2.92 umol vs 3.03 umol sounds different to me
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The B has the same coating. Not gonna argue. That article you posted was before they even came out. HLG confirmed this. I trust them more than some random sales fluff. Plus they are using the H chips now on their Rspec boards last I checked.
HLG has great customer service no doubt. I have there 260 qb they have a better warranty. Hygrow has only a 1 year warranty on led and 5 yr on driver and I have no experience with dealing with a issue but getting to know the gentleman outside of doing Buisness I’m certain there would be no issues. That’s also why I would never deal with alibaba for that reason.
I checked out Hygrow a bit. Looks like they have no website, sell only from a FB page and Ebay?
From my perspective he is white labeling the same HLG 550r clones that are sold on Alibaba for $150 less. (I will accept the spin that he doesnt buy them on Alibaba, but they are definitely cloned HLG boards that are made in China.)
The value added is literally that he preassembles them (which most Alibaba sellers will do for free if you ask, so no real value added at all), and ships from the US instead of China.
Did he do those PAR tests himself? Or are they from his board supplier? From most peoples experience on here that I have seen, is you accept when buying from China that you are saving up to 50% off of HLG prices but also accepting that you are not guaranteed top bin diodes. For a lot of people this is fine, but lets not pretend its an apples to apples comparison.
How is a one man operation who acts as a middleman going to handle service requests at the same level as HLG? All while using HLG trademarks in his marketing, as well as selling boards designs they created?
I also see that he doesnt actually claim "made in USA" but rather "assembled and shipped in USA". I still think its misleading bc there are people in his comments saying they bought from him bc they support Made in USA and he is rolling with it.
Overall you came here and asked if you thought these would be good lights to be a reseller of. You got honest feedback and facts. I personally dont see a huge opportunity there, but best wishes and good luck if you decide to go for it.
If his wife is indeed suffering from cancer, I feel for him. Post a Gofundme or something and I will gladly contribute and help them however I can.