Replacement cobs for CXB3590

I’ve been running cxb3590’s 36v (CD bin) for about 3 years now & I am noticing that plants cloned from the same cut under certain cobs consistently grow less vigorously than under others. I suspect that the cobs have diminished a bit over the years.
I’m not looking to change the drivers, heatsinks & ideal holders as they are all still fine.
I’ve not really been following what’s been happening with cobs for some time. Does anyone know if there are any other 36v cobs around that are as efficient or better than cxb’s that ideally fit the same ideal holders?

Thanks in advance.

It might be easiest to replace with new Cree CXB chips. Definitely look into any other contributing factors, thermal management, drivers etc, if all is good and it’s the chips, possibly use a higher flux bin. Not sure if these are exactly right, but cutter kicks ass.

Thanks for the reply. Replacing with new cxb’s is definitely a consideration just for ease. That said the last time I saw cxb’s being talked about the consensus seemed to be that there were cheaper, more efficient chips available.
Changing cob holders is a negligible cost but I don’t want to change out my driver so that limits me to 36v cobs.

In the little bit of 36v COB researching I did, all I could find was Cree CXB/A chips. Might be something out there tho or maybe 3 12v leds, which negates the ease for sure.

I found the citi 1216 that are 36v. They are a little cheaper than cxb's but not by much. I need to check the data sheet & see how they compare. Limited options. Seems everything is 50v these days.

First clean your cobs, i think isopropyl alcohol is whats recommended (can anyone confirm, rusty memory). Obviously while not on.
As for replacement, depends on what deiver you have, whats the full model number? If you connect in parallel youll have to replace with cxb.
Theyve come down in price a bit, but consensus and tests shows that vero 29 and luminus have better output.
If you wanna renew your whole setup you can look into samsung boards/strips/pcbs.

kushedy said:

I found the citi 1216 that are 36v. They are a little cheaper than cxb's but not by much. I need to check the data sheet & see how they compare. Limited options. Seems everything is 50v these days.

Click to expand...

@CobKits have a thread where he tested various cobs, real tests win over datasheets.
If OP has his setup in series any 36V chip should work, the citizen clu12XX are all 36V, the higher the XX numbers after (i think theres a 121 the better: more diodes.

Rocket Soul said:

First clean your cobs, i think isopropyl alcohol is whats recommended (can anyone confirm, rusty memory). Obviously while not on.
As for replacement, depends on what deiver you have, whats the full model number? If you connect in parallel youll have to replace with cxb.
Theyve come down in price a bit, but consensus and tests shows that vero 29 and luminus have better output.
If you wanna renew your whole setup you can look into samsung boards/strips/pcbs.

Click to expand...

With regards to cleaning COBs, Timber Grow Lights posted some tips on IG a couple weeks ago. Thank you to @RainDan for the info.

http://instagr.am/p/CEkAO4ZhH8I/

Thanks for the responses. I run 4 cobs per HLG-240h-C1750B wired in series. I must admit I have not ever cleaned the cobs themselves. The heatsinks get vacuumed in-between grows.
I’ll take some isopropyl & cotton buds to the cobs this evening. It may help but I doubt it will resolve. I had this issue for the past 3 grows. I been experimenting with fan & heater placement to see if they are playing any part in it. In short, they weren’t.
I’ll be checking the citizen data sheets this evening. If anyone else has any further info please feel free to throw it in.

Checked cobkits this afternoon. It’s the 1216’s or the cxb’s based on existing driver.
Thanks for all the help

ill have gen 8 citis in stock soon

the 1212s should be at least as good as any older 3590s

Interesting. Any idea on ball park price point?