Mars-Hydro LED Grow Light Discussion

[Shaggn]

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with glasses - 420 Magazine Photo Gallery

 

[Eugene1]

Thanks a lot!

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi Frank8898,We have tested our lights,they can be used in around 90% humidity,when the humidity is around 90%,it will not condenses into water.So it's ok when the humidity higher than 50%.If the light did not drop into water, we can repair it.

Hi Kriaze,

Just wondering where did you get the info about the humidity ? It's not stated on their website that their lights shouldn't be exposed to humidity higher than 50%. Their website warranty disclaimer only states that it shouldn't be exposed to dripping water. Unfortunately I voluntarily let my humidity get higher than 50%.
Now I have 3 mars 1200 looking exactly the same as yours and they don't want to repair them under warranty ...

This brings a questions : Shouldn't a gardening product be able to withstand humidity levels higher than 50% ?

A little Google search on growroom humidity pops this answer :

The humidity level is like a pressure cap on the plant, keeping the moisture in the plant, allowing it to have proper transpiration rates of the fluids. Ideal humidity levels in a grow room range between 50% to 70% in vegetative growth, and 50% to 60% for flowering plants.

I'd agree with you guys that 45-55% during flowering might be more advisable but for growth a 50-70 is still optimal.

But the lights aren't made to withstand more than 50%???

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi Kriaze, our engineer had tested the light before we sell them,it can accept around 90%humidity.
Before,our warranty policy is not complete,we added more details now,it's more specific,you can check:led grow lights-Mars Hydro Premium Warranty Namaste:]A potentially dangerous Request.Path value was detected from the client ).[/url] We will follow these policies.

Hello Frank8898 and welcome to . There was no 50% humidity maximum that I was aware of I was merely stating my environmental conditions over its period of use. I'm pretty sure that I saw an upper limit on the old MH site which was in the area of 80/90% but I cannot confirm this for certain without checking back through my old screenshots which I keep of terms and conditions etc and anything else that I feel is relevant at the time. If I get the chance I will have a dig through my phone later, but if you purchased from the new site I doubt the info would even be relevant to your particular purchase as there were quite a few changes made to the warranties etc (which is why screenshots do come in handy).

I feel for you and I would suggest that you bring the topic up here if you haven't already in the hope that public opinion can sway Sara into action on your behalf. Not always an easy task I might add as it would depend on who is online to read your post and whether they are fanatical about protecting MH as a company or whether they are one of the more reasonable minded people. Definitely not the best way to promote a business on a public thread but it is what it is and I can only hope that you get a reasonable response to your post. Personally I am done with this company and once I have sold my MH lights I will also be done with this thread, except for maybe popping in to inject my own perspective and sense of reasoning if someone is being hounded by the fanbase.

All the best and please do not judge the rest of 420Magazine by the responses you will receive on this particular thread, it is a great place filled with great minds and souls that are caring and sharing. All the best

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi TorturedSoul, thanks for your help.everyone may got different opinions,we will try our best to offer better service and light.

I have taken an interest - in LED panels, in Mars-Hydro's products, and... in your journal, lol.



That isn't precisely what I did. You have handy links to your grow journals in your .SIG. I'm not trying to give offense, so please don't take it that way, but: If you do not wish people who are looking for information about LEDs to wander into one of your journals, maybe you shouldn't have links to them in your .SIG - at least in posts you make in a thread (this one) about LEDs.



See above. Additionally, I didn't exactly cherry-pick. As mentioned, I'm trying to learn about these products (and am generally curious also ). Your recent posts in this thread caused me to believe that you aren't (currently) satisfied. As at least two of the links in your .SIG are to grow journals utilizing LEDs (and a third link is about photographing with them), I assumed that you had some knowledge and experience. It has been my experience that people who are vastly in favor of something tend to focus on the positives far more than the negatives (and the opposite for those who are definitely NOT in favor of it); perhaps this isn't even a conscious thing, but merely human nature. I saw you as a person who has - at different points in time - been somewhat on both ends of the scale. I thought, "This could be educational."

