds from the lights and equipment I could scrape together or borrow was very important. It meant little things like being able to take a girl on a nice date or being able to afford a round or two with friends. And a few times, it meant being able to pay an expensive medical bill or help a friend who really needed it. So I understand the need to get the most for your money, especially when you are young and a couple hundred bucks makes a real difference. One would truly be a fool to buy higher end gear for the brand recognition if a limited budget could be stretched further to make a significant difference in production.

But now, in my mid 40's, my goals and resources are different. Due to a degenerative condition, I'm now retired, a medical cannabis patient, and am starting my first legal medical garden to produce the best quality high CBD medicine for personal use only. After several decades working in high tech research labs, I'm accustomed to and appreciate working with high end professional equipment, and these solidly built Advanced LED panels do not disappoint me in that regard.

One thing I can say from embarrassingly hard earned experience is that I have never once regretted spending more up front for the nicer option, whatever it was a car, a second wife, or these high end LED panels. What I have regretted were all the times that I tried to save money buying something cheaper I knew wasn't quite what I really wanted in the first place. And, of course, sometimes I have gotten a smokin' awesome deal on affordably priced gear that runs right along with the best.

Although bought my lights without worrying about the budget, I'm not exactly without financial constraints, and there will be times when I will want to know what the best value product for my money is, and I do appreciate those here who have done research figure out what products will give me the best bang for the buck.
 
I just looked into the CTlite panels , I was impressed by the affordable prices of their panels. Within my reach , and I'm on a disability pension.

My eyes have been opened and I am not impressed by the mark up some are doing to the panels, its a funny world we live in.

Buyer beware is a understatement.
 
No offense here Chippy :)

FYI - I paid about $1 per TRUE watt for my fancy CTLite light and they are working great "AFTER" I fixed them ........... pretty sure I was one of very few that had the problem. Customer/technical service does seem to be an issue though.

I also own/bought a DS200 (Still use) and a XML350 (Really I bought and shipped to Central America for a friend) and they are both great lights - but if your looking at the DS series ...... Just get them off of E-shine: They will also replace the UVA with a chip of choice for free if desired :)

BUT....... the more I read about LED's the more convinced that the lenses used just are not worth it - So I just ordered 4 more reflectors. I look forward to the sun series that will do a nice 2x2' footprint. Lucky for me that I am in position to where i shop well but also use my shipping connections to get past customs and really save.....so resell on lights would only be a minor loss for me if at all if/when i decide too :)
 
Wizgrow lights has a certain appeal to it :smokin:, I bet 100 lots are cheap cheap per panel and thousand lots even cheaper.
You could probably get some investors to foot most of the bill , become a sponsor here at :420: and become whats know as a power seller.

There is a old saying from the depression era ( I'm not that old) that goes a fast nickle is better then a slow dime, its a proven business practice that stands true today. McDonald's uses it for instance or did ,I think since they raised their prices the clients have responded by going somewhere more decent to eat but until then they were raking it in now they are waiting for the slow dime , the fools.

Mars hydro uses the technique with great success.
 

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