Cheap Lighting- Go LED? A thanks to Mars-hydro.

[YodaBear]

Okay so the problem with LED since it came out was its extremely high cost per usable watt. But now that the prices of LED's are beginning to compete with HPS and MH setups why not switch? Especially if you're savvy about your purchases. It is much cheaper to set up a room with LED's than with HPS and MH set ups once you figure the cost of the cooling systems and ventilation involved with removing their excess heat from both the bulbs and Ballasts.

So I went down to my local Hydro shop a couple weeks back and found a killer deal on some Mars Hydro 1200 watt LED's that a guy was selling so he could upgrade. He was selling them at $220 a piece, I picked up one and took it home and set it up. A couple Days later a bank of Lights went out so I took it back to the Hydro shop to exchange it for a different light. We tested out about 10 other mars-hydro's only to find that I had originally purchased the only one with no burnt out LED's. The shop owner gave the owner of the hydro's a call to explain that none of his lights were in full working condition like he had thought. So what happened? The shop owner came back and said "Pick the best 2 and have them" since I had already paid $220. I went home with these 90% working LED's and sent Mars-hydro's customer service a quick little email to see what it would take to get these bad boys working 100% percent again. After a week of back and forth messages, me during the day, and them at 1 in the morning from china, they decided to send me all the replacement LED's and Zenner Diodes free of charge. So all I had to do was simply replace the LED's myself which is a simple DIY if you know how to use a solder.

In the end I spent:
-$220 on 2 1200watt Mars-hydro LED's
-a couple pennies on solder and electronics heat sink glue
-about 3 hours of labor tearing apart and replacing the LEDS

In the end I got roughly 1200 real watts of LED's that have now been customized, 1 for grow light wavelengths and 1 for bloom light wavelengths. You really can't get much cheaper light than that. Even if i had went the CFL route I still couldn't get 1200 real watts of usable light from CFL's for that cheap. My temps with the LEDs running in my small room are sticking under 85 degrees using just one 6" booster fan connected to a cheap homemade carbon filter.

I want to give a big thanks to Winnie at Mars-hydro for the help with the LED's, if any noobs are looking to switch I highly recommend Mars-hydro for their customer service, and use Sara for purchases, she's with their sales team and is part of the US branch.

For anyone looking to do the repair themselves I can make a post explain step by step how I replaced mine, just let me know if that would be something worth doing.

 

[The_Enthusiast]

I really love LED technology but I'm still afraid the market is not ripe.
I hope that these lights you bought have good PAR (and PAR/W) and that they will last long (20K hours @ 90% I belive)
Just for info, what are the specs (real not lumen-wise)?
The one I was eyeballing were Philips GreenPower LED toplight but they cost about 1600€ (3pcs) that give 1560 uMol and use about 590 W

 

[MMJ Dreaming 99]

Okay so the problem with LED since it came out was its extremely high cost per usable watt. But now that the prices of LED's are beginning to compete with HPS and MH setups why not switch? Especially if you're savvy about your purchases. It is much cheaper to set up a room with LED's than with HPS and MH set ups once you figure the cost of the cooling systems and ventilation involved with removing their excess heat from both the bulbs and Ballasts.

So I went down to my local Hydro shop a couple weeks back and found a killer deal on some Mars Hydro 1200 watt LED's that a guy was selling so he could upgrade. He was selling them at $220 a piece, I picked up one and took it home and set it up. A couple Days later a bank of Lights went out so I took it back to the Hydro shop to exchange it for a different light. We tested out about 10 other mars-hydro's only to find that I had originally purchased the only one with no burnt out LED's. The shop owner gave the owner of the hydro's a call to explain that none of his lights were in full working condition like he had thought. So what happened? The shop owner came back and said "Pick the best 2 and have them" since I had already paid $220. I went home with these 90% working LED's and sent Mars-hydro's customer service a quick little email to see what it would take to get these bad boys working 100% percent again. After a week of back and forth messages, me during the day, and them at 1 in the morning from china, they decided to send me all the replacement LED's and Zenner Diodes free of charge. So all I had to do was simply replace the LED's myself which is a simple DIY if you know how to use a solder.

In the end I spent:
-$220 on 2 1200watt Mars-hydro LED's
-a couple pennies on solder and electronics heat sink glue
-about 3 hours of labor tearing apart and replacing the LEDS

In the end I got roughly 1200 real watts of LED's that have now been customized, 1 for grow light wavelengths and 1 for bloom light wavelengths. You really can't get much cheaper light than that. Even if i had went the CFL route I still couldn't get 1200 real watts of usable light from CFL's for that cheap. My temps with the LEDs running in my small room are sticking under 85 degrees using just one 6" booster fan connected to a cheap homemade carbon filter.

I want to give a big thanks to Winnie at Mars-hydro for the help with the LED's, if any noobs are looking to switch I highly recommend Mars-hydro for their customer service, and use Sara for purchases, she's with their sales team and is part of the US branch.

For anyone looking to do the repair themselves I can make a post explain step by step how I replaced mine, just let me know if that would be something worth doing.

Not to sound like a jerk but I bought a 600 watt Mars Hydro. Okay in veg but not good at all in Flower.

 

[YodaBear]

That's why I customized mine. I took out most of the blue LEDs and replaced them with red ones on the bloom and on the veg on i took out most of the red and replaces them with blues. Its far more efficient usage of light that way. And was yours 600 watt max or 600 watt actual consumption?

