I dont know where you guys are buying your mars ... I had mine for 2 years with multiple grows under them . NO BURNOUTS or Bullshit.
If they were as shitty as everybody is crying about , i damn sure would gave joined in.
I use 2 mars series II ( version 1 ) 900s - i ONLY thing i ever had to do with them , is open case and clean the glass ( recommended once in a while ). I also use compressed air to blow out any dust that may have collected.
I run them at 18/6 and 12/12 for 2 years straight ( i keep grows going all year ) and have not run into any damn problems.
I purchased thru a local distributor ( cali ) and never looked back.
So that longevity argument is moot.
They run at no more than 85 degrees on the hottest days.
I would rather have a light rated for 50,000 to 100,000 hours life then some HID lamp that will fail at a drop of a hat THEN buying bulbs because of degrade or burnouts. Or ballast issues.
It is WAY MORE COST effective to run these panels .... I dont get scary ass power bills from these.
Here in cali its going into the TRIPLE DIGITS this week and fuck that if im going to turn the house into an oven with a HID system.
They work ... It is what it is.
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