Mars Hydro or Spider Farmer

MustGro

Well-Known Member
I had a SF2000 for about 6 months. Nice light. They set the driver to 202 watts at the factory. Mine was 198 watts according to my Kill-A-Watt. The meanwell driver is a 240 watt driver. They used to have the video on the spider-farmer site of the guy doing the light demo and he pops the Lo plug out and cranks it up to 240 watts. It'll go to 300. Don't leave it there....
The Sf4000 has two 240 watt meanwell drivers, each at 228 watts or so; but again they are a 240 watt driver. If you pull the plug and turn the wattage up you void your warranty. What about warranty. Aren't the spider-farmers out of China? I already burnt out a driver and now I have diodes gone in one of my panels. Stuff breaks and it's nice to get it fixed for free. I got a free driver.
Never had a mars hydro, but I believe they use some cheaper components.
In my opinion there are better LEDs out there than the spider-farmer for less money. Here's one https://www.growlights.ca/250-watt-fb288-lm301h-3000k-660nm-uv-ir-led-fusion-board-light.html
I'm sure there are others.....
 

MustGro

Well-Known Member
So @Mr Hill ; from the Samsung site https://www.samsung.com/led/lighting/applications/horticulture-lighting/.
You can pick this from the list https://www.samsung.com/led/lighting/mid-power-leds/3030-leds/lm301h
A search on their site for LM301B gives https://www.samsung.com/led/lighting/mid-power-leds/3030-leds/lm301b/
The only difference I found was the whites are 3.1 micromoles in the H boards and a bit less in the B boards. Here's a quote from Samsung on the B boards "In addition, the white LED packages and modules feature extremely high light efficacy of 2.92 micromoles per joule (μmol/J) (65mA), 2.72μmol/J (65mA), 2.43μmol/J (0.45A, 21.9V) and 1.76μmol/J (1.38A, 46.9V), respectively ".
I had a spider-farmer and have 4 of the 250 watt setups I mentioned. The Spider Farmer has nice fit and finish plus a nice waterproof coating on it. The whites are all 4000K (close to the old MH spectrum) so it's best for veg. The newer ones have a potentiometer on them which is handy in veg so you don't burn small plants. All things being equal I sold mine to a friend for a veg light. The spider-farmer boards were also bigger than the quantum boards. By a few inches in length and width. The diodes were spaced a little farther apart in the spider because of this. I didn't check the number of diodes but if they're the same in the H and B boards then the B board would give less intensity. The same number of diodes spaced a few inches farther apart would give less intensity; right. Probably more info than you want, but me personally; I like the H boards and avoid Spider-Farmer.
If you want to know what can go wrong with LEDs (beside the driver burning out) check my link https://www.rollitup.org/t/burnt-led-diodes.1042218/unread
 
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Mr Hill

Well-Known Member
So @Mr Hill ; from the Samsung site https://www.samsung.com/led/lighting/applications/horticulture-lighting/.
You can pick this from the list https://www.samsung.com/led/lighting/mid-power-leds/3030-leds/lm301h
A search on their site for LM301B gives https://www.samsung.com/led/lighting/mid-power-leds/3030-leds/lm301b/
The only difference I found was the whites are 3.1 micromoles in the H boards and a bit less in the B boards. Here's a quote from Samsung on the B boards "In addition, the white LED packages and modules feature extremely high light efficacy of 2.92 micromoles per joule (μmol/J) (65mA), 2.72μmol/J (65mA), 2.43μmol/J (0.45A, 21.9V) and 1.76μmol/J (1.38A, 46.9V), respectively ".
I had a spider-farmer and have 4 of the 250 watt setups I mentioned. The Spider Farmer has nice fit and finish plus a nice waterproof coating on it. The whites are all 4000K (close to the old MH spectrum) so it's best for veg. The newer ones have a potentiometer on them which is handy in veg so you don't burn small plants. All things being equal I sold mine to a friend for a veg light. The spider-farmer boards were also bigger than the quantum boards. By a few inches in length and width. The diodes were spaced a little farther apart in the spider because of this. I didn't check the number of diodes but if they're the same in the H and B boards then the B board would give less intensity. The same number of diodes spaced a few inches farther apart would give less intensity; right. Probably more info than you want, but me personally; I like the H boards and avoid Spider-Farmer.
If you want to know what can go wrong with LEDs (beside the driver burning out) check my link https://www.rollitup.org/t/burnt-led-diodes.1042218/unread
Why avoid SF? I think i am making up my mind and probl go for the Mars Hydro ts 3000 Because of the price. With shipping the Spider Farmer is close to 200 USD more... I guess everything is better than ny 176 true watt :(
 
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