When Did Spider Farmer Stop Using Meanwell Drivers?
- Thread starter Charles U Farley
- Start date
concreter68
Member
If they are so good why didn't spider farmer tell people about the change,and I have had nothing but problems with the driver, fixed now don't know for how long?I wanted my money back in the early days as light was a lemon from day 1 , terrible customer service treated like shit .The power supply we are using now is also a brand that has focused on the power supply market for many years, and the quality has also been tested and compared by our engineers, so no worry about the quality.
About all your feedback and suggestions, we will feedback to the company
420 Garden
Well-Known Member
I dono what your growing with, but my 5x5 I am running a little over 725 wall watts and I feel the need to move closer to 850 wall watts. If you price reliable quality lights it will put you in the 800 to 1200 dollar area so again lights are getting very pricey. IMHO
concreter68
Member
I am going to try out the migro 5x5 bar light ,only uses the lm 281 but a lot of them ,they hang low ( cheaper power) it has a very good ppfd chart where ther
The ghost has appeared.u answer questions when it please U ..
A warranty is only as good as the company behind it, don't expect much from most Chinese brands. Due to shipping costs, it's generally a good idea to buy from a company in your own country or part of the world.
Last edited:
420 Garden
Well-Known Member
I'm not even in the mood. If you read the post in the thread. I posted Spider Farmer's own 5 year warranty, that in its self is BS. Spider Farmer made no attempt to high light "we made this incredible move in driver update for our newest model 's" nope . My sf400 has been reliable so far (2) years old. I do have 3 diodes out but still not complaining. I just don't feel your moving in the right direction. And yes as I stated earlier, lights are getting expensive. Research your buys people.
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
Drivers: always try to source drivers from somewhere reasonably local, somewhere it would make sense to return the driver. Its perfectly valid for a company to ask for the driver back for warranty coverage so it doesnt really make sense to get your driver from china, or a company that runs the under warranty service from there. Most drivers have long warranty and its all wasted if shipping the driver back costs as much as a new one. And generally if you deal with a reputable brand/company theyll take care of shipping the unit, at least one of the ways.
As for meanwell in Spider farmer/Mars and rest of the china brands (or all those who rebrand a china brand for sale more locally):
These are going to be meanwells sourced in the china market. Personally i would doubt a bit that the really go thru the same quality controls and standards as a meanwell bought from a regular source. I mean this is why it would be cheaper than regular. So why bother so much about the driver change of SF? Honestly i think the quality isnt going to be that different. If your driver fails its probably going to be better to just source a new one locally, even if the $$ hurts a bit. But the drivers going to be the main point of faults, especially dangerous ones. So get quality, at least for the drivers.
As for meanwell in Spider farmer/Mars and rest of the china brands (or all those who rebrand a china brand for sale more locally):
These are going to be meanwells sourced in the china market. Personally i would doubt a bit that the really go thru the same quality controls and standards as a meanwell bought from a regular source. I mean this is why it would be cheaper than regular. So why bother so much about the driver change of SF? Honestly i think the quality isnt going to be that different. If your driver fails its probably going to be better to just source a new one locally, even if the $$ hurts a bit. But the drivers going to be the main point of faults, especially dangerous ones. So get quality, at least for the drivers.
Charles U Farley
Well-Known Member
I originally put this in the Advertisers sub so you would see it and then it disappeared but evidently it got moved to this sub so... thank you so much for you response.
My concern is I've committed to SF smb lights (I have 2 SF4000's, 2 SF2000's and 1 new SF2000 Pro) and for every light except the 2000 Pro, I can do a search for the Meanwell driver model number, say the the XLG 240 H AB and have a replacement power supply in my hand in 1-2 days. As others on this thread have posted about SF's repair policy, mailing lights, even here within the U.S., is quite expensive and time consuming. Since my lights will becoming out of warranty soon, it is comforting to know I can still get replacement drivers immediately.
I can't do that with the 2000 Pro.
