WOOOO HOOOOO!!!! I received my LED lights from Top LED Grow today (one of our
sponsors!) and I have to say overall the experience was excellent from customer service, to getting answers to questions and I really have to thank Sara for putting up with all my questions, there were a lot of them!!! and also want to thank all the members here at 420 Magazine who helped me with the purchase.
My Goals with LED and my purchase needs:
I have to say, I am picky but also well researched so buying wasn't easy for me. So many vendors to choose from, so much different information from different companies and very high prices from most vendors. In my decision many things were important but cost was very high up on the list. I currently don't have a huge budget for extra purchases so the decision had to 1st and foremost financially make sense. Secondly the spectrum and LED's used was big for me. I am a firm believer in full spectrum lighting and so a requirement for me to buy LED was it had to have both warm white and cool white LED's for full spectrum, plus it had to have IR, red in the 660nm area, red in the 620nm area, blue in the 440nm area and blue in the 470-480 area. Next for me was actual proof that the lights worked, from growers like me so I was in search of a light that had a good reputation and proof online of journals, pics and videos. I needed to see the lights being used, growing well, and feel comfortable that I was investing in a quality product.
I chose to go with Top LED Grow (LG-LED) for my purchase because they met all of my needs/wants above and the price was very reasonable, service was excellent and from what I have gathered from growers here at 420 Magazine, the lights perform well.
My Experience:
I contacted Sara by email originally and she is very quick to respond, even with the difference in timezones. I had a ton of questions and she answered all of them quickly and with good explanations of what I can expect and about the products. After a good week of emails (probably 1-20 total emails of questions and answers, thank you Sara!) I placed my order.
I ordered directly from Sara via Paypal and having never used paypal before, it was a pretty easy process. Sara helped me figure it out and let me know when the payment went through. I requested an invoice from my purchase and she was quick to supply one with all the company details on it, costs and such. Since I ordered late on a Friday evening I didn't think that I would receive my light until about a week later but today I was surprised when the 2 lights showed up with a knock on my door only after 5 days from me ordering! Wow thats Fast!!! The only issue I had was the shipping number I was supplied changed, so I was concerned when I didn't see tracking, but I contacted Sara and she let me know the number changed, and just as I was pretty much reading her reply, Knock knock, 2 boxes at my door!! Definitely not a bad thing since I have worked in shipping and things like this happen and overall still a A+ experience.
The Arrival: (1x 80x5w Mars II LED, 1x 144x3w green reflector LED)
The 2 lights arrived individually packaged, the boxes were pretty firm and taped well. (clear packing tape). I didn't see anything damaging the boxes besides just normal shipping bumps that pretty much any box will experience.
Upon opening the boxes the LED units were tightly packed with a thick 1/2" foam around them and looked like they definitely are wrapped for protection. Inside each box was the mounting hardware which included wire, clips and carabiners. There were also coupons for future purchases, a business card with a thank you and note to customer, and a 5x7" print showing the models of LED's available as well as operating/hanging suggestions and cautions.
The Mars II 80x5w LED
I unboxed the Mars II LED 1st and plugged it into my kill-a-watt meter and turned on the power. Wow this light is bright. I checked my meter and the 80x5w Mars II was running at 1.54A and 175W. The spectrum seems to be exactly as was listed having 2 different reds, 2 different blues, cool white, warm white and IR.
The setup that I will be putting this LED in is a 2.5'x5'x7' hydrohut silver edition and is my flowering tent. Currently I am running 2 HID lights in this tent, 1x 400w Ceramic Metal Halide and 1x 600w Ushio HPS Optired (dimmed to 400w). This light is to replace my 400w HPS light, ballast and reflector, as well as allow me to pull out 1 of 2 of my inline extraction fans. The light seems really built well, very sturdy case and the fans are pretty quiet too.
Hanging this light was easy, it is really light compared to my HPS reflector, probably weighs about 10 lbs. After removing my HPS light I hung the Mars II on the existing YoYo hangers that I had in my tent, using only 2 of the connection points, and used the other 2 in a cross pattern just as a backup safety device.
After hanging the light I wanted to compare it to my 400w Ceramic metal Halide that is hanging next to it and I have to say, for 1/3 of the wattage used, this light is pretty close to a 400w HID. I would say a HID has better light spread/footprint but again, I am using 175w vs 440w on a HID. Very Bright LED light!!! Do not look directly at it or you will see spots for a good 15 minutes afterwards and everything in normal light will look green!!! LOL Trust me I did it!
