The Hydroflector Hybrid is a clever but simple design, consisting of twenty different parts working together to forever change the way you cool your garden. With minimal effort, it can be retrofitted to be used in almost any existing hood already designed for 8” air cooling, or consumers can purchase the unit already installed in a customized hood.
Designed to remove unwanted bulb-heat, the unique liquid-cooled design is not only incredibly effective, but completely safe when installed per the manufacturer’s instructions. The efficiency of the design allows you to install more lights per square foot, and decrease the distance between your lights and your plant canopy. Both result more lumens absorbed by your plants, which in turn results in greater garden yields.
The cooler the water you have pumped through the unit, the closer you can place your lights to your plants; it’s completely up to you. In one of our lab tests, we were able to move two 1000W lights to within 5” of the plant canopy. This was using only a 55 gallon reservoir chilled to 65 degrees F with a ¼ HP chiller.
Another added benefit is the decrease you’ll see in your electric bill, for several reasons:
Chiller Downtime
While a ¼ HP chiller draws about the same amount of power as a typical 8” fan (3.6A for the chiller vs. 3.8A for the fan), the fan runs continuously while the chiller’s compressor only comes on periodically. Every minute the chiller’s compressor doesn’t run is a minute you’d have been paying for the fan to run.
No Bulb Heat
After a few hours running, the glass on the bottom of a typical 1000W air-cooled set up is usually between 120 and 130 degrees F. With the Hydroflector Hybrid, after 8 hours of running continuously with water chilled to 65 degrees F, the inner surface of the glass won’t exceed 80 degrees F. Imagine the savings with your air conditioner not having to work so hard to cool your garden room. Also, as most know, the better the temperature inside your garden room is controlled, the better the crop yield in both quality and quantity.
Lumens Efficiency
For every inch that the bulb is removed from your plants, the lumens output decreases dramatically. Under the right conditions, using the Hydroflector Hybrid, you can move your lights so much closer to your plants that you can switch to 600W lights and achieve the same results.
What is most unique about the Hydroflector Hybrid is it’s flexibility. It can be water-cooled, air-cooled, or both at once and there is quite literally nothing else like it in the world. The primary cooling function of the HH is driven by chilled water piped to and through the unit using ½” i.d. flexible heavy-duty tubing. The air cooling was included for use under extreme conditions (small enclosures, grow chambers, big operations, etc.) and should rarely be necessary. Air cooling can be accomplished by ducting air through a 4 ½” center tube that houses our patented, polished aluminum, one of a kind socket bracket assembly. The socket assembly bracket is designed so all the wiring connections are inside the housing protecting this connection from UV damage. The bracket also is fully adjustable so that you can center any bulb size within the unit.
The center tube is positioned inside of a larger tube, both borosilicate glass, with water running between the tubes. The ends of the tubes are held together with rubber gaskets and ABS plastic end caps. The unique custom made gaskets are wedge shaped, and wrap around the edge of the glass giving it a three sided seal that locks the gasket into the end cap. The pressure that is needed to pull the end cap in place is supplied by the flange collar that clamps on the outer tube, which has an EPDM liner to ensure a good grip on the glass. The end cap is held to the flange collar by six 1” stainless steel ¼ x 20 bolts, washers, and nuts. The flange collar is designed for the nuts to recess into it, so there is no need to use a wrench for these, thereby easing assembly. The plastic parts are made with rugged abs plastic with the highest recommended amount of UV inhibitor, ensuring years of problem free operation. There are also 4” duct covers to use when air-cooling is not needed. The water nozzles, which are black nylon, are ½” OD to ¼” NPT threads and can easily be swapped out if a different tubing size is used. The lamp cord is brought into the unit through the end cap and secured with a watertight connector.
The unit completely assembled is very water resistant from the outside (protecting your lights from overspray during watering), and offers a multitude other safety measures as well. In the highly unlikely event of gasket leakage, the drain feature on the end cap will ensure that no water ever touches the bulb. However, because the impossible is sometimes possible, we also recommend that you use a GFCI plug, breaker, or interrupter that plugs into the wall inline with your ballast power cord. If the unit isn’t assembled properly and water does somehow come into contact with the electricity, the GFCI unit will cut power immediately. The GFCI can be purchased through Liquid Lumens, as can a flow meter that can also be plugged inline with your ballast cord. The flow meter will cut power to your system in case of pump failure.
By far the greatest accomplishment of the Hydroflector Hybrid is that you have choices. You can decide which reflector to use. You can decide on how many lights you want and not be limited by the heat they produce. You also have a choice with the way you cool the unit, water, air or both. Your choices in means to cool your water are nearly limitless as well; the simplest solution is a chiller and a small reservoir, but it can also be done with just a large reservoir buried in the ground to take advantage of the cooler earth. The water can also be piped outside to a radiator (heat exchanger) and cooled with night air. Whichever you choose you will be impressed with the cooling capabilities.
