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What's all the yellow spotting

No3odiesShad0w

No3odiesShad0w

New member
Does anyone know what these yellow spots are? At first, I thought It was just some spray from a foliar spraying or maybe a watering...... But it's not dirty. I tried using my nail and it came off along with the waterproof coating on the lights. Clearly the stains are underneath the waterproof coating. Is it the clear coat that's turning yellow? Is it one of the polymers that the board is made out of? It can't be because then it wouldn't come off with the clear coat. It has to be something with the protective layer on top. And it's only one side of my light that has it.... The side that usually runs brighter. I had these for 3 years only. I do my best to keep them clean and functional. They have served me well all this time and continue to do so.
 

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Well, maybe something that was on the material when built, or mold of some kind, but it's just a guess.
Have you sent a pic to the Mfg?
 
If it's the discolouring of the waterproof coating as you say it may be delaminating because of any number of reasons.

Have you ever sprayed anything on them, even to clean them?
 
I have. I have used watered down glass cleaner before this grow like I do after every grow. Rubbing alcohol.... But that was on a paper towel to try and spot clean the discoloration. It comes off but only in the process of scratching off the coating so I didn't continue doing that. I only tested in 2 spots and both spots the yellow came off but so did the discoloration.

When you shine a light sideways on it you can see it's not on the outside. It's underneath. Maybe something got underneath there. 🤔
 
I'm not gonna mess with it. It's just discoloration it's not effecting the lights in any way. It's possible the driver may have been overheating areas of the board and causing yellowing? 🤷‍♂️. I don't know..... But I know one things for sure, I'm not going to mess up my lights by trying to clean it.

It wasn't there before this grow... Or at least I don't remember it being there. I'll just set a reminder for the end of the grow to check it again if it progressed or if it stayed the same. I have pictures and a reminder set in my notebook. I'll keep an eye on it. I want to get 2 more years out of these lights at least. I wanna keep them clean but not at the expense of their functionality.

It's why I don't spray anything in there, if I do I turn off the fans. I've avoided getting any kind of water on them for the most part. You can see in my videos... My tent stays mostly spotless for the grow. I'm super anal about cleanliness .... I need to be able to grow different things simultaneously in a studio apartment.
 
The cleaner was 1/2tsp regular Windex to 32oz filtered water. It's so diluted You can literally drink it and only get some 💩💩 it's basically water. I've been cleaning them with that after every grow since I first got them. It's what I clean my screens with so the reflective coating doesn't get damaged. I didn't think that lights that are supposed to be water resistant to stuff that you may be spraying inside of a grow tent like nutrients and foliers would be so effected by basically water+
 
These have a protective glass coating. I hope that the 1/2tsp Windex to 32oz water is okay on these because that's how I've been wiping them down after ever grow. Spray a paper with that "ultra light" and wipe off any dust and debris that may be on them.
 

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Well I just read the instructions on how to maintain them and keep them clean.

"Do not touch the LED surface of the light fixture with anything. Using a cloth can dislodge the LEDs. Use compressed air."

There you go. So chemicals are out!
 
Well I never sprayed them directly I always sprayed a paper towel and then just wiped it down. I didn't use any scrubbing pads or anything just gently to wipe off any dust or debris that might be there.
 
Every light I have owned had did this. I have never touch anything on it with chemicals. All where new from SF or MH. Canned air is all I have used on them. It seemed it appear after a couple grows. I think it is moisture that has penetrated the seal. It hasn't effected the light performance so far. I'm sure most in the forum that have had these fixtures have had the same issue. I sent one back to SF once only to have the replacement do the same thing in a couple grows. The SF2000 is the newest and runs 18/6 constantly and has the smallest spot so far.
 
I decided to reach out to Spider Farmer because when. I took down my equipment to do some regular cleaning in between grows. I noticed that the yellowing on the light has spread to the other panel. Not to mention all the new spotting on the first panel. I told them also that the par intensity on that side of the light is diminished. So they completely ignore the fact that the lights aren't operating at the intensity that they're supposed to. They just focus on the yellow spotting. They tell me to use rubbing alcohol which is explicitly stated in their operations manual as something YOU SHOULDN'T DO. Exactly happens what I expected to happen. I used a rubbing alcohol it peels off the whole protective water coating layer and their response is "well that's fine You got rid of the yellow spots Just make sure you don't get the lights wet because water and electricity don't mix lololol ". 🤨. Clearly they have zero intention on honoring their warranty. Then on top of that they made me fuck up my lights even further. Needless to say I'm not going to be buying anything from spider farmer ever again. Their customer service is just as spectacular as Vivosun.
 

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I don't touch my lights with anything, well except the plants growing into them in the veg cupboard.

My SF7000 quantum boards have over 6000 hours on them mostly at 100% and zero yellowing.
 
Look up HLG lights. My next one's aren't going to be SF either. I had 3 and all of them got yellow spots. The potentiometer for light brightness control also went out also.
 
Bluey I even told them so in the email this would happen. That's why I only did a small spot. I wasn't about to ruin the whole light. It's an old light back from when they were claiming it replaced a 1000w HPS bulb. They also stopped using mean well drivers (probably to save money). The light works but there's some diminished PAR output on the side with the spotting. That hot cakes. Good Lord.... That's my favorite one out of the 6 cultivars ( pending pound town) The light grows good bud. It's not a bad light. But I doubt I'll get much more usage out of it. Maybe another grow or 2.

The Viparspectra lights are fully shielded. The build quality is much better then the open quantum board style.

Either way. I'm WELL within the warranty. Just replace the light. It's not hard. Second don't have a 5 year warranty if your product can't last more then 2 years. My Mars hydro light has out lasted it and it's even poorer quality build. Not all lights are equal.
 
I want a light with a removable driver. I don't need all that extra heat inside of my tent. That's at the top of my list because most lights use the same exact diodes anyways so variation comes from positioning array. I know I did cable splicing to remove my driver's from the tent but it would be nice to not have to do after market adjustments. I think Array by Migro might have a removable driver for their 2x4 light size. I don't need anything more than that for a 2x3 tent. The plants are already growing so big I can't even close the tents 😅 I just need to make plans for this lights eventually retirement. Who knows maybe spider farmer will send a new one out. That would be nice because it's a good working light. I've been happy with it since I got it besides the weird spotting.
 
I've been using a Mars Hydro FC-E1200W now for about 5 weeks. It has bridgelux diodes and wasn't expensive, covers an area of over 6x4 and has a huge sweet spot, meaning it's not critical you get the height dialled in too a couple.of inches but more like a foot.

I'm getting great results with it. It just works. Driver is removable but only by a couple of feet, no real extension on those heads. No bigger.
 
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