OK, So eBay Chinese LED Gro-Panels...Yes or No?

[600m]

I'm sure people here have had lots of experience with these things. Are any of them any good?

What should I look for and look OUT for?

Many thanks for any solid info!

[D.A.A.S.69]

Morning 600m , I'm sure their plenty of better ones but you can certainly grow some fine bud with those lights, I know I have, all you have to do is look at all the folks using them on all these different forums. If I was gonna get another led I would get me 3 or 4 of those55watt cobs. They look like they do a good job.

[600m]

If I was gonna get another led I would get me 3 or 4 of those55watt cobs.

I'm not sure I know which ones you mean. Could you give me a link?

Thanks!

[Clampit Rivers]

How much money do you want to spend?
What size area do you want to cover?
How many plants do you need to grow?

[D.A.A.S.69]

Sorry but I ain't smart enough to give you a link don't know how. GH, Mars,Viparspector all on Amazon work ok. Nebula has some different brands to choose from that have used successful on GWE.

[Canuck147]

I'm with DAAS69 comments. Anything on Amazon would be better than ordering from China. In answering your question I would look for what kind of service for your warranty - as in - do you have to send it back to china for repairs or replacement?

[Clampit Rivers]

I think almost all the leds on Amazon are chinese made, one way or another. I guess it depends on what you want to do with them. I use 2 300 mars ( about 124 v each) as side lighting
For my 400 watt HID/HPS light and they work great. These Chinese units are older technology but they still work pretty good. There are several models that will work fine. If you got the bucks
get lights from an american light mfg. Good luck getting Chinese lights repaired.

[Zativa]

I mostly share Canuck's view that Amazon is a more reliable place to buy. They have a fixed address, and if something goes wrong later your credit card company has some leverage with them. An E_Bay seller can be anyone, anywhere. Clampit is also right in saying that virtually every LED fixture, you find, regardless of where or what name is on it, will have been manufactured in China. But no, being from China does NOT in the least imply that they are 'old technology'. From decades in the electronics biz, I can definitely say that virtually every component in these devices comes from somewhere across the Pacific Rim. And nobody, nowhere, can afford to have anything built by hand -- it is all done by programmed pick-and-place machines which put several parts per second onto a circuit board. China simply happens to be home to lots of low-cost board building factories, which is why so many tech devices are made there.

I've been using a few 'Roleadro' fixtures (one of GalaxyHydro's many names) purchased from Amazon. They work well, and are priced right. Just be aware that 'full spectrum' LEDs are also 'fixed spectrum'. Your plants won't begin to flower as quickly when you cut them down to 12 hours as they would when you change a discharge lamp fixture from MH (for growth) to Na (for flowering).

[600m]

How much money do you want to spend?
What size area do you want to cover?
How many plants do you need to grow?

OK.

Always as little expenditure as possible...

One relatively small grow box in my bedroom, I don't think much more than 2.5'x2.5' in cross-section...

I'm thinking one well-managed plant to start. I don't need much and the grow box would also help heat my bedroom this winter, so it would be providing a dual purpose (if the plant stink doesn't drive me out of the room).

My original plan was just to use compact florescent bulbs because I already had them and they worked great with the germinating box I ran for my outdoor plants last spring, but I see that these LED devices seem to have great followings and they are getting pretty cheap, so I thought I'd ask. Some of this Chinese stuff is OK, some's junk. I assume people here have been experimenting with this stuff as the tech evolves and the prices go down. These are getting to be cheap enough for me to experiment with if it's not just money down the toilet. I'm kind of skeptical when "600W" panels have gross power consumption of only about half that.

The Chinese LED panels on eBay are mostly shipped from US warehouses, same as most of the stuff on Amazon. They're such electrically simple devices, I assumed they'd be pretty reliable.

[Clampit Rivers]

1 or 2 plants in that size grow space will probably be about all you can grow. Like that mars 300 I use, at least 2 of those would grow 2 plants reasonably. oh and that stink, you will have to deal with it.

