I'm looking at buying a led light. I keep getting told to buy the 400w mars 2. On ebay they sell the old mars 100x3w but is upgraded to 60x5w. They don't recommend them because they say they make them just to compete with the shitty knockoffs which to me was a bad thing I guess. They said the lights in the old new 300w are the same 5w lights in the mars 2 but still don't recommend it. They still have a 3 year warranty I was told. So why wouldn't I go the cheaper route if they are the same thing? I can buy two of the 300ws for less than a 400w? What am I missing. .. Has anyone used these? I'm broke so don't tell me they suck or get a real light...
No don't buy cheaper lights. When a manufacturer says don't buy something, its pretty safe to assume you should not buy it. I have a mars 2 1200 and thing is a great light. Grows well. Had over a year now with no issues. Those cheap lights may have same led chips, but not same drivers or heatsinks etc... Don't do it. Wait till your wallet is heavy enough to buy a mars 2.. And honestly, wait till its heavy enough to get the mats 2 700.. You won't regret it.
I bought the 300w mars on ebay for my Veg light. The warranty is 1 year and they'll send you free parts, after the first year you pay shipping for free parts. I personally love the light, and until they take the light down go for it, otherwise why deal with a company that will sell you short on the description? They have a company rep here on the site, so you won't be let down by customer service. No doubt there are better lights, but for a budget its amazing.
I've talked to that Sara girl and she's the one that told me all that in the first post... I'm growing in a 2x2x5... I don't think a 700w is absolutely necessary for me at this time. And for a manufacturer to say there item is garbage just makes me question there whole line of products... Great reply -.-
I got the 2x300w deal from eBay too and am currently running one of them in my veg tent along with 2 288w Apollo led reflectors and 1 270w advanced apollo led. The plant under the mars light seems to be doing the same thing as the others, I just ordered 6 mars II 900w and I'll be putting them in my flower tent, one plant under each light. I know that with LED it comes down to par and the mars ll seems to be the best choice for how much space I want to cover, when I get the lights in and set them up I'll gladly let you know how I like them.
Believe me, 700 is not too big for your space.. I have a 1200 in a 3'11" x 3'11" growlab. And I wish I would of gotten the 1600.. The bigger the better. Better coverage. Better penetration.. And when you decide to go a little bigger space, you'll have a bigger light on hand..
Just got my first light bill since the switch as well, went down $200 running 200 actual watts less than I was with hps.
They don't put off as much heat, but they put off more heat then you think. You'll still have heat to deal with.
Hi Grow Pro...not trying to hijack a thread here, but I have a question. How many hps lights were your running and what size before you went to LED? Sounds like our spaces are similar in size. We started with 2 1000 watt hps in the flower space and are doubling up this week and will have a total of 4. Power consumption was a big issue with us when we were installing and setting up the space, but I only saw a rise of about $50 a month to date. Just hoping the impact from throwing the other two in there isn't too severe. We're doing a panel upgrade before we install these other two just because we need some extra circuitry for the whole thing. Hubs has kept everything concerned with the room on a separate smaller panel that he set inside the room so we could move everything over to the generator should we have a power outage. Way too much money and time has gone into this to let a power outage screw me. LOL I'm not sure why our expense power wise hasn't been that great so far. Being married to an electrician and having a son who is one too definitely comes in handy when dealing with this kind of stuff, but it just caught me by surprise when you said your power bill went down by $200 with the new equipment, so I was just wondering what you were running. Happy growing and keep it green!! TWW
2 1000s one solistek one apollo all rdwc, consumes a lot more to chill the water. We don't have the same access to electricians so that was part of our problem. The led seems to be solving it for us.
I don't like Mars I had 6 panels. (2)Mars 300watt (1)Mars II 900watt (1)Mars II 1200watt (2)Mars II 1600watt and the 900watt had 7 diodes burn out in 15 months and the 1200watt had 1 burn out in 9 months. They first sent me diodes so I had to solder but the soldering iron I needed cost $100 or I could pay for ship[ping to send to repair center which they don't have many and you have to pay for the shipping on a heavy ass light. Where is the savings? I make better lights and so can you.