Consensus on buying used lights

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rmax

Well-Known Member
Like perhaps some of you I want to upgrade my lights but don't have a budget

I found some Gavita 1700e pros on CL with an ask of $600.00 each. The likely story, "Used 1 grow", yada, yada...

Is buying used lights a good idea?
 
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2com

Well-Known Member
rmax said:
Like perhaps some of you I want to upgrade my lights but don't have a budget

I found some Gavita 1700e pros on CL with an ask of $600.00 each. The likely story, "Used 1 grow", yada, yada...

Is buying used lights a good idea?
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Can you get hold of a par meter, and multi meter, maybe test it out first? I duno, man.
 
thumper60

thumper60

Well-Known Member
rmax said:
Like perhaps some of you I want to upgrade my lights but don't have a budget

I found some Gavita 1700e pros on CL with an ask of $600.00 each. The likely story, "Used 1 grow", yada, yada...

Is buying used lights a good idea?
Click to expand...
good deal if it comes with the box an the shipping label with a date, I bought a 1700 last fall used same price very happy. I wouldnt touch it without the shipping box.
 
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watsongreenthumb

Active Member
I snap up lights and other gear on CL and fb marketplace all the time, lots of people start growing and then give up or lose interest a few months or a year later. 600 is reasonable for used gavitas in my area, although not such a deal that I would be rushing out the door. I would be more interested though if they have enough of them to replace all your hps lights. I finally replaced all my hps after this last run, but now Ive got kind of a mix and match assortment of lights. I finally got a par meter today, really interesting taking readings under different brands and styles of led's, I am going to use this run as sort of a big side by side test to see what brand/style/spectrum of led's I like best, but honestly in your situation I would be inclined to just trust that gavita knows what they are doing. One thing to note, been doing a bunch of testing today with my new meter, and if your looking to cover a 4x4 area per gavita your good to go, if your trying to cover a 5x5 I would look for a more powerful light, something 800+ watts if your running co2 because the 600ish watt lights have great coverage and intensity directly under the footprint of the light at a lower hanging height, but it really drops off outside of that and you need to raise the light, however when you raise the light you need more juice to keep the par levels up, really crazy the difference just an inch or two makes in the par level on these lights.
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
watsongreenthumb said:
I snap up lights and other gear on CL and fb marketplace all the time, lots of people start growing and then give up or lose interest a few months or a year later. 600 is reasonable for used gavitas in my area, although not such a deal that I would be rushing out the door. I would be more interested though if they have enough of them to replace all your hps lights. I finally replaced all my hps after this last run, but now Ive got kind of a mix and match assortment of lights. I finally got a par meter today, really interesting taking readings under different brands and styles of led's, I am going to use this run as sort of a big side by side test to see what brand/style/spectrum of led's I like best, but honestly in your situation I would be inclined to just trust that gavita knows what they are doing. One thing to note, been doing a bunch of testing today with my new meter, and if your looking to cover a 4x4 area per gavita your good to go, if your trying to cover a 5x5 I would look for a more powerful light, something 800+ watts if your running co2 because the 600ish watt lights have great coverage and intensity directly under the footprint of the light at a lower hanging height, but it really drops off outside of that and you need to raise the light, however when you raise the light you need more juice to keep the par levels up, really crazy the difference just an inch or two makes in the par level on these lights.
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I bought a cheap Hydrofarm PAR meter. Not their light meter in lux but a quantum PAR meter. Made a world of difference immediately. Like dyno tuning a race bike. Allows you quickly set your plants in the spots for best even coverage. Keeps you from wasting electricity. My meter compares to my neighbors Apogee and is within about + or -5 PPFD. Anyone seriously growing under LED should consider adding one to their kit.
 
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watsongreenthumb

Active Member
hotrodharley said:
I bought a cheap Hydrofarm PAR meter. Not their light meter in lux but a quantum PAR meter. Made a world of difference immediately. Like dyno tuning a race bike. Allows you quickly set your plants in the spots for best even coverage. Keeps you from wasting electricity. My meter compares to my neighbors Apogee and is within about + or -5 PPFD. Anyone seriously growing under LED should consider adding one to their kit.
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Awesome, I got the Phantom one so I think it is probably pretty similar to the hydrofarm. I tested it against a SpotOn par meter and the results were very close! I totally agree that while it maybe isn't scientific grade or whatever its a super useful tool for dialing in or comparing lights, led's especially since there seems do be such a big difference in their par levels and coverage. I took some readings under my De lights before I took them down and put up led's, was good to get baseline par numbers on the lights I am used to so I know the actual numbers I was getting at different distances and have a good place to start with the new led's.
 
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pahpah-cee

Well-Known Member
hotrodharley said:
I bought a cheap Hydrofarm PAR meter. Not their light meter in lux but a quantum PAR meter. Made a world of difference immediately. Like dyno tuning a race bike. Allows you quickly set your plants in the spots for best even coverage. Keeps you from wasting electricity. My meter compares to my neighbors Apogee and is within about + or -5 PPFD. Anyone seriously growing under LED should consider adding one to their kit.
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I got the same meter for $30 off OfferUp. The lady was selling over 50 of them at the time. Most of fallen off the truck.
 
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pahpah-cee

Well-Known Member
I have collected 2 hlg 550v2 r specs for $200each. I found a broken 600v2 rspec kit for $35 dollars. I’m pretty sure they were tweakers so if someone had a 600v2 stolen from them I’m sorry, it’s being treated well. I contacted HLG and gave them the serial number and told them the power supply is broken. They sent me out a replacement no questions asked.

wipe the gear down and put it in isolation first. I think the only think I bought new was one of my 4x4 tents. I scored a few new inline fans with charcoal filters for a fraction of their actual prices from pallet flippers.

im located in Southern California so a lot of people try and fail to set up grow ops. As others have said, it’s a buyers market. Don’t rush out and get something. Just be patient. A lot of people are truly delusional about their lights value. Circle back to the delusional people in a month and they might be more understanding on who actually holds the power.

a lot of people have deadlines on when they need to get rid of all their growing equipment. One guy I found was tired of trying to sell it and just gave me everything so long as I took it all the same day. I got 3 gavitas, 4 hoods, dehumidifier, humidifier, portable a/c, flood trays, nutes galore, 3ft charcoal filter, lots of inline fans, multiple t5 fixtures, co2 controller, and lots more.

lastly; don’t do as I did, don’t collect gear because it’s a great value. Selling Growing gear is not that easy. Hot shots won’t buy used gear and newbies aren’t interested in your 600+ watt LED because they want a 2x2 grow. Those brand new gavitas I picked up only sold for $200. That included 3 gavitas and a light controller. It took 2 months to find a buyer.

so again, buyers market.
 
harrychilds

harrychilds

Well-Known Member
If it's a decent LED with a receipt to give you the warranty then I would go for it. If you have the light and receipt and anything goes wrong with it then you can claim on the warranty. Most decent lights these days have a 5 year warranty. Check the Lumatek LED range out. They all have 5 years warranty. :bigjoint:
 
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