I decided to keep the 2000 Pro but that will be my last purchase from SF until Meanwell drivers are used again. I recently purchased a Viparspectra XS4000 for the clone/seedling closest because they still use Meanwell drivers.
Again, thanks for you response.
sh0wtime
Well-Known Member
If you want similar boards with meanwell drivers I think Sylstar is still selling their ''version'' of the SF2000 and SF4000.
They have meanwell drivers and currently an SF-2000 is at 189,90$ or so.
http://www.sylstar-lighting.com -> use the search function and type in ''2000'' u'll find it
regards, sh0
sfw1960
Well-Known Member
I've got a few chiminilly "qb's" with sosen drivers and the efficiency sucks on them but of 5 tents all are HLG panels with Ming Wei (mean well) drivers and I have just one strip build I did with an Inventronics driver.
A friend told me one of the sf4k his wife told him to buy puked and he told me there's no warranty - which after seeing the verbiage I understand the WHY.
If she wasn't so overbearing and he would grow a set he'd have HLG panels in his pole barn too.
Buying a bunch of parts and doing it DIY I knew that I would have zero problems with the panels and with 24 QB132's in one 4*8 and a dozen QB288's in another 4*8 I never once thought I'd need warranty service for the boards. The builds were done in 2019 and almost 5 years later and a bunch of growth later I'm still happy with the money I spent regardless of all and any discounts....
During the past 5 or so years I've ran, tested, repaired and sold nearly 200 different chiminilly lights so I've been down the road on testing dependability and the stuff made more local is just plain better for a multitude of reasons.
What few interactions I've had with HLG have been great - I have gotten treated excellent.
Cheapest bidder is a sure recipe for disappointment!
A friend told me one of the sf4k his wife told him to buy puked and he told me there's no warranty - which after seeing the verbiage I understand the WHY.
If she wasn't so overbearing and he would grow a set he'd have HLG panels in his pole barn too.
Buying a bunch of parts and doing it DIY I knew that I would have zero problems with the panels and with 24 QB132's in one 4*8 and a dozen QB288's in another 4*8 I never once thought I'd need warranty service for the boards. The builds were done in 2019 and almost 5 years later and a bunch of growth later I'm still happy with the money I spent regardless of all and any discounts....
During the past 5 or so years I've ran, tested, repaired and sold nearly 200 different chiminilly lights so I've been down the road on testing dependability and the stuff made more local is just plain better for a multitude of reasons.
What few interactions I've had with HLG have been great - I have gotten treated excellent.
Cheapest bidder is a sure recipe for disappointment!
Last edited:
concreter68
Member
Just received a email from spider farmer about another sale , believe it or not the se7000 has the meanwell driver again,I think they had problems with the other brand as I have had 2 drivers and 1 light stand replaced by spider farmer under warranty in approx 8 months and that was a big hassle ,the last driver they gave me wasn't brand new it was 1 that had been fixed,I had to rewire the light stand that driver plugs into ( they send a video how to do it.) Need better customer service.
Intheswamp
Member
I know this thread is a couple of years old but I wanted to just say "thanks" for the info here. I grow my own vegetable seedlings, mostly peppers and tomatoes. I bought a Viparspectra a couple of years ago due to it's Meanwell driver. It's a little XS1000...my first toe-dip into purpose-built grow lights. I have a shelf of three 48" grow lights and some of those 3-panel "garage" 80w LED lights that I also use...mostly those are for carnivorous plants. Well, last year I decided to buy another Vipar XS1000 but didn't things came up and I never opened the box. It was an "upgraded" XS1000
Fast forward to this year... My wife heads up a women's jail ministry at our local county jail. Last October they decided to start a garden which the administrator was all for. Somehow or another little ol' me gotinvited Shanghai'd to help with the garden. This project is on a Ramen noodle budget after a local bank promised to pay for hand tools but then basically reneged on their promise...leaving me and the wife out about $400 . My suddenly my need to grow vegetable seedlings more than tripled.
