So I skimmed this thread and you may skim this one as im stoned and long winded. Im not gonna tell you what to do. Ill tell you what i did and why You can be the judge.
I come from the duel 1k vertical barbulb world. I just bought 2 x5s DIY and a Mono Veg fixture from ChilLed Growcraft. Mainly 2 things sold me over the rest of what I researched. Ability to repair, and long term ownership.
Having done a fair bit if internet reading it seems that LEDs have come quite the way. All of the designs are similar. The A8s from China are just unbranded Growers Choice lights. Good lights. Save a bit if your willing to wait. You can get a 650R knock off as well. Look up gb648. About the same cost after import costs. Same stuff as everyone else. Even Chilled. Theyre all useing Samsung diodes, a led board and a meanwell/invotronics driver. Its all about the same. All with a 3ish year warrenty and various reviews around the net. Once you eliminate the similarities you can start to see the differences.
First, assembly. This is where US companies seem to stand apart. The ones that order parts and assemble here in the US have better quality control. HLG, ChilLed, Timber ect. Now dont let that fool you however. If you spend enough time on Alibaba you can learn about quality companies there as well. Longevity is the first thing to look for. They been on there for 5+ years chances are they are legit. Mieju, spiderfarmer, kingbrite mars hydro are examples of this. I mean Spend 2 sec with a google search "top 10 led grow lights 2021" and buy whatever strikes your fancy on that list as long as nothing on that list leads back to amazon. LOL. (However dont sleep on the RA1000, that light is a hidden gem on amazon).
That being said only one of these offered a website that I could order parts from should something happen to my light. +1 for ChilLed. Driver 300ish, New led board 80. Or, new led diodes drop with better umol/j. I can order a set of boards and upgrade my ChilLed Frame. That was very important to me. I am not a rich person. So if a LED diode goes out, or a driver stops working...much cheaper to buy a part over a new light. I can also upgrade my x5s to x6s should I desire. I am currently undecided. But I might.
Cost was another factor for me. As i said, I'm not a rich person. But I got 2 of the x5s and the mono rail for under 2k.
And finally the parts. Its a aluminum frame with white led strips mounted to it. It has a remote driver with dimmer. I doubt the aluminum frame ever needs replaced. I like simple and effective. I put it together. Took me a hour for the first one and 45 min for the second. The wiring is good. has plenty of parts. Good directions to put together. And the packaging/shipping is top form. Should last for years. LIke I said long term ownership was also important to me.
And the back and forth with Austin from ChilLed was great. I enjoyed my experience so much that 2 weeks later I bought a mono rail with a Veg board in it.
So with that in mind Id say for a 5x5 space Id go with a DIY x6 from Chilled if your in a tent. If your in a more open room id go for the full 1k. Im stoned and been typing this and forgot what your space was like.
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This is a 4x4 Bed in a 5x5 tent. I think it would light up the whole thing just fine.
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