Additionally, I was struck by the helpfulness that you encountered when dealing with the company which you expressed in the post that I quoted. I saw it as a company - or at least a company rep - going above and beyond what is expected these days. IDK how close you are physically to the location that your products shipped from, but even discounting distance, the "human factor" alone often means that one cannot reasonably expect to order a product and see it arrive on their doorstep a day or two later. This, by itself, speaks nothing (either positive or negative) in terms of the quality of a product, of course. But it still seems noteworthy to me (ergo, I noted it ).

I am not in the habit of apologizing for reading the words that someone must have meant me to read (otherwise, why would they have posted them in a public venue?). But I will offer an apology if you feel that I have given offense.



See above regarding the "honeymoon phase."



Yes. Even I have found the idea of reading a thread, that has almost 25,000 posts, in its entirety to be somewhat daunting. Which is one reason why I jumped at the opportunity to read the words of someone who has been both positive AND negative in regards to these things.


alone
I have never been employed by Mars-Hydro or (to the best of my knowledge) any of its agents, employees, suppliers, et cetera. Nor have I ever purchased one of their products. I have also never been sent one to test out for myself; I would be very much interested in doing so, but... <SHRUGS> I've no nice grow journals to point to in hopes of catching someone's eye. I'm also the type of person who'll look for - and then point out - both the positives AND negatives of a product, so I am sure that I am not at the top of companies' "Product Review and Test" list, lol.



Err... One supposes that customer service is important to a business. One also supposes that many other things are important, too (among them being quality of the product(s) and its/their component parts, ability to meet the customer's needs, to offer timely service, et cetera).



Sarcasm noted. Objectively speaking... Somewhat appreciated .



Yes, exactly. It is not everyday that one is able to observe both ends - a person who has become less positive might not speak about it (due to embarrassment, if nothing else). Those who weren't all that positive before may not have spoken at that point, and only voice their thoughts/opinions/observations later, when they have become so. Et cetera.



Lol. Yes, that is wisdom, indeed. Even under the best possible circumstances (those that stop short of "everything works fine, and will continue to do so no matter what" at least), one should have backup lights that are held in reserve against future need. Sadly, this is often (usually, lol?) not the case. Many don't make a dime off their grows; for them, expenses aren't "the cost of doing business" - they are, well, expenses. People might not want to spend part of their - often, limited - income for something that, if everything goes according to plan, will just sit on a shelf in a closet somewhere. Other people... At one time, things were going well for me and I had backups (MH and HPS bulbs and a bulletproof switchable ballast); a few grows later, somehow, they had stopped being backups - I had incorporated them into my grow.

I've been thinking about this. It's actually one of the things that caused me to start reading about Mars-Hydro in the first place; the fact that their panels are modular in nature - and that the company is willing to ship components for repair directly to the consumer instead of requiring that said customer ship the product back for service, if the customer feels that he/she can make the repair - is appealing to me.

My opinion is that Mars-Hydro could use some degree of improvement in this regard. It'd be nice if there were well-stocked locations in every single country in which they sell their products, even if those locations were only staffed by people who could read emails, identify components by their labels, and then pack & ship boxes, lol. Good location of these sites (and a good stock of components) would aid in reducing customer's down-time.

That stuff costs money, of course. This particular company seems to have prices that are reasonable (in comparison to other LED sellers). Therefore, they might be walking a fine line in regards to what they can offer whilst still making a profit. I have no idea, to be honest. There are a lot more people growing cannabis than in the past. But, still, it is somewhat of a limited market (and it is further limited because not every (indoor) cannabis grower does so with LEDs).

I would think... Well, I am not a businessman, so what I think might be wrong, lol. However... Perhaps - assuming that the components are actually in stock, of course - it might be worthwhile to offer some form of expedited/rush shipping? FedEx (et al) offers various "levels" of shipping including three different "overnight" options and even a "same day" option (depending on flight availability, of course). Some of those options are quite expensive, lol, and I would never expect the burden of such shipping to fall upon the company. IDK if enough customers would be interested in paying a premium for high-priority shipping or not. IF that turned out to be the case, it might be helpful (both to the customers and as a selling point for the products).



I think I made a couple. I hope that this post helped clarify. Perhaps my previous post gave the wrong impression (I was about to crash and was in a hurry), and I'm sorry if this was the case.



That makes sense. The lumen is sort of an "artificial" measurement (so to speak). It was not created, nor really suitable, for measuring the (+/-) light radiation that is used by plants. The lumen - and luminous flux - is heavily weighted to give more importance to what the human eye can perceive.