The tent is noticeably cooler just by replacing the HPS light with the LED and I know my power bill will be much happier as well. (another note is plants use more of LED light than HID light so even though a HID may be brighter, it doesn't mean it is more effective. I am impressed overall but almost wish I would have bumped it up a notch and got the next size or 2 larger of LED for better footprint, but that is the beauty of having a daisy chain feature... More can be added
Overall the Mars II meets and exceeds what I expected. I can't wait to see what my plants think!!!
The 144x3w Reflector (green) LED:
I unboxed the Reflector LED 2nd and also did an unboxing/review video which after editing tonight I will post. Again this light was wrapped in 1/2" thick foam and packaged tightly for shipping. The light was bundled with a 6' power cord, hanging hardware, a thank you business card, 2 coupons for future purchases, and a 5"x7" print of warnings/cautions, hanging suggestions and other useful info.
After unboxing this light I plugged in my Kill-a-watt meter and plugged the light in. This light comes with 2 on/off switches, one for veg and one for flower. I turned on the veg one first and holy crap, this light is very very bright!!! much brighter than the MarsII but also uses more wattage. Here are the readings from the Kill-a-watt meter for the different settings:
Veg (only): 1.62A 183w
Bloom (only, also note fans do not run when only bloom turned on): .87A 96W
Full (both switched on) 2.46A 279W
VEG
https://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/DSC07565.JPG[/img
BLOOM
[img]https://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/DSC07564.JPG
FULL
This light is going in my veg tent (2.5'x5'x7') to replace a 400w Ceramic Metal Halide/ Ushio 400w Conversion Bulb (I recently switched to the ushio).
Hanging this light was very easy, and comes with all the hardware to hang it (minus yoyo's or adjustable hangers) but does come with what is needed for a stationary mount. (wont move vertically) I attached it to my yoyo's that were existing and hung it up within 5 minutes. I re-routed my vent fan and 6" ducting and turned it on.
This light easily can replace a 400w HID light, hands down, no question about it and I would say it may even come close to rivaling a 600w HID. I really like the reflector design and it helps to blend the individual spectrums much better than ones without the reflectors so you get a more even and uniform blend/spread instead of patterns of color all over the plants.
Upon turning this light on in my tent, just the Veg setting alone lit up the tent brighter than my 400w Ushio MH that was in the tent previously.
Then turning on the additional bloom lights, wow, this light is really bright and probably could flower my entire tent.
I almost wish I would have gotten one of these for my bloom tent as well but hey, I can always get another in a few months
The fans are also very quiet on this model and sounds just slightly louder than a computer running.
Overall I am so far very impressed with the lights, the service and everything. Now just to see if my plants love it as well
My total savings of adding 2 LED lights and removing HID's and equipment per month on my electric bill.
Removing from flower tent:
1 600/400w HPS ballast, bulb, reflector (420W running 11 hours a day)
1 6" inline plastic fan (54W, running with my lights)
156.42 KWHr removed from the grow tent per month.
Removing from Veg tent:
1 400w magnetic ballast, ceramic metal halide bulb, reflector. (440w running 13 hours a day, Gas Lamp Routine)
171.6 KWHr removed from the grow tent per month.
Total KWHr removed from the tents per month: 328.02 KWHr
Adding to flower tent:
1x Mars II 80x5w LED grow light (175w running 11 hours a day)
57.75KWHr Added to the grow tent per month
Adding to Veg Tent
1x 144x3w Reflector LED (279w running 13 hours a day, Gas Lamp Routine)
108.81KWHr added to the grow tent per month.
Total KWHr added from the tents per month:
166.56 KWHr Added to my total monthly electric bill for both tents from the conversion.
Savings in electricity KWHr per month from the change to LED(Both tents):
328.02 KWHR removed - 166.56 KWHr added = 161.46 KWHr Saved per month by replacing HID to LED.
Cost per month (approx) saved from the change to LED(both tents):
161.46 KWHr per month x monthly charge per KWHr $0.34 = $54.90 Per month In savings due to me replacing my HID with LED.
That is a ROI of 1.3x within 1 year assuming the results are the same and basing this statement only on electrical usage...
That's a lot of money saved!!!
hope new website will be online within this week.
2 
. . . . 
