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Considering a light upgrade - From Phlizon COB to HLG Scorpion R Spec

N

Nepisiguit

New member
Good evening GWE community,

I have been using 2 Phlizon Cree Cob Series 1000W in my 5x5 tent with decent results. The actual wattage draw is 255w each on these with both the "Veg&Bloom" (Blurple) and "Stronger" (COB) switches on.
They have served me well but they do run a tad hot and don't have as even of a light canopy as I'd like.

I have been drooling over the higher end LED options from Gavita, HLG and to a lesser extent Spider-Farmer for awhile and I especially like HLG's stuff. I am looking for something that can handle both vegetative and flowering stages. So the HLG R-Spec series is what I've been looking at, I started looking at the HLG 600/550/650 offerings but now the more expensive HLG Scorpion R-Spec seems like the best possible option for my space given that it offers a wider land more consistent light footprint and is designed for low height operations allowing to be as close to 10-12" above the plants at full power.

Looking for thoughts of feedback from anyone who has experience with these lights. I expect any of these higher end quantum boards will be a considerable improvement over the Phlizons, however can I expect this to translate to increased terpenes and better bud quality?
 
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Thats a huge upgrade..How big is your tent? I would be very wary of the 10-12" above canopy at full power. Specs actually say 10-18" and i think you'll probably be staying closer to 18" at full power. A unit that size will still put out considerable heat. Good air flow is needed.
 
A 5x5 will need at least 600 watts of top-tier diodes to achieve sufficient light levels for flowering.
I would look at using a pair of 320 watt qb fixtures instead of a single fixture.
It will allow you to get better light uniformity versus the single fixture.
 
Tent size is 5x5x80".
Airflow consists of 6inch exhaust fan and 2 6" Oscillating fans for circulation within the tent.
My current Phlizon COBs do generate a fair bit of heat.
I typically grow 4 plants at a time.

It seems that HLG uses the same RSpec QB288 panels in the HLG-300 (2 panels), HLG-600 (4 panels) and HLG-Scorpion (6 panels). The HLG-600 looks to basically be two HLG-300s side by side. However, the HLG Scorpion spaces the panels out more, which should in theory provide a wider more consistent light foot print. With the Scorpion having 6 panels and the 600 having 4 panels, with the same wattage/driver wouldn't this mean each panel on the Scorpion would be running at 50% lower wattage? If so that may explain the lower hang height.

Two HLG-300s would be a slightly cheaper option. The fixtures are 26" x 10", so I'd probably hang them 14" from each side of the tent, leaving 32" between them which should cover things well from side to side. But with them only being 26" long, the center of each plant is likely not directly under the fixture, So it would seem to be a challenge to keep the lighting consistent from end to end.

The HLG Scorpion fixture is 38.5" x 36", with the panels at the extremities. This seems like a much easier footprint for plant spacing, with each plant being centered between two panels and getting strong light direct light from both sides.

This is just my uneducated opinion, so I look forward to hearing from the community on this as I'm sure there are other factors I'm not considering.
 
Figured I'd post an update in case it can help others.

I bit the bullet and ordered the HLG Scorpion RSpec.

Delivery took about 10 days directly from HLG Canada (BC to NB), arrived in a large and unmarked box.
Upon unboxing, initial thoughts were on how big this baby is (even knowing the dimensions in advance) and followed with really being impressed with the look of just overall build quality, this looks and feels like a piece of professional equipment. Having not previously seen any HLG products in person, it looked much much better and more solid than it does online or in videos.
Included were the hanging hardware (2 rope ratchets, 2 carabiner clips and 4 vinyl covered cables with smaller carabiner clips) and a small booklet with specs and warranty information but no real installation or operating instructions.

Installed the smaller cables to the 4 mounting holes and tried to guess which way to best position the smaller carabiner clips, Then off to the tent to install it. Wow, this thing is not only big, but its much more heavy and solid than expected. Hung it on my 4 existing rope ratchets in the tent, not without some concern that the weight may be pushing the limits of my tent frame. However once levelled off with the weight well distributed it looks fantastic inside the tent. It really seems like the perfect size to provide a consistent wide light footprint over the 5x5 space. Of course my install on the smaller clips wasn't ideal so I had to reposition these. If there was one concern about the fixture it is the mounting holes/clip being very close in diameter, maybe I'm overthinking it but the curvatures of the clips seem to put more stress than necessary on the fixture frame around the mounting hole.

Tested it briefly and to the untrained (but protected) eyes it seems both white and very bright. The panels do seem to generate a fair amount of heat, more than I expected but nothing to be concerned about.

Now I just need to get something under them. So the past day has included sanitizing the grow tent, preparing coco and perlite and loading up some new fabric pots and getting some Seedsman seeds ready to germinate. But that will likely be another post coming soon for Grow #3.
 
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