If one has two light sources that both consume the same amount of energy (and which are, for the purposes of discussion, equally efficient)... One of which is a general-purpose - or even an agricultural HPS/MH - and the other is an LED panel that produces ONLY the wavelengths that have been found to (positively) affect plants, then of course the LED will produce less lumen (/luminous flux).

The LED panel will, on the other hand, have a higher PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) and, presumably, a better YPF (yield photon flux) curve.

I have always assumed that the above is one of the reasons that some HID bulbs that were (supposed to be) tailored for use in growing plants had a lower lumen specification than other bulbs. The other reason being... some HID bulbs just aren't very good in general .



I've always thought so. OtOH, true "certified for greenhouse" agricultural lighting seems to be "somewhat" rare, lol. It has been several years, so this might have changed, but the only company that I knew of back then that stated (at least some of) their products were suitable for damp locations was Gavita - and, wow, the customer sure paid for that . Seems to me that you could encounter both heat issues and efficiency issues; heat builds up in sealed products, and enclosing the illumination source behind glass (etc.) ensures that some of the output won't get through to the garden (and could possibly shift its spectrum slightly?). The heat issue could (most likely, would) shorten product life and tend to raise warranty claims (that costs money no matter how you look at it, and can often cost reputation).

As I stated, it has been several years since I even checked into it. It could, I suppose, be that every other LED panel than Mars-Hydro's is certified for use in damp/wet/greenhouse locations. But I very much doubt it, lol. I don't think moisture is good for electric/electronic things, and I don't think that sealing them up is, either. And even with good ventilation - and good airflow in a product - moisture can still accumulate. Especially if/when the product repeatedly heats/cools (by being used for part of a day, then shut off, then being used for part of the next day, then being...).

I bet they could design a product that could be certified for the uses that we tend to force them to endure. I'd guess that it'd double (triple?) the price, though. And how many would they manage to sell?

My apologies to SmokeSara for rambling in her (his?) thread. This post is a little longer than I had originally intended.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi Iguana Man ,the power cord for Mars Hydro 300 is 2meters.

Can anyone tell me how long the power cord is for the Mars Hydro 300?

(I tried searching to no avail)

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi bigbuckfever, yes,we use same chips for Reflector and Mars II.

Do they use the same chips in the reflector serious as they do marsII? I have a reflector 96x3 and i like it more than the mars II 700

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi Neil74,i'm back now Thanks for your help...we will try our best.

Here they come again, in one... two... three Sara announces a holiday and the weekend whiners show up. I have needed warranty service three times... I have had excellant warranty service three times. Coincidence? I doubt it. Sara announces a holiday and in one...two..three here come the nonstop complaints until Sara is back???? Then you are all gone until the next holiday? Sell it, have it fixed or stick it where the sun don't shine. If you are having bad warranty service you are not trying they bend over backwards to help buyers of their lights.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Our lights can be used in around 90% humidity.We just added more specific details to our warranty policy.

The point here sir is that I feel that they are misleading their customers. I don't need to be told that electronics shouldn't be exposed to humid environments. I am pretty aware of that but considering this product is made to grow plants it should be able to withstand the parameters required for a healthy growth. As exposed earlier a humidity of 50-70% is recommended to a vegetative growth if you don't want to expose your plants to an unnecessary stress.

And as far as I know this forum isn't about growing cactus and they are advertising their products here...


Why sell a lamp that is good for vegetative growth as well as flowering but make it unable to tolerate the required parameters ? And offer a warranty over that ???

Sell it without a warranty and at least your customers will be able to make a sound choice. Or at least give a warning. Write it somewhere. So your customers wont void their warranty thinking that they are doing nothing wrong and they won't feel cheated afterward.

This whole story doesn't make sense.


Also I'm not here to start a war or be the target of troll nukes . I just want to share my experience and help people to make an intelligent choice when they choose to purchase a product. So far I have no positive review to make of their customer service. This might change but so far things haven't been going smoothly.

Thank you

Frank

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi noobiegrow,thanks for your help.

