Are any of the inexpensive Amazon LED lights worth it?

matman4444

matman4444

Well-Known Member
Seems like opinions are split. Some like them, though I assume they probably don't have experience with other lights, others say they are trash and to build your own.

I'm just doing a simple for fun tent grow 20"x32"x 5-6ish feet tall.

Bought one of the "1000w" LED lights that are around $100-150 and seem to be branded 50 different ways on Amazon. Kind of regretting it and thinking I should return for something better.

What do you guys think? Not interested in spending too much or building my own right now.


Light for reference
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B071...i=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=dimgogo
 
HydoDan said:
No! Send it back.. Save your money for a good light..
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Yeah I'm leaning that way, but what light would you recommend for under $150ish?

It's not about saving money or whatever, I'm just not interested in going too crazy on this tiny grow. I still have 1000w hps lights from old grows, this is really just for fun to have something going, but I'd still like to get the best bang for buck.
 
matman4444 said:
Yeah I'm leaning that way, but what light would you recommend for under $150ish?

It's not about saving money or whatever, I'm just not interested in going too crazy on this tiny grow. I still have 1000w hps lights from old grows, this is really just for fun to have something going, but I'd still like to get the best bang for buck.
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Check out @CobKits, he has a way of making budgets work...
 
HydoDan said:
Check out @CobKits, he has a way of making budgets work...
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I agree with you, but he said he didn't want to build a light atm. Unless I'm wrong cobkits is all kits, none pre built. The light I lined should give about 40 watts a sqft in his grow space. CXA3070 is still very good imo.
 
He sells pre-made light engines.. hooking up a couple wires isn't that tough.. The 3070s are fine chips it's the drivers that crap out.. In fact I almost bought that very light last year... Before I came here and got educated... But I'm sure it will
work... just a little weak for flower..
 
HydoDan said:
He sells pre-made light engines.. hooking up a couple wires isn't that tough.. The 3070s are fine chips it's the drivers that crap out.. In fact I almost bought that very light last year... Before I came here and got educated... But I'm sure it will
work... just a little weak for flower..
Click to expand...

Ah ok. I'd go with cobkits then.
 
HydoDan said:
He sells pre-made light engines.. hooking up a couple wires isn't that tough.. The 3070s are fine chips it's the drivers that crap out.. In fact I almost bought that very light last year... Before I came here and got educated... But I'm sure it will
work... just a little weak for flower..
Click to expand...

Ok can you tell me what parts I should be looking for? I can connect a couple wires if that's all there is to it.

Thanks a lot for the info guys
 
HydoDan said:
He sells pre-made light engines.. hooking up a couple wires isn't that tough.. The 3070s are fine chips it's the drivers that crap out.. In fact I almost bought that very light last year... Before I came here and got educated... But I'm sure it will
work... just a little weak for flower..
Click to expand...

The fellow at cobkits is a good guy and is always helpful here. I wish he would put together some kits or a list of parts on his web sites to help newer or newbie shoppers. I think it would help his business.

I think COB Kits could do a 3 or 4 Citizen COB rig for the cost of that Roleadro.
 
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matman4444 said:
Seems like opinions are split. Some like them, though I assume they probably don't have experience with other lights, others say they are trash and to build your own.

I'm just doing a simple for fun tent grow 20"x32"x 5-6ish feet tall.

Bought one of the "1000w" LED lights that are around $100-150 and seem to be branded 50 different ways on Amazon. Kind of regretting it and thinking I should return for something better.

What do you guys think? Not interested in spending too much or building my own right now.


Light for reference
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B071...i=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=dimgogo
Click to expand...

I bought 12 - 45 watt led off Woot for something like $25 each, they are multi color and seem to work fine. With that said, i ripped out the drivers when they showed up and mounted them in a big wooden frame and rewired the entire thing with meanwell drivers. They claimed to be 45 watt lights out of the box, but they were really only 25 watts. With the new drivers they are now true 45 watt lights. I use them for growing lettuce and herbs in an NFT system. I also start all my plants out with them. Would I buy them again? MEH...It will nicely cover a 4x4 area i suppose. Its basically a big ass 540 watt light. The leds themselves are probably not very efficient. I only have a LUX meter, and it doesn't see to read very much with them, but they are all red/blue/IR. so they likely don't deliver as much visible light as a 3000k or 6000k would.

If you don't want to build your own, you might want to consider putting a new driver in it. But sizing it will be weird. you might need to take pictures and ask around. it took me like 3 different drivers to figure out what i needed.

The bottom line is this, cheap led lights can and do work, but you must make adjustments to make this happen. The running number I hear is 38 watts per sf for growing stalk plants. But that number comes from using quality drivers and cobs, like meanwell drivers and VERO or CREE cobs (there are others too, don't flame me for this :) ). You might need to add 30% to the 38 watts number (50 watts) with amazon pre-built led lights, also if your light says its 1000 watts, its probably only 400 at the wall. so it should cover 8 sf, you should be fine with it in your 4.5 sf tent. But if you had something higher end, you would be able to do the entire thing with 170 watts. Less then half the power. I'd guess 4 cobs would do nicely there. Hell, I might have something in my basement if you want.

hope this helps,

MF
 
The different cob kits look nice, just a little expensive and too much work needing to assemble, wire, build a frame and mount everything. I just wanted to plug and play ugh
 
matman4444 said:
Yeah I'm leaning that way, but what light would you recommend for under $150ish?

It's not about saving money or whatever, I'm just not interested in going too crazy on this tiny grow. I still have 1000w hps lights from old grows, this is really just for fun to have something going, but I'd still like to get the best bang for buck.
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I'd just run the HPS but dim it down to 600w for your small space.
 
churchhaze said:
If you want cheap, get a 400W HPS with batwing reflector. It'll wipe the floor with cheap blurples.
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600w is more efficient, and they are *way* cheap on craigslist.
My last score was a 600w Lumatek digital ballast + reflector + hortilux super HPS bulb (used 1 grow) -- all for $85. :hump:
 
Chunky Stool said:
600w is more efficient, and they are *way* cheap on craigslist.
My last score was a 600w Lumatek digital ballast + reflector + hortilux super HPS bulb (used 1 grow) -- all for $85. :hump:
Click to expand...

That's true, but OP said his tent was 20"x32"x 5-6ish feet tall. A 600W HPS would give him ~135W/sqft. Even a 400W might be too powerful giving him ~90W/sqft.

Honestly with that tent size, he may as well go LED just so he can scale his power better. (just not inexpensive amazon LEDs)
 
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