I’ve been running Heliospectras for years and years. Six of them. They are not cheap at all (Ebay helped, though). They are still running strong … under a very challenging environment … but the efficacy of these units are diminished by today’s standards. Dollar for dollar today there are newer and probably better options.
Fluence, same deal.
Others, random misc and inexpensive from Amazon et al. All fixtures have failed in some manner. Some are repairable. Some aren’t worth the effort.
Tough choices, pluses and minuses no matter which way you go.
I went with multiple 150w cheap lights(~$75-90 on sale) rather than an expensive light or 2 bc if these fail likely it should be cheaper to replace. Though I’m still eyeing the lm301h evo’s straight from chinaland theyre too expensive here for me. Should have a better spectrum and efficiency so save on kwh and maybe perform better. I also wonder how much gases from my grows affect the diodes over time
I would buy a Migro if I didn’t have to mount the driver separately. I think he has good gear, but I like the driver mounted to the light for my set up.
This is the one I was looking at for a replacement should the manufacturer of the ones I use go out of business. Pricier, and it’s Spider Farmer (I don’t know anything about their gear), but I like bar light coverage better than the single double or quad plate style. I think the coverage is more even and you don’t have hot spots on the center of the plants or the light. Personal preference. The dimensions are perfect for a 4X2.
I shopped for quite a while, and decided on a ChilLED X3 for my Veg light, and I Couldn’t be happier with it. I’m on my 2nd year with it and no issues. Yes, it was a bit pricier than others on the market, but that’s not an issue for me. Assembled in the US by an American company was what made me look at them in the 1st place. Efficacy, build quality, and customer service was another factor. I won’t lie, the transition was a real pain for me, after growing under HPS for what seemed like forever, I was back to square one. Things just aren’t the same, but had to quickly learn and teach myself the different nuances. Now that I’ve got it wrangled in, I’m definitely a happy customer. Just the weight of the light itself without the driver, is impressive. IMO it’s a well thought out LED with great performance, Samsung LED’s, Meanwell driver, Aluminum Extrusions, the right mix of colors, etc.
I just wish the “Ultra” was available at the time I purchased my X3, 885 LED’s in the regular compared to 4,104 LED’s is worth the extra money IMO.
I’ve only ever used HLG when it comes to led grow lights, and only ever been their “diy” quantum board stuff. So every driver I’ve had has been an HLG series Meanwell. But I hear the XLG series is good as well, and a little bit cheaper.
I’ve been through (meaning bought, used to build a light, then either used the light, sold the light because it was built for someone else, or a built then ‘tested’ and then sold) and I’ve not had one fail yet. I did have one guy kill one though, due to user error (He fucked up the ac power cord coming in, even though it was in a waterproof junction connector w/double strain relief. Just careless with the thing). I did have a pair of HLG-320 drivers that had a slight noise that’s hard to describe, when turned up to a certain level - but there was no issues with them electrically. You practically had to put your ear next to them to hear it. It’s possible that it was related to the potentiometer(s) I used. I don’t remember. I returned them, but they didn’t want to ok the return on them, but they did once I spoke with Meanwell. It makes me think that might be a thing with a certain percentage of them - I really don’t know. I have two now that do a similar thing and it only bothers me because I’m very particular about “things” - especially things that are brand new (which aren’t anymore).
I got a prebuilt led fixture recently, first one ever. It has an Inventronics driver. They’re supposedly very good quality. I think the Optotronic brand might also be a good brand, no experience yet.
Interesting. Thanks for that info. Very much appreciated.
The ones I had were constant current varieties. And the ones I have now that do it are also constant current varieties. I wonder if that’s not a coincidence. I’ve bought nothing but constant current models since, but not because of that “issue”.
Yeah they were HLG320H-c1050b drivers I had it from so also CC. If its CC you’re using I would probably take a look at the XLG drivers. I use the XLG240-l-ab if I’m building with bridgelux L1120z (eb gen 2 strips) 8 strips to one driver. The efficiency isn’t quite that of the HLG but for the price difference it’s a no brainer.