[Zativa]

There's a lot of doublespeak regarding power ratings for LED fixtures. What is sold as a '300 Watt' unit actually pulls a bit more than half that much from the outlet, but it probably does give results similar to a 300 Watt MH or Sodium discharge bulb. GalaxyHydro (which sells under several different brand names) just adds up the total maximum power rating for all of the LEDs and puts that number on the fixture, even though the LEDs aren't continuously running at that power. In a small space with only one plant (or perhaps two small ones), a fixture listed as 300 Watts may be about right. It also depends on how much heat energy your setup can handle without turning into an oven. If your grow gets larger, you can choose between one 600 W unit or two 300s. Be very aware of the heat issue, it is something you will need to deal with.

One thing to keep in mind is that a single small fixture directly overhead is great for the top of a plant, but a bit lower down the top leaves shade everything else. Two smaller fixtures penetrate further down, if you have space for them. Several years ago, there were lots of fixtures with switches for growth (extra blue light) and flowering (more red). Now most are 'full spectrum', with some mixture of light wavelengths to do both. Every vendor has their own idea of what is the 'best' color blend, so that is where you can learn from other people's experiences. As I mentioned above, the 'Roleadro' series does very well for both plant growth and flowering, but the plants don't switch into flowering mode quickly. There may really be a 'best' brand, but it's probably more accurate to say that some work better for growing leaves and others win during flowering time.

[starramus]

This year I debated purchasing the (2) 600 watt Viparspectra units which are highly rated on this forum, but opted to go Mr. Natural. I had been using HPS, but migrated to the great outdoors. Saving 50% on utility bills was a tempting prospect, but saving 100% is really the ticket. Besides old Sol is not made in China.

A word of warning to growers still in states where it is illegal Apparently they are tracking growers, by monitoring increases in their electrical power usage.

[600m]

In a small space with only one plant (or perhaps two small ones), a fixture listed as 300 Watts may be about right. It also depends on how much heat energy your setup can handle without turning into an oven. If your grow gets larger, you can choose between one 600 W unit or two 300s. Be very aware of the heat issue, it is something you will need to deal with.

Oh, there's NO WAY I could grow indoors about eight months out of the year! It was 94° in the house during late Jul and early August.

But it was 40° in the house during the winter. I was hoping that a little grow box in my bedroom would warm things up.

I'm still wondering where CFLs went to in the great popularity derby. Seems like they're passe now...and apparently even illegal in California. I haven't seen one in the stores for ages.

[starramus]

If you are looking to heat your room you would be better off with a 600 watt HPS.

That Aurora Indica is a great strain. I grow it for my wife for her insomnia, and back pain. Nirvana never lets you down.

[gbauto]

You have the same dilemma as me-I can't add climate control for my space so I have to grow during cold season. For your space a 600W HPS would be a great choice and will provide some heat to temper the space. I have grown plenty of dank meds using Mars and King blurples-if you go that route try to get at least 300W of actual power use-the marketing claims are complete b/s.
I also have a AI finishing outside-these are always great producers of potent meds

[Yeti]

The Chinese lights are good and Crap at the same time I bought a ufo full spectrum off this Wish app on my phone 300 watt rating which I doubt but when it came it looked amazing 3 hrs later it's burnt out they was no cooling on it I took it apart they was no fan on the main power board and the chips had no heatsink I recommend the Chinese chips or modules but make a heat sink out of a piece of thick aluminum I scrap cars so I have lots of nice chunks and a cheap pc cooling fan those two things would have made my Chinese light one for the long haul also they sell ac power led chips you don't need to buy a led driver for these they run off straight 110v power I am in the works of making a new light for my tent once I start assembly I'll share my design it's utilizing a 500 watt pc power supply homemade heatsinks and some pc fans I got some scrap steel sheets from roofing I'm gonna build the housing out of should be cheap and very efficient to build.