Hey guys, they say it's a 9-band, 300W LED light. Thoughts?

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-9Band-Led-Grow-Light-300W-with-100pcs-3W-leds-built-with-optical-lens-best-for/726899063.html

Here's the link. I actually ordered it already for my first grow. I'm planning to do a jack herer two plant grow in a 5ftx2ftx5ft cab/box setup. I would appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.

Noob here. Be kind.

Meh..... It's a gamble and you'll probably lose.

I'm no expert on LED, but I've read a million of these posts and seen the results. I also purchased an inexpensive LED and it's now my veg light. They veg awesome. Didn't flower for crap.

#1. China man is like honey badger. He just doesn't give a shit. He will package anything and tell lies about it to get you to buy it. I can almost bet that light is a total piece of crap.
#2. 3 watt led's? Meh... I'll pass on 3 watters. 5w or 10w would be better. COB would be the best.
#3. Why LED? Is it to save on heat? The inexpensive LED's don't relly save you on anything except your yield. They are not greatly more efficient than CFL. The drivers put out more heat than you would expect.
#4. Good LED's cost A LOT of money.
#5. For $100 bucks you can probably get a good HPS 400w and rock those plants. (Check craigslist or your local hydro store's used section).

If you are set on a cheapie LED then check out MARS HYDRO. They have a decent reputation and good support from what I understand. The 400w (170w actual draw) is $189. Says it covers a 3x3 but I have a had time believing that 170w can flower 9 sq feet. The 700w would be much better and I'd have to guess it would do a good job of flowering. Look up some Mars Hydro grows. There should be a lot of threads. I know another forum dedicated to autoflowers has a whole thread dedicated to the subject.

sunny747 said:

Meh..... It's a gamble and you'll probably lose.

I'm no expert on LED, but I've read a million of these posts and seen the results. I also purchased an inexpensive LED and it's now my veg light. They veg awesome. Didn't flower for crap.

#1. China man is like honey badger. He just doesn't give a shit. He will package anything and tell lies about it to get you to buy it. I can almost bet that light is a total piece of crap.
#2. 3 watt led's? Meh... I'll pass on 3 watters. 5w or 10w would be better. COB would be the best.
#3. Why LED? Is it to save on heat? The inexpensive LED's don't relly save you on anything except your yield. They are not greatly more efficient than CFL. The drivers put out more heat than you would expect.
#4. Good LED's cost A LOT of money.
#5. For $100 bucks you can probably get a good HPS 400w and rock those plants. (Check craigslist or your local hydro store's used section).

If you are set on a cheapie LED then check out MARS HYDRO. They have a decent reputation and good support from what I understand. The 400w (170w actual draw) is $189. Says it covers a 3x3 but I have a had time believing that 170w can flower 9 sq feet. The 700w would be much better and I'd have to guess it would do a good job of flowering. Look up some Mars Hydro grows. There should be a lot of threads. I know another forum dedicated to autoflowers has a whole thread dedicated to the subject.

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Awesome input bro! Thanks!
I already bought the lights so goodluck. I might just consider backing it up with CFLs since I'm pretty tight on the budget side of things (300$ tight). Hehe! Here's the general area of the cab I'm trying to put together:

280W of a 50% efficient DIY build would put you at 14W/sqft of PAR.

The 9-band unit is probably crap. Sure, it might work for veg, but veg is where a more efficient lamp shines the most since it's on for a longer period of the day. I don't understand when people think it makes sense to run a shittier lamp in veg.

churchhaze said:

280W of a 50% efficient DIY build would put you at 14W/sqft of PAR.

The 9-band unit is probably crap. Sure, it might work for veg, but veg is where a more efficient lamp shines the most since it's on for a longer period of the day. I don't understand when people think it makes sense to run a shittier lamp in veg.

Click to expand...

Thanks Churchhaze! I was wondering if I could just add T5s as side lighting, probably 4x4' of them to help with the veg and bloom lighting?

churchhaze said:

280W of a 50% efficient DIY build would put you at 14W/sqft of PAR.

The 9-band unit is probably crap. Sure, it might work for veg, but veg is where a more efficient lamp shines the most since it's on for a longer period of the day. I don't understand when people think it makes sense to run a shittier lamp in veg.

Click to expand...

The total wattage used for a veg grow space is much less than what is required for the corresponding flower room. so the impact is less even though the efficiency gains can be very large. for example I can veg in a 4x2 for a 5x5 flowering room and only require 50% of the intensity of the flower room. Even more extreme to the young plants. while young I'm only using one 4 bulb T5 lowered within 9" of the plants.

another reason is that while in veg the plants just aren't that fussy about spectrum.

regardless, I'm slowly phasing out my veg T5s, in fact I'm building an 8 x vero18 5K light for veggin right now.