 

[jasonnewbee]

With the Mars Reflector 96 that has the switch between veg and bloom , would i still have to modify ? i going to set up a small box 36 1/2” H x 28″ W x 22″ D.

 

[YodaBear]

With the Mars Reflector 96 that has the switch between veg and bloom , would i still have to modify ? i going to set up a small box 36 1/2” H x 28″ W x 22″ D.

Of course not, the mars' come equipped with the two different phase switches to provide only the light that is needed for each phase of the grow, I just modified mine because I had two lights so it just made more sense to use only bloom light in bloom, and veg lights in veg. Although the 96 only draws about 200 watts of power, those LED's are still going to be pretty powerful, only 36 1/2" of height could be a concern once your plants start growing taller during flower, the tops may get bleached from light burn just a heads up. I try to keep my tops 18" away from LED's at all times, though there are other members that would call that over precautious.

 

[jasonnewbee]

I'm putting together my first box , what do you think of my list :

LED lighting Mars Reflector 96 $173.99
Hydroponic Grow System SuperPonics 8 w/upgrade package $174.95
Upgrade Package Includes TechnaFlora Recipe For Success 10 Part Nutrient System, pH Testing Kit, TDS Meter, 1” Rock Wool Starter Plugs and Hydroton Clay Stone Medium incl
fan w/carbon filter
4 inch Internal circulation Fan
Trellis system DIY
Digital Thermometer / Hygrometer
Power Strip with timer Westek 15 Amp 8-Outlet Digital Timer $19.95
Reflective mylar Paneling Orca Grow Film $49.95

 

[Jay7t5]

Okay so the problem with LED since it came out was its extremely high cost per usable watt. But now that the prices of LED's are beginning to compete with HPS and MH setups why not switch? Especially if you're savvy about your purchases. It is much cheaper to set up a room with LED's than with HPS and MH set ups once you figure the cost of the cooling systems and ventilation involved with removing their excess heat from both the bulbs and Ballasts.

So I went down to my local Hydro shop a couple weeks back and found a killer deal on some Mars Hydro 1200 watt LED's that a guy was selling so he could upgrade. He was selling them at $220 a piece, I picked up one and took it home and set it up. A couple Days later a bank of Lights went out so I took it back to the Hydro shop to exchange it for a different light. We tested out about 10 other mars-hydro's only to find that I had originally purchased the only one with no burnt out LED's. The shop owner gave the owner of the hydro's a call to explain that none of his lights were in full working condition like he had thought. So what happened? The shop owner came back and said "Pick the best 2 and have them" since I had already paid $220. I went home with these 90% working LED's and sent Mars-hydro's customer service a quick little email to see what it would take to get these bad boys working 100% percent again. After a week of back and forth messages, me during the day, and them at 1 in the morning from china, they decided to send me all the replacement LED's and Zenner Diodes free of charge. So all I had to do was simply replace the LED's myself which is a simple DIY if you know how to use a solder.

In the end I spent:
-$220 on 2 1200watt Mars-hydro LED's
-a couple pennies on solder and electronics heat sink glue
-about 3 hours of labor tearing apart and replacing the LEDS

In the end I got roughly 1200 real watts of LED's that have now been customized, 1 for grow light wavelengths and 1 for bloom light wavelengths. You really can't get much cheaper light than that. Even if i had went the CFL route I still couldn't get 1200 real watts of usable light from CFL's for that cheap. My temps with the LEDs running in my small room are sticking under 85 degrees using just one 6" booster fan connected to a cheap homemade carbon filter.

I want to give a big thanks to Winnie at Mars-hydro for the help with the LED's, if any noobs are looking to switch I highly recommend Mars-hydro for their customer service, and use Sara for purchases, she's with their sales team and is part of the US branch.

For anyone looking to do the repair themselves I can make a post explain step by step how I replaced mine, just let me know if that would be something worth doing.

But that sort of customer service is kinda useless if you have to solder the leds in yourself,Its just like buying a brand new car finding out the chassis has a hole they send you some weld and metal for free but have to weld it paint it yourself lol not my idea of customer services you were well within your rights to get your money back 9/10 bargains such like you had turn out to be too good to be true hence you have to put your time and money into getting it fixed but good on you for fixing it that's a advantage but no good for the likes of me lol.questions is how long before the panel go like the other faulty ones you picked from the bunch lol.I want to go down the LED road myself but im gonna save and buy good buy once buy looking at spending 6-£800 the Mars hydros just don't cut it in flower but quality is fantastic so I've read good luck with the grow though mate

 

[IndoorScore]

But that sort of customer service is kinda useless if you have to solder the leds in yourself,Its just like buying a brand new car finding out the chassis has a hole they send you some weld and metal for free but have to weld it paint it yourself lol not my idea of customer services you were well within your rights to get your money back 9/10 bargains such like you had turn out to be too good to be true hence you have to put your time and money into getting it fixed but good on you for fixing it that's a advantage but no good for the likes of me lol.questions is how long before the panel go like the other faulty ones you picked from the bunch lol.I want to go down the LED road myself but im gonna save and buy good buy once buy looking at spending 6-£800 the Mars hydros just don't cut it in flower but quality is fantastic so I've read good luck with the grow though mate

These weren't brand new.
I'd take two of them for 220, soldering and all. For full price i'd pick something else, but I would have done the same in this situation.