Advanced LED or Vipar LED?

Hey guys, I'm currently growing in an equatorial country indoors (growing outside is not an option) and HID lights are too hot for my grow tent. Here's my current setup;

Dimensions: 2 x 4 x 5 ft

Current lighting: HID

Ventilation: 4" inline fan with about 80 cfm rating

Current temperature: 100F (with lights on at night)

Without the lights on, temps get to about 81F (at night)

My option is to upgrade to a bigger fan (with more power consumption) and no guarantee of lowering temps, or, to switch to LED.

Air-conditioning will run my electricity bill skyhigh, so that's not an option either.

I was initially turned off by the high initial cost of purchase, but after encountering problems with HID and the heat it generates, I'm beginning to reconsider LED.

Currently limited my choice to Advanced LED lights (200W Diamond series), or Vipar LED (B2X3) from the UK.

Any helpful input is highly appreciated, thanks a lot guys.

hey bother, first off- Thank you for such the neat thread. Wish some others were this organized before posting.

I think id be hitting up Vipar, I've talked to them a few times but shipping prices have left me out of reach. But, they were very open, and straight up about what their directive is in the LED business. Good people. Along with the OPTION for a 1-3 year warranty on the new series... I was THIS close to pulling the trigger.

Advanced seems like decent panels, I am just not a fan of cramming 300+ led's in a ~20x30" panel. Inefficient, usually not high quality, and usually low life span from heat not dissipating right... I should back up, they're US, which pushes me towards em, but in the back of my head I know they HAVE to be getting their panels from somewhere... So either way, its chinese, vietnamese, jasdfm-nese. Whatever. I've seen a few good grows with Advanced, but honestly I feel like they are behind.

They ARE advertising their new "module" lights, which look.... cool. Nowwww.... coverage....? I think that is on the table for a HEAVY debate.... and the fact they are ASKING people visiting their site for donations (I forget how they word it...) for the new series.... lol. naw, just rubbed me wrong.

Another thing to Vipar, they use the same casings as the old Area 51's, I have three of the 6-module models. Draw about 195w altogether. Covers about 6" outside the dimensions @ 18" with keeping things saturated. I think they use different emitters, but the same heatsinks, same mcpcb....

If you are looking at chucking some change at Vipar already, I would even strong-er-ly, hahaha... sorry, been smoking hard since I started typing.. suggest checking out Area 51, Hans (bonsaihero), RhinoGrow (they look weird, but high quality)


Those all use higher quality components and offer some form of warranty. Id prowl the led sub forum for the low down on shit. A lot of people have went crazy with the LED globes (cree's) and are pulling sweet results

Thank YOU Scotch089! That was some real helpful advice, I'm actually going through Bonsaihero as I'm writing. From the countless hours of research, I did actually come across it before, but I didn't consider getting 2 panels for my grow space. Now that I'm digging further though, I'm reading some great reviews about it, though not as many as A51.

I still have time before flower, so I'll take your advice and prowl the LED sub forum.

Thanks again! + rep

Scotch is drunk or stoned. Advanced is one of the best LED outfits out there, and their XML Diamond series is bad ass. Great service, high quality lights, great warranty, and they even threw in quite a few free screw in LED bulbs on my last order to try out. If they are really--anywhere--asking for donations, I demand to see a link to that site. Nonsense. They are one of the best selling brands among our group and university science departments, so... whatever. I'm calling bs on what Scotch said. Coverage? Um, grew with 1000w HID for years. Never again. Here's week 5 of flower, today under my Advanced XMLs.
Pardon the damn sativa in the left; it's just been crawling and sprawling all over. I turned off all but the white CREEs on the lamp on the far right so you can see how green they plants are.

OP, your tent would be covered with one of these, and probably be fine with the XML 150 too.

You sir, are correct. I am super stoned.

http://blog.advancedledlights.com/advanced-led-news/the-new-arc-series/

But that's the Advanced's new Arc Series, puffenuff was pretty pumped about em but I am more onto the idea of spreading the wattage instead of the 'spot' light source for my power.

I have no personal exp with xmls', like I said, I have seen a few good grows.

PaxEtBonum said:

Scotch is drunk or stoned. Advanced is one of the best LED outfits out there, and their XML Diamond series is bad ass. Great service, high quality lights, great warranty, and they even threw in quite a few free screw in LED bulbs on my last order to try out. If they are really--anywhere--asking for donations, I demand to see a link to that site. Nonsense. They are one of the best selling brands among our group and university science departments, so... whatever. I'm calling bs on what Scotch said. Coverage? Um, grew with 1000w HID for years. Never again. Here's week 5 of flower, today under my Advanced XMLs.
Pardon the damn sativa in the left; it's just been crawling and sprawling all over. I turned off all but the white CREEs on the lamp on the far right so you can see how green they plants are.