About 4ft

And if that's too short you can just buy cords off eBay to the length you want for like 2 bucks.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi db003,i will ask my colleague about it,if have any news,i will let you know.

hey Sara any news yet when they will contact me to ship out my mars pro II 320 light that I won in the mars hydro cup 2016 I am just wondering

 

[MaxHeadroom]

Hey all
I did a quick photo tutorial on replacing a light diode. I had 4 blue lights the needed to be replaced. It is my first DIY so if anyone can add to it and improve on it that would be great. I wish I had done a video and or done more pictures with the soldering part. I did not do any picture of the solder because I was soldering at the time, I got focused and pretty much forgot to take some snaps.

Fine print and Disclaimer: you need to have some ability to solder the small pieces. do not blame me if ya muck up your light.

I hope this helps all you DIYers: ---------->led repair replacement photo tutorial<------------<

+reps for sharing. Great info.

 

[db003]

hey Sara I just got a email from mars hydro telling me that they will ship out the light this Friday! I am so happy

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi gudyul,your girls look great.Please keep us updated

The other troll is very articulate indeed. I have here a side by side synergy 1200 and 144. The 144 seems to be holding it's own at half the amps . I have had no issues with the 144 , not like the 1200. The trade off may be in the bud, we'll see.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Reflector uses reflection board ,which will reflect maximum light back to the plants compared to MarsII.but the gap is wider on Reflector than MarsII. So Reflector will cover more area but MarsII will have stronger intensity on average area.

The node spacing is closer with the 1200 but same amount of nodes on both. The 144 has no protective cover over the diodes and reflectors, this may be better for temp flux of over 10 degree F at night, and thus causing dew inside the electronics .

 

[Mars Hydro]

thanks for your help Tris420

Hey hey A few pages back she said they will send it after Labour Day

 

[Mars Hydro]

I'm sorry about this, i just get back from my holiday.i will try my best to help you.

If you can't accept that people have legitimate complaints without resorting to name calling then maybe you should take the old advice that if you haven't got anything constructive to say then it's best not to say anything. Sara declared her holiday after people made their posts, you might want to read a thread first before adding your input.

 

[Mars Hydro]

I'm glad to hear that you fixed your lights by yourselfI'm sure you will have a happy growing.,we will try our best to help

I received my diode care pack from Mars in a timely manner after I sent a dispute to paypal for the 30$ Fed Ex shipping fee ( free diodes) I told Lucy Red (not Blue as blue she said burn up first) I recieved 25 630ies and 250 660ies Red and deep red(thankfully not all far red Ha Ha). I think they were so stoned and busy they forgot to send me my package LOL.

I took me only a dozen screws and some soder . I melted a few of the neighbor diodes as my generic solder iron was to bulky and clumsy to use but was able to change out 15 diodes from around the centerish area of the matrix. I am assuming the protective cover and possibly the temp flux from on cycle and off cycle was over 10F or dipping down from eighty something to sixty something and causing moisture to get into the electrical and short something out. Some of the diode are literally fried. anyhoo I got it soldered to thecorrect poles and it worker great so I fixed another 1200 and now I am back in business with all my spare lamps up an running.

I am a commercial fisherman and I have to have spare everything ( even a spare boat ready to go if the engine fails ). The boat makes money but requires a lot of TLC to keep it producing. B>O>A>T> Break out another thousand. I want to retire and grow weed, sell the boat and buy some lamps, maybe a couple dozen. I have played with Mars lamps for 2 years now, they have come a long way from the junk I paid 3000$ for 10 years ago.

THe more input the better so all you brilliant minds out there , More power to you ! GUD YIELD!

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi Neil74,thanks for yoru supporting,we will try our best.

If you accept that there is a warranty service available to ship your light to the repair center they will inspect it, if the driver is bad they will repair it and make sure it is working proper, I know because I took a deep breath and shipped it. You are the one who started slinging your whinny a** attitude and you can march that right along with your constant attempt to chase others away. Your words not mine. Personally I am done with this company and once I have sold my MH lights I will also be done with this thread, except for maybe popping in to inject my own perspective and sense of reasoning if someone is being hounded by the fanbase.

All the best and please do not judge the rest of 420Magazine by the responses you will receive on this particular thread, it is a great place filled with great minds and souls that are caring and sharing. All the best

 

[Mars Hydro]

thanks for your help Kriaze

I'm not sure whether you have a unique code for your purchase but just in case you haven't there is a 3% discount if you enter the code COFINEST at checkout. Hope this helps