With the sudden need to grow my seedlings I opened up the extra Viparspectra XS1000 to realize I had been taken to the cleaners. It still had a Meanwell drive, but a smaller 1.1-amp....the old one had 2.0-amp. The number of LEDs are much less than the old XS1000 had. The heat-sink fins are merely slightly raised ribs on the plate...the old one had nice deep fins. The killer, though, was the DLI I ended up with....the "upgraded" XS1000 basically could only register *maybe* 66% of what the old XS1000 registered...the "upgraded" version was lots weaker.
It's my fault for opening it up so far past Amazon's return window and not being able to return it, but how the heck does someone sell the same "model" of something with *so many* differences from the original? Sheesh. The "upgrade", btw, was the ability to daisy chain the light...but not with my old "good" light. I was considering another Viparspectra but after this "presto-change-o" between two lights of the same model number I said never again.
Anyhoo, I got to searching for 2x4 light and was looking at some of the Spider Farmer offerings...but I never could find any data on their drivers. Seems all I could find was that they had "Spider Farmers" printed on the drivers. *THEN* I found this thread. I got to digging a little more about the HLG lights...really nice, solid lights that appear to be built just north of me in Tennessee. Great reviews, good specs. I did have to back off my quest for a 2x4 light (man, HLG has got some NICE lights) and settle for the HLG 100 R Spec. It sounds like this will be a better light my old Viparspectra so I'm going to hang those together to grow a 4' grow table I have. I'll use the other neutered Vipar for maybe some overflow.
Anyhow, thanks for the discussion...even a year or two later people (me!) are still benefiting from it!!!!
Fast forward to this year... My wife heads up a women's jail ministry at our local county jail. Last October they decided to start a garden which the administrator was all for. Somehow or another little ol' me got
With the sudden need to grow my seedlings I opened up the extra Viparspectra XS1000 to realize I had been taken to the cleaners. It still had a Meanwell drive, but a smaller 1.1-amp....the old one had 2.0-amp. The number of LEDs are much less than the old XS1000 had. The heat-sink fins are merely slightly raised ribs on the plate...the old one had nice deep fins. The killer, though, was the DLI I ended up with....the "upgraded" XS1000 basically could only register *maybe* 66% of what the old XS1000 registered...the "upgraded" version was lots weaker.
It's my fault for opening it up so far past Amazon's return window and not being able to return it, but how the heck does someone sell the same "model" of something with *so many* differences from the original? Sheesh. The "upgrade", btw, was the ability to daisy chain the light...but not with my old "good" light. I was considering another Viparspectra but after this "presto-change-o" between two lights of the same model number I said never again.Anyhoo, I got to searching for 2x4 light and was looking at some of the Spider Farmer offerings...but I never could find any data on their drivers. Seems all I could find was that they had "Spider Farmers" printed on the drivers. *THEN* I found this thread.
I got to digging a little more about the HLG lights...really nice, solid lights that appear to be built just north of me in Tennessee. Great reviews, good specs. I did have to back off my quest for a 2x4 light (man, HLG has got some NICE lights) and settle for the HLG 100 R Spec. It sounds like this will be a better light my old Viparspectra so I'm going to hang those together to grow a 4' grow table I have. I'll use the other neutered Vipar for maybe some overflow.Anyhow, thanks for the discussion...even a year or two later people (me!) are still benefiting from it!!!!
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Pretty sure spider farmer switched to sosen drivers. Not bad drivers really, at least for the price point of their lights.I know this thread is a couple of years old but I wanted to just say "thanks" for the info here. I grow my own vegetable seedlings, mostly peppers and tomatoes. I bought a Viparspectra a couple of years ago due to it's Meanwell driver. It's a little XS1000...my first toe-dip into purpose-built grow lights. I have a shelf of three 48" grow lights and some of those 3-panel "garage" 80w LED lights that I also use...mostly those are for carnivorous plants. Well, last year I decided to buy another Vipar XS1000 but didn't things came up and I never opened the box. It was an "upgraded" XS1000
Fast forward to this year... My wife heads up a women's jail ministry at our local county jail. Last October they decided to start a garden which the administrator was all for. Somehow or another little ol' me gotinvitedShanghai'd to help with the garden. This project is on a Ramen noodle budget after a local bank promised to pay for hand tools but then basically reneged on their promise...leaving me and the wife out about $400 . My suddenly my need to grow vegetable seedlings more than tripled.
