Has it really been ten years?

Hello all my fellow growers, smokers, and stoners

It has been a very long time since I've logged in, or had the tent setup.... But.... I'm back!!!
And I've been looking at some upgrading of old lights and equipment....

Been looking at this setup on Amazon, and curious if anyone has any experience using this particular system or brand?

I have historically always used my T5's for seedlings and clone rooting, my two 400 Watt CMH lights, no air cooling thru the hoods, but I've never had any issues with heat from running an old exhaust fan in the top and inlet from outside tent at the bottom...so I'm excited about this light system having the glass and air cooled hood, as well as the upgrade from 2x 400 watts to a 1k watt single light.

I'm looking for any advice, or info on this light system,


Thanks in advance,
Lilmafia513

I hate to be aa hipster type but cobs or quantum boards are great, no need to remove hot air and no need for holes in the ceiling or venting out the window and these days LEDs well the right sort of leds yeild great, like around 1gm per watt on average.

I dont know much about that particular light but most people seem to be going for leds these days for the above reasons.

lilmafia513 said:

Hello all my fellow growers, smokers, and stoners

It has been a very long time since I've logged in, or had the tent setup.... But.... I'm back!!!
And I've been looking at some upgrading of old lights and equipment....

Been looking at this setup on Amazon, and curious if anyone has any experience using this particular system or brand?

I have historically always used my T5's for seedlings and clone rooting, my two 400 Watt CMH lights, no air cooling thru the hoods, but I've never had any issues with heat from running an old exhaust fan in the top and inlet from outside tent at the bottom...so I'm excited about this light system having the glass and air cooled hood, as well as the upgrade from 2x 400 watts to a 1k watt single light.

I'm looking for any advice, or info on this light system,
View attachment 4923751View attachment 4923753View attachment 4923754

Thanks in advance,
Lilmafia513

Click to expand...

Welcome back. If you look at my history you'll see I took a many year break as well. I was growing with CMH before CMH was cool, I was doing 600 watt bulbs that I had to order from the Granger store via the catalog.

Had it side by side with my regular MH, and regular HPS. So I share with you your love of CMH.

But the time is over. It was over about 3 years ago. At that moment LED became trustable and dependable.

Over the last year it became affordable, at least to me.

Also, recheck your assumed knowledge about pH. I thought 5.8 was just fine for what I was putting in soil, and it turns out that it should be 6.5.

What else did I miss in those years?

Also, I don't know about anyone else, but I can't see your pictures. I can actually see them as a picture but the text within them is totally obscured as in an incredible resolution drop. So I'm just assuming they're CMH based on what you had grown with previously, and I've definitely drooled over those high wattage double-ended CMH bulbs which I assume that is.

If you take a 3 year cost of ownership: efficient LEDs will win every time, not counting buying new HID bulbs every year or so.

Hey guys, thanks for the quick reply!!
I know....I know.... I'm an old head lol
I've been looking at the LEDs, well, since they first were considered being used for growing....I believe the term was "blurple" lights
I've had a friend also mention building my own led panel to cover the full true spectrum, but on a personal note, I don't have the time or resources to do all that....
I would love to not have to worry about light heat!!!

So....let's talk LED....assuming I would be buying and not building, what should I look at/for....any recommendations??? Tried and true?? Side by side thread comparing the led to conventional??

Again I'm in old head status now, and just been back peeking around the forums for a month or two....

anexgrower said:

If you take a 3 year cost of ownership: efficient LEDs will win every time, not counting buying new HID bulbs every year or so.

Click to expand...

At this point they are cheaper then the supposedly competitive HID. At this point they're less than $0.50 a watt and when I was putting together a 600 watt HID system when you include the hood and the ballast and the bulb they are far less expensive. And I like having multiple panels much more than a single focus point for both the ability to adjust for local plant height easily and the fact that the plant is now sending its many branches all straight up rather than fighting towards a single point of light and overlapping. That's a huge benefit.

They cost half as much to run in the wattage electricity cost for equivalent growth. On the other hand never ever trust vendor specs, they lie by default. You always need to look at what they claim is assumed the pull from the wall is combined with whatever the reviewer says after they bought it and actually tested.

They don't require enclosed hoods, even though I would like to design a system that includes that since I want that level of heat control. That's my personal whine.

They cost far far less to cool down so the AC cost is far less. But you can't ignore them in a closed environment, you still have to handle heat build up.

They penetrate deeply, which is as good as the high wattage bulb. But you also have the option to raise and lower them because they are so light so if you got a plant that you want to blast you can just drop it down onto that plant for a day or two. When I try to do that with my enclosed hooded tightly secured to ventilation system 600 watters that was a project. I can ratchet a light in 10 seconds here.

They last 10-20 times longer, which means that when it is finally time to replace it it'll probably cost 1/2 to 1/3 as much as the technology advances. And if not, who cares. Look how cheap they are.

This is all based on the four that I just bought in the last several months. I am a recent convert. Four lights for 93 bucks a pop that easily compares with many thousands of dollars of lights and ventilation and air conditioning systems in my previous setup.

That light is fine. I use the same on just a 600 watt. As for cost of ownership, I did the math and it would take me over 4 years to recover the cost of switching over to a comparable LED.

lilmafia513 said:

Hey guys, thanks for the quick reply!!
I know....I know.... I'm an old head lol
I've been looking at the LEDs, well, since they first were considered being used for growing....I believe the term was "blurple" lights
I've had a friend also mention building my own led panel to cover the full true spectrum, but on a personal note, I don't have the time or resources to do all that....
I would love to not have to worry about light heat!!!

