Which is a reputable led brand

hi guys. I have 500w of 5000k led running at the mo. I need something for flowering. I know there’s a lot of cheap Chinese stuff on the internet at the moment but I don’t want to be spending 100’s for a first grow. I have seen there is a sale on a website and there’s a 600w dual chip kingbo for 96quid. There’s another one which advertises dual optical lense kingbo of the same wattage for 160 quid. Are these half decent. I know they’re relatively cheap but will they do the job (the 96 pounds one in particular)
Grow space is 1.2x1.7x1.2. Growing in soil.

What you need to look for is actual wattage, not just what they advertise.

Yea I know. Just wondering if anyone has used one and what results they had. I know it’s not going to be amazing at that price but just as long as I get some red spectrum in there

links would help

nobody here has ever heard of kingbo so that almost certainly a bad sign

They were on amazon. Iv seen them advertised a few times

Sumby said:

They were on amazon. Iv seen them advertised a few times

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On amazon or here? I've also never heard of them

Just on amazon.

Could anyone point me in the right direction of what to buy ?

For a reputable led brand check out horticulturelightinggroup.com cobkits.com timbergrowlights.com
For cheaper LEDs. People here have used meizhi and mars hydro with good results.

I think kingbo are similar to mars hydro. Budget lights. I hear bad things about mars though. Unreliable fans and quite Noisey and inefficient. Iv never used one though so can’t comment.

I have 2 Kingbo 300w. Bought them used from my buddy. I've opened one up and there almost identical to a Mars Hydro reflector series. Cheap Chinese led with a strong red spectrum. Crap but ok for 1 or 2 plants.

Sumby said:

I think kingbo are similar to mars hydro. Budget lights. I hear bad things about mars though. Unreliable fans and quite Noisey and inefficient. Iv never used one though so can’t comment.

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Honestly 75% of the Chinese lights you buy are going to be the same shit. Cheap lights, cheap drivers, cheap. I would highly recomend saving up another 100-150$ and buying a qb kit or a nice cob setup. You will never look back and think it was a bad choice, unless you only grow 1 time then I could understand.

There is a guy on here comparing a 1200 meihzi and a 1200 viparspectra, I'm not a fan of the vipars, I own the 450par and they just have way to much blue.

Iv got 6 in veg and 9babies. I agree about the Chinese crap. I just want pointing in the right direction

https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/quantum-boards/products/qb288-with-slate-2-heatsink
I would buy that and an hlg-240h-c2100a. I'm not sure about the blurples. @Michael Huntherz I think grows with one maybe he could help you and @XxCashedxOutxX

In fact I think cobs are the way to go

If you're good with diy you can build a setup for pretty cheap. Cobkits.com has a lot of cons for a really nice price

You can also found Quantumboards or at least lamps with Cree or Bridgelux COB's on am4zon. Much better as any burple growlight like mars, meizi, kingbo and all the other chinese crap. Dual chips are no quality feature, they simply pressed two 3w chips into one housing. Not comparable to real 5w diodes like Cree XP-G3 for example.
I would rather take 2 3w diodes separately as one of these 5w dual-diodes.

I'm pretty sure your 500w/5000°k would outperform such a crap light easily and yes, it's possible to use 5000°k for flowering. Why not get a similar 500w light but with 3000-4000°k?
Maybe search on e3ay for a used COB light. I've seen lot's of them in the 500-600w range.

Randomblame said:

You can also found Quantumboards or at least lamps with Cree or Bridgelux COB's on am4zon. Much better as any burple growlight like mars, meizi, kingbo and all the other chinese crap. Dual chips are no quality feature, they simply pressed two 3w chips into one housing. Not comparable to real 5w diodes like Cree XP-G3 for example.
I would rather take 2 3w diodes separately as one of these 5w dual-diodes.

I'm pretty sure your 500w/5000°k would outperform such a crap light easily and yes, it's possible to use 5000°k for flowering. Why not get a similar 500w light but with 3000-4000°k?
Maybe search on e3ay for a used COB light. I've seen lot's of them in the 500-600w range.

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Great post thanks for your valuable advice

Sumby said:

Great post thanks for your valuable advice

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Something like that would be okay for a 4x 4' area.
https://www.amazon.com/CF-Grow-Intensity-Spectrum-Especially/dp/B06XKXW4HK/ref=pd_sbs_86_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B06XKXW4HK&pd_rd_r=c4913555-5f3b-11e8-8fd5-1bda721a730b&pd_rd_w=O8wu3&pd_rd_wg=sNNyN&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=5825442648805390339&pf_rd_r=26D9GMW8AFQX5NRFQDS3&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=26D9GMW8AFQX5NRFQDS3

Or 2 kits of these Quantumboard120 4pack's(would be 8 boards á 70w) and 2 Meanwell HLG-240H-24A.
Would be ~560w total at the wall and the boards can be mounted on a frame made from cheap 1mils thick aluminum L-channels. They need no heatsinks so it would be a silent and ultra-lightweight build with no fans!
Costs you only 250$ on boards an ~140$ for the drivers.
Yeah! It's some homework to build the frame and you need some single core AWG18 wire for the dc connections, but it's easily done and the used LM561c diodes were the first 210lm/w diode last year. Only the new LM301b can beat that and a few diodes from other manufacturers like Nichia.
If it was my decision, I would definitely take the QB's. The 6 COB lamp is too expensive and does not even come close to the QB's because the COB's run at 100w ea..
I would estimate 2.0μmol/J system efficiency for the Cree's and about 2.3μmol/j for the QB120's.(15% better)

https://www.amazon.com/4x-QB120-Quantum-Boards-3000K/dp/B077KHMZTC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1527157343&sr=8-4&keywords=quantum+board