OP, your tent would be covered with one of these, and probably be fine with the XML 150 too.

View attachment 2868074

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http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...utm_campaign=Pre+Launch+ARC+&utm_medium=email


Pledges.

There were a few companies I would turn to well before Advanced, don't like to be blunt (no pun.?), but LED's are about efficiency, and I picked a few companies that are sticking to that. Hans would be my small time go to panel, Area 51 IS my all around panel, and Apache is in arm's length. There are just more quality options available in this day and age. Its 2013.

Wow. That actually blew my mind. They are seeking money to develop a new light. Totally a man to say I'm wrong. I am. Strange.

Anyway, efficiency is why I switched to LEDs. I'm saving almost 40 dollars per month, and have been way more than impressed with these lights. I'm not prone to having issues with nutes or shit like that, but every now and then one plant is like "I'm not happy." Haven't had that problem with these lights. Usually one of those ladies gets bitchy on me, because I run five or six strains at the same time (variety is the spice of life), but they just get tight and fat and grow some incredibly quality flowers. My one complaint is that unless I wear my rayban sunglasses (I'm an old man) into the grow room with lights on, I am blinded for the next few hours.

Area 51 isn't more advanced than advanced (is it?), and I have heard this fellow Hans makes custom panels. I've heard bad things about Apache, including massive failure rates in their panels. What's more advanced than every spectrum required, the non crees are 3w, the crees are 10w. Has four fans (that almost never need to turn on because of the great heatsink) that are whisper quiet.

I think we all just become loyalists when we find a good product (which says a lot about the quality out there today compared to the shit first gen leds). I'm guessing you don't own an XML, and I know I don't own an Area 51. I think it's awesome that we both respect our retailers and are happy with our purchases. Let me just say this... my XMLs have outperformed (and with much more efficiency) my 1000w, and I used to supplement that unit with side lighting to cover the whole space. Penetration is fucking gangbusters with this XML. It grows tight noded plants, so I worried that the light wouldn't get through. You know how people talk about popcorn buds on the lowers? All of the little buds that used to be basically hash material or throwaway for me are now like little balls of chewing gum... dense and sticky. This is the one thing that shocked me most about the transition to these lights. WTF? I was dialed in for decades, and these lights turn bottom throwaway into hard little marble buds. I mean, those little buds at the very bottom are like tiny versions of the top colas. Usually they were just whispy with a few hairs. Interesting. I must say that because of limitations in my own height (I have a hunchback that would scare Hansel and Gretel) my plants seldom get over five feet tall, so I can't say the light would penetrate into a really deep canopy, like six plus, but it's been impressive. I tried training that stupid sativa of mine, but it just wants to sprawl out like a spider and since it's so tall and spindly I just let it. Not hurting the other plants none.

I'll tell you one thing I miss this time of year... the excess energy from HPS turned into heat. My room is getting cold without all that heat. Been a menace for years and now I'm sitting here going, damn, that excess heat would have had me fine in this abnormal cool spell.

Got any secret recipes for warming up my grow buckets, the roots, the soil? I feel like the plants have been stalled for a few days, the soil in the buckets is chilly. Never had to deal with this before. Under the lights, it's definitely warm enough, but it's cold in the buckets which is stunting these ladies, I think. How to warm the buckets? Space heater is out of the question (I had one malfunction in my garage and burn down my house in the 80s). At least it was a clean burn (no evidence left behind).

PaxEtBonum,

Lol, I have the complete opposite of your problem. Tropical climates here means I deal with a perpetual summer - at least 85F in the day. I'm struggling to keep my babies cool, but recently one of the cuttings just had their leaves bleached with CFLs.

Thanks for your input, I know AdvancedLED's has had a lot of great reviews, and I just saw a post where they personally responded to a dissatisfied customer on one of the forums. Great customer service. Kyle responded to my email queries too, and now I'm waiting for Bonsaihero to get back to me.

Hopefully I'll be able to pick one by the end of the week.

Thanks all!

Hey guys,

I know this has been long overdue, but in the end I decided to go with Hans' panels. They've been getting great reviews and recommendations, and the low shipping costs and similar electrical configuration appealed to me.

The panels arrived within the week! I wrote an introductory review of them here.

Thanks for all your help guys!

ThurgoodJenkinsSoulbro. said:

http://ledgrowlightsreview.org/vipar-led-interview-with-edward-rickards/

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That is the old 'A' range which was really good, I had the A300 & A100 but the new 'B' range is better and really is amazing value for the money, not the best and most expensive on the market but as i say the bang for the buck is unquestionable, if money is no object then i would say get a 400w in the $900 range but as long as the OP picks an LED with at least 3 yr warranty and 30 day money back guaranteed and you wont go far wrong.