So....let's talk LED....assuming I would be buying and not building, what should I look at/for....any recommendations??? Tried and true?? Side by side thread comparing the led to conventional??

Again I'm in old head status now, and just been back peeking around the forums for a month or two....

Click to expand...

First you have to decide your risk versus reward status. How much money are you willing to spend to mitigate the risk of failure versus how much money you want to save and spread it over multiple cheaper objects from a lesser known vendor.

If I had a great job and not much free time and didn't really care how much I was spending because ultimately the pot savings would pay for it I'd go to top tier vendors such as horticulture lighting group. Not cheap, but top end technology and well regarded. I'd be looking into quantum boards.

Next if I wanted to save some money and go to the next level down but accept possibly a higher failure rate and or maybe a language difficulty during support I'd start going on the range of devices available on Amazon.

That's what I did by the way. And then I'd wander those for a while, while simultaneously looking at the deals for them that scrolls by on this site.

Note: I did not know about the deals forum at that time so I was doing it blind. But the deals forum scrolls along with people throwing coupons out there along with other people saying yeah I bought this thing it's a great thing or no stay the hell away from that thing. Of course that's if you have time.

Always double check the Amazon reviews for true wattage draw. And how many people said the device crapped out and why. Target at least 35 watts per square foot, more if you can afford it and if you can accept that higher wattage also means more heat you have to deal with. That will give you the option to blast those plants rather than accept merely excellent results.

Decide whether or not you want quantum board layout or devices that have hanging panels. Quantum board layout gives perfect coverage. Hanging panel gives the ability to snake things through and for ventilation to have more options. Quantum costs a bit more but not that much that should make a difference now.

Go for full spectrum white light with additional red and UV. Try to interpret those color panels but in the end you're going to have to trust whatever they put together.

I have four of these:


Bought them over the last 4 months. Two for initial veg then two more for flowering in a 4x4.

I had no idea about the vendor beforehand, I was taking a chance, it seems to be working. Since each individual device was so cheap I accepted any could die at any time and I'd still be fine with three while waiting for a replacement. I like spreading the risk over multiple devices.

Making one like mine is pretty easy. I bought the parts about 7 years ago and thats around $600 worth of parts but now the parts are a lot cheaper.
Im a sparky and the difficult part was getting used to putting cables in series not paralell like house power circuits.

Anyway parts are way cheaper now except for the drivers.

It comes down to cooling and cost IMO. If you have a source of fresh, cool air and a strong exhaust the 1000w MH / HPS will grow a nice canopy of hard buds with great penetration. As already stated you can compare the cost of LED lighting vs electric savings to see if it's worth it to you. If you go with the 1000w, try searching RIU about glass vs no glass and air cooling or not.

lilmafia513 said:

I would love to not have to worry about light heat!!!

So....let's talk LED....assuming I would be buying and not building, what should I look at/for....any recommendations??? Tried and true?? Side by side thread comparing the led to conventional??

Again I'm in old head status now, and just been back peeking around the forums for a month or two....

Click to expand...

Right now boards or strips with LM301B or LM301H Diodes and meanwell drivers are the go to. There are a lot of vendors that source all the parts from mostly China build here and sell at a premium price or you can source them directly from China. Cost much less but warranty is shorter. Alibaba vendors such as Kingbrite and Meiju are reputable and popular amongst many growers. Some people prefer the longer warranty from us based company's and some prefer paying less than half the price. Whichever you choose one thing is for sure leds are definitely producing awesome results. Below is the results of about 1000 watts of 3500k and 3000k kingbrites boards.

SheeshM said:

It comes down to cooling and cost IMO. If you have a source of fresh, cool air and a strong exhaust the 1000w MH / HPS will grow a nice canopy of hard buds with great penetration. As already stated you can compare the cost of LED lighting vs electric savings to see if it's worth it to you. If you go with the 1000w, try searching RIU about glass vs no glass and air cooling or not.

Click to expand...

I've always been concerned with the outcome of using LEDs and the finished product, I think I will stick with what I know from experience for now to get me going....and research possibly slowly building my own LED panel for a future grow..... But I would like the possibility of using one someday, when I've done a little more personal research on them....

For now, on the topic you mentioned of heat control, and air cooling....I'm looking at the filling items to add into the tent. These online fans, and filters, I've never used them lol. Always had a bathroom exhaust fan hooked up in top of the tent, pulling cold air from outside in the bottom....I think these will be useful, with the glass that comes with the 1000k light....thoughts???

jcdws602 said:

Right now boards or strips with LM301B or LM301H Diodes and meanwell drivers are the go to. There are a lot of vendors that source all the parts from mostly China build here and sell at a premium price or you can source them directly from China. Cost much less but warranty is shorter. Alibaba vendors such as Kingbrite and Meiju are reputable and popular amongst many growers. Some people prefer the longer warranty from us based company's and some prefer paying less than half the price. Whichever you choose one thing is for sure leds are definitely producing awesome results. Below is the results of about 1000 watts of 3500k and 3000k kingbrites boards.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info., I'll definitely be checking that out in the future !!!