Does hood type matter

Looking to get air cooled hoods and was wondering if brand/type matters and if so what should I look for b4 choosing? I have ballast from previous setup so only inquiring about hood

it depends on bulb size and your square ft of grow area.how many plants and how well your air in the area is curculated. yes. yes it matters.

Avoid cool tubes. Bulb changes and glass cleaning on them is harder than on a flat lens hood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkLVQa5KN3E
monster gardens should give you a good idea of scientific evidence

If you've got the headroom go vertical , Sun Systems Luxor!

Lower ceilings require bigger hoods to allow the light to spread. Poorly made hoods will leak a lot of air. Some are too heavy.

I do horizontal for veg cuz its easy to fit enough pots under the hood, and cus I have the hood might as well use it. But for flower I stack 600watt HPs vertically and surround the lights by two full circle of pots. Smaller 3 gallon pots that I'm running white widow in in the front, and 7 gal pots with critical mass behind the 3 gals.
Works quite nice, the difference in pot size keeps the back plants high enough that the 3 gal pots don't block light.....

extremepsi said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkLVQa5KN3E
monster gardens should give you a good idea of scientific evidence

Click to expand...

Ya, but I wouldn't buy anything from them. The owner (jeff) is a little bitch who throws temper tantrums when you have an issue with a product and you want to discuss warranty issues.

I have a high yield hood from htg but I wouldn't buy another one and I'm starting to think htg's stuff isn't that great since I've discovered worms way. Worms way carries a lot of sunleaves stuff, including hoods, and I feel it's better quality.

I'm upgrading my set up soon and I'm getting all sunleaves stuff. Hood, ballast, etc.

SnapsProvolone said:

Avoid cool tubes. Bulb changes and glass cleaning on them is harder than on a flat lens hood.

Click to expand...

Depends on the number and your grow setup, but i never really found an issue with it (aside from the known issues of light spread etc), but in terms of removing the bulb and giving it a clean, it was pretty effortless (although granted more work than simply unscrewing a pane of glass. Certainly wasn't enough hassle to not recommend them. But if you have space, buy something bigger i say

Effortless? Perhaps in a cab but not standing on a ladder leaning out two feet over a bunch of plants.

For the average 4 to 5 ft square garden the Blockbuster is hard too beat in my opinion. With a 600 or 1000 watt bulb they put down a really nice 4x4 footprint.

I have 2 raptor 8' hoods with 1000w in them. Idk what size bulb you're using but so far these are doing just fine. They are quite heavy. Magnum XXXLs are supposedly just like them. I haven't flowered under them yet but I am in a 12'x8' area so I think I may break out my 400w metal halide to drop in for supplemental light.