With the sudden need to grow my seedlings I opened up the extra Viparspectra XS1000 to realize I had been taken to the cleaners. It still had a Meanwell drive, but a smaller 1.1-amp....the old one had 2.0-amp. The number of LEDs are much less than the old XS1000 had. The heat-sink fins are merely slightly raised ribs on the plate...the old one had nice deep fins. The killer, though, was the DLI I ended up with....the "upgraded" XS1000 basically could only register *maybe* 66% of what the old XS1000 registered...the "upgraded" version was lots weaker.
Anyhoo, I got to searching for 2x4 light and was looking at some of the Spider Farmer offerings...but I never could find any data on their drivers. Seems all I could find was that they had "Spider Farmers" printed on the drivers. *THEN* I found this thread.
Anyhow, thanks for the discussion...even a year or two later people (me!) are still benefiting from it!!!!
I have a se5000 with the sosen driver. Ive had it about 2 1/2 years now, with no problems. Works great.
Hlg are quality lights. A lil pricey, but i went with Spider farmer, because I prefer strip lights to qb's, and it has ir and uv diodes built in.
Intheswamp
Member
<chuckle> Now you done got me second-guessing myself! You're way past me with the ir and uv diodes....btw, what's "gb's"?
Pungolian
Well-Known Member
Well going to add my .02$ here as well. I see its an old thread but my brand new se -4500 ( <3 months old) shit the bed the other day right in the middle of a run naturally. Sent warrenty info to sf on tuesday and still waiting on a reply. However , reading company reviews Im not too confident they are even going to respond. So in the meantime I am searching for a replacement driver (320w output). I dont plan on waiting too long before I find and replace it on my own. Really pisses me off. My mars hydro and intertect lights have been running almost continuously for years now and I was really hoping and counting on this being a great light with the newest diodes etc. live and learn!
Attachments
tstick
Well-Known Member
It seems like all the excitement about new lights has kinda....."faded"....*cough*....Man, I remember HEATED arguments about lights, drivers, Cree, Meanwell....Now, it only matters if the lights are good enough to get through a couple runs.....then they break....a new diode or something-or-other gets changed....models get discontinued.....they get replaced by the next ones....and the cycle continues.
By now, I've grown under every type of light there is.....never been much difference, tbh. When you learn to grow, the lights become inconsequential. None of them are going to last forever and even if they don't break, people still want the latest shit -just in case it might mean an extra gram or two to the yield. But, then you start to wake up and realize that, as the lights get more efficient, the seeds and/or clones get progressively shittier and shittier. Pretty soon, you're getting 10 foot tall hemp plants -or, even worse, those nasty automatic plants! Success? Hmmmmm...
I'll take an old, outdated light and good genetics ANYDAY, over the best light and shitty genetics.
By now, I've grown under every type of light there is.....never been much difference, tbh. When you learn to grow, the lights become inconsequential. None of them are going to last forever and even if they don't break, people still want the latest shit -just in case it might mean an extra gram or two to the yield. But, then you start to wake up and realize that, as the lights get more efficient, the seeds and/or clones get progressively shittier and shittier. Pretty soon, you're getting 10 foot tall hemp plants -or, even worse, those nasty automatic plants! Success? Hmmmmm...
I'll take an old, outdated light and good genetics ANYDAY, over the best light and shitty genetics.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Qbs...... quantum boards
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
I can agree with that, and we could easily go back to the "shitty", inefficient, lights.
Sadly, I don't believe we'll ever get back the good, og genetics.
