Cheap LED Advice please

[Qwobbler]

ok no worries.. cheers everyone

[nici]

Some very narrow wavelengths there so will only really help as supplementary lighting as others have suggested.

 

GL

[hakenspit]

Those ones are crappy, you wont get a decent LED for 50 bucks.

If you want good cheap LED's look at MARS hydro, they are good price point for what they deliver.

 

5watt LED's are used here, penetration not considered to be an issue with 5w and above.

Here are three of their lights

 

$190 170-200watt actual draw

http://www.mars-hydro.com/mars-ii-led-grow-light-400w.html

 

$350 400-450watt actual draw

http://www.mars-hydro.com/mars-ii-led-grow-light-900w.html

 

$435   520-600watt actual draw

http://www.mars-hydro.com/mars-ii-led-grow-light-1200w.html

 

 

Massive thread and many happy users of them over at grass city. People happily replacing 600 watt HPS's with the 1200.

 

Led do work, they not cheap and 5watt is old tech now (10 watt full spectrum is the top diode now) but definetly not redundant tech.

Mars offer good value and quality, dont buy into this "its made in china its crap" garbage as thats where literally almost all the LED's in the world are made.
Even companies like Advanced use chinese diodes and there are no issues in doing so.

A lot of companies simply rebadge their lights (think PC's back in the day).

 

Now if you want a light that will is cutting edge look at this baby

http://advancedledlights.com/3w-led-grow-lights/new-diamond-series-xml-10w-cree-xml/

and the data sheet for the nerds

http://advancedledlights.com/ds-xml-650-datasheet/

 

These are though $1600..they offer smaller versions of the light with teh cheapest being about $570 with only 130w draw

618watts actual draw and these full spectrum 10watts coupled with the targeted spectrums in 5watts creates amazing results.

On light movers its being used to replace 1000W HPS's, wont be long before we get the targeted spectrums diodes made in 10watts too.

 

A lot of people tried LED early when it was mostly snake oil salesmen. The original 1 watt diodes were next to useless for anything but looking pretty and maybe veg.
When 3 watt diodes came out there was a big improvement and you could flower with these lights, though you generally wanted to scrog/SOG as penetration was not great. Some companies started providing more realistic information about what the lights delivered in comparative draw (ie 200w LED roughly 270-300w hps).

5 Watt tech came out a couple of years ago now and it removed the necessity for scrogging and allowed more classic tree growth to a point.

 

If 3 watt LED's will penetrate 2 feet of water with sufficient PAR to grow high light req plants/corals (MH is no longer used by those who have the choice, t5ho also has fallen out of favor thanks to LED) then 10w sure wont have trouble penetrating 6 foot trees....your bigger issue is probably bleaching from lights being too close.

[Qwobbler]

Those ones are crappy, you wont get a decent LED for 50 bucks.

If you want good cheap LED's look at MARS hydro, they are good price point for what they deliver.

 

5watt LED's are used here, penetration not considered to be an issue with 5w and above.

Here are three of their lights

 

$190 170-200watt actual draw

http://www.mars-hydro.com/mars-ii-led-grow-light-400w.html

 

$350 400-450watt actual draw

http://www.mars-hydro.com/mars-ii-led-grow-light-900w.html

 

$435   520-600watt actual draw

http://www.mars-hydro.com/mars-ii-led-grow-light-1200w.html

 

 

Massive thread and many happy users of them over at grass city. People happily replacing 600 watt HPS's with the 1200.

 

Led do work, they not cheap and 5watt is old tech now (10 watt full spectrum is the top diode now) but definetly not redundant tech.

Mars offer good value and quality, dont buy into this "its made in china its crap" garbage as thats where literally almost all the LED's in the world are made.

Even companies like Advanced use chinese diodes and there are no issues in doing so.

A lot of companies simply rebadge their lights (think PC's back in the day).

