Compared to other cheap ones, what separates the good from the bad if there is such a comparison? I do see some pretty impressive grows from, say Mars, for instance but everyone says their crap. Not trying to fight at all but I am intrigued by the cheap light grows that actually seem quite nice.
SEEM is the key word. Blurple LED works in veg but, no so in bloom. Some folks like them - many of those have not the experience under better lighting. "I did it cheap with less heat and less electric cost" Really? Bet my yield with HID of the same watts. Would yield more and with higher quality.....
Now move up to COB and that changes for normal
home size grows....
Another analogy I was thinking of is if I waited and saved to buy a nice first car I'd still be saving lol. I'd never learned how to fix things with duct tape, never experienced the walk home at midnight due to a catastrophic failure of my 63 rambler lol. I always have used HID for flowering so my LED knowledge is gained from here and I gotta say it can be quite confusing and sometimes just nasty lol.
The commercial viability
(at this time) of LED use in large plant, large scale, commercial operations is not a wise choice -
YET.
The stupid "war" over that issue, in another thread.....was a waste of time and space. Bottom line, I agree with
@Odin* on that!
The use of LED tech in com. ops is not as effective as it can be. Com. ops with 10'+ plants are not effectively served by LED's.
If you want to piss and moan about it, and supply pics of existing com ops running LED's.....Go for it! Take a long look at the plant size and then find me their yield counts..... It's getting better all the time....NOT there yet!
Car? You got bad credit? Hell, they give cars to anybody nowa days! Screw you on interest but, you can get a car! Shop wisely - same thing apply's to lighting!
I just bought an 02 Audi TT as a toy for the summer. Low miles, nice power, stiff track type suspension. Damn blast to drive. In the fall, it goes to my oldest as his car is dying......Mmmm, maybe not. Chip it for horse power and it'll make a great road/track toy...Must have already thought that......I ordered Hooser track tires for it on Friday! Guess I'll get him something else....Wife ain't bitch'in either....she likes it so much, she's looking around to find one......$3300 was a good deal. Right rear ABS and the post - converter heat sensor was all it needed.