 

Now if you want a light that will is cutting edge look at this baby

http://advancedledlights.com/3w-led-grow-lights/new-diamond-series-xml-10w-cree-xml/

and the data sheet for the nerds

http://advancedledlights.com/ds-xml-650-datasheet/

 

These are though $1600..they offer smaller versions of the light with teh cheapest being about $570 with only 130w draw

618watts actual draw and these full spectrum 10watts coupled with the targeted spectrums in 5watts creates amazing results.

On light movers its being used to replace 1000W HPS's, wont be long before we get the targeted spectrums diodes made in 10watts too.

 

A lot of people tried LED early when it was mostly snake oil salesmen. The original 1 watt diodes were next to useless for anything but looking pretty and maybe veg.

When 3 watt diodes came out there was a big improvement and you could flower with these lights, though you generally wanted to scrog/SOG as penetration was not great. Some companies started providing more realistic information about what the lights delivered in comparative draw (ie 200w LED roughly 270-300w hps).

5 Watt tech came out a couple of years ago now and it removed the necessity for scrogging and allowed more classic tree growth to a point.

 

If 3 watt LED's will penetrate 2 feet of water with sufficient PAR to grow high light req plants/corals (MH is no longer used by those who have the choice, t5ho also has fallen out of favor thanks to LED) then 10w sure wont have trouble penetrating 6 foot trees....your bigger issue is probably bleaching from lights being too close.

Cheers so much... Perfect info for future investments

[Purebreeder]

I'm using a 300W Mars hydro for veg and flower together with a 600W HPS.

My experience with cheap chinese LEDs are, you get what you pay for, one of the fan stopped working the first day I used it, and the build quality is below par even for a hobbyist market.

Result-wise, I'm very impressed. It makes the ladies very happy and dark green in colour, I have the impression that the lights supplied the plants with more diverse spectrum of light compared with HID or CFLs, therefore you have a more healthy growth.

 

You are right, penetration power of my LED is weak, the HPS gets through the thick foliages better.

The reason of going to LED is because I want to avoid the heat problem during summer, the temp here can get close to 40s during summer.

It has the potential to be a all-rounder light for veg/flower in a single plant tiny grow cabinet.

 

Just my 2cents,

[Qwobbler]

yeah i havnt thought about summer yet, its gets that hot here too mate, with 90% humidity   

how much u pay for the 300w mars mate?

[hakenspit]

Diode and fans die, its why even companies like Advanced now do modular design (old DS was just one big board...so if part died it all died and all had to be replaced).

Sucks you lost a fan but how was the customer service for fixing the issue? Was it a simple module replacement or did it need sending back?

 

I built PC's back in the 80's you had the same stuff about buying a brand name PC as they were "better quality", they were made from the same components just didn't have the sticker (yes a sticker) on the box that inflatted the price.

Doesn't matter the name on the side...the internal components all come from the same place...shit the original soniq plasma tv's back 10 years ago were just rebadged panasonic screens.

 

 

There is a valid point to the "you get what you pay for" line though, there is a lot on ebay thats really not worth the time even looking at.

MARS are currerntly the bottom end of the "cheap but good" bracket. Anything cheaper is old tech that really isn't worth bothering with given the tech mars offer is just below current top end.

 

LED do give off heat however its less heat, that though means you need to change your watering habits as the soil wont dry out as fast and they will also consume nutes slightly differently.

You can partition them off easily enough and due to the design this keeps the heat in a seperate area to the plants if a small space, but in a room its barely noticable.

 

They are not limited to small cabinets...some large tents here..the last one is a 300watt led.

http://www.420magazi...uit-cheese.html

 

http://www.420magazi...ussion-802.html

 

http://www.420magazi...-veg-200-a.html

[_Puff_Tough_]

If you're keen to give LED's a serious run try LUSH-Lighting LEDs.

[Qwobbler]

thanks everyone, i will be investing in some real LED lighting when i get better for sure