Help buying New Led Light: Growers Choice

I emailed LED grow light Depot and was looking at the HLG 550 Rspec and was informed that I should look at the Grower's Choice ROI-E680. I have not been able to find much about this light or the company. Any thoughts from yall would be much appreciated. I can get the light for 900.00 OTD. It has been said that this light is the best bang for the buck.

There is a video about the light on you tube form LED grow light Depot.

https://www.ledgrowlightsdepot.com/products/growers-choice-roi-680-led
https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/lamps/products/hlg-550-v2-rspec

Seems like a lot of light for $900, but talk them into free shipping.
I like strips for their excellent light distribution and heat dissipation.
The ROI-E680 is 42" square vs 26" x 20" for the HLG, that allows the ROI-E680 to be much closer to the canopy, they list 6"-18" vs 18"-32" for the HLG.
The ROI-E680 produces a lot more light, 1700 umol/s vs 1257 umol/s, but it's a little less efficient at 2.5 umol/j vs 2.6 umol/j for the HLG.
Spectrum looks quite similar to me, now lets hear from the guys that actually know what they're talking about.
Growers Choice is IP65 water proof.

Thank you for the reply and for posting the video's Ham. I am unable to post links because I am a new member. With the discount code ROI I get 10% off from LED depot. It has free shipping. With a bigger canopy plus more umol's for just a few more bucks. It's hard not to hit the buy button. I have a HLG 260 watt quantum board DIY kit and love it. I was blown away by how bright it is. I have only used it for veg in a 2x3 closet. I am currently using a 600 watt HID in a 4x4 tent and was wanting to replace it with a LED light. My house HVAC system can barely keep up and the 600 watt HPS pushes the temps in the house up a few degrees. So I wanted to get something that would keep the temps down and also give me more yield. So I have been looking at LED lights that are sold as 1000 watt HID replacements. Because I already have a HLG product it was a know brainer to look at their lights. But this Growers Choice ROI-680 seems to hit all my check boxes. It should run cooler and give me more yield. I usually grow 3 or 4 plants in the 4x4. Because of that I never have plants in the center were the HID light is the brightest. Having a wider or bigger blanket of light should in it self help me achiever higher yields. Everything I am seeing has me thinking that the ROI is a better choice than the HLG 550 R-spec. Any thoughts or recommendations would be much appreciated.

As far as the brand, I trust growers choice.
Have you checked their website growershouse.com?
That's where I get many of the things I use, always fast shipping and great quality. The prices are always around the best I've found.

That said... I dont think I'd spend 900 to light a 4x4. I'm looking at a 720 watt setup that's just under 500 shipped off Alibaba. The same company has led boards on amazon and I picked up their 240 watt version and think it's really well built, came plug an play out of the box. They out a business card in with it and looking on their site the deals are really good.
If your interested its www.szbava.en.alibaba.com

Thank you for the reply growingforfun. I have looked at some of the lights on Alibaba. But I have never ordered from them and I have a case of the cold feet. I like having a warranty and customer support if needed. I would think that ordering off Alibaba is probably fine but also has some risk to it. If you are looking to save some money I just found a light recommended by Pigeons420 on you tube channel. The light is a called BudgetLED. There is a coupon code p420 will get you 10% off. They use the same boards as HLG but use a frame to hold the boards and the heat sinks and the light fixture is bigger than HLG. With discount code the total cost is 657.98. If I don't get the Growers Choice ROI 680, I will probably get that light.

@Backfire1 did you read the part where they have a listing on amazon that I bought and was happy with? They have the same equipment listed on their Alibaba site it's just around half the price

I did look on Amazon. But I was unable to find what you were referring to. I looked for szbava on Amazon and did not find what you were referring to. Can you give me a little more info please. Thank you. Also if anybody else has any suggestions I am all ears.

Type in quantum board on amazon. It's one of the results that's how I found mine. Maybe try bava quantum board.

Backfire1 said:

My house HVAC system can barely keep up and the 600 watt HPS pushes the temps in the house up a few degrees. So I wanted to get something that would keep the temps down and also give me more yield. So I have been looking at LED lights that are sold as 1000 watt HID replacements.

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Watt for watt, LED makes the same heat as anything else, but there are two reasons why LED is needs less cooling.
1. LED is much more efficient, so less than 700w of LED can replace 1000w of HPS.
2. The air temperature can be higher with LED since there's no infrared raising leaf temperature higher than air temp. 29-30 C is good with LED. LED also has the advantage of dimming.

Humidity control is important under LED..... http://www.just4growers.com/stream/temperature-humidity-and-c02/vapor-pressure-deficit-the-hidden-force-on-your-plants.aspx

Thank you Ham. I am just starting to mess with VPD. I hope I understand the LED light upgrade a little better. I will have less heat, and more yield up to maybe 20%. I am very excited about my purchase, like a kid a Christmas (lol). When I started growing about a year ago, I looked at LED but just couldn't bring my self to purchase something that I knew so little about and they were so expensive.

I ordered the Growers Choice ROI-E680. It is brighter than the HLG 550 or 600 and it has even light spread and no hot spots per say. It is basically a Gavita LED.

I will take a few pictures of the new light. I also have a watt meter and a lux meter. So I will compare the 600 watt to the new LED light with the tools that I have. Again thanks to all for the help.

Yes, please do, I don't think I've seen anyone here running that light.

I will for sure do a review with pictures. I will do it here but should I also start a new post? If so, which forum heading should I do it under? Thanks again for the help Ham.

I received the ROI-E680. Man this light is HUGE. My wife has been sick so I have not had a chance to take some pics and do a small review. I sold my 600 watt HID light within an hour of posting it for sale. But I will be able to compare it to a 1000 watt HID with a XXL hood. Sorry for it taking so long to get back to yall.

If you have any questions about the light please let me know.

Looks like Mr. Grow it has another channel and he loves the ROI-E680. His new channel is . It is called Extra Cannabis on you tube.

Sorry to bump a 4-month stale thread with a first post, but I also am running an ROI-E680.

@Backfire1 have you noticed when the light is off, either with the knob on the rack or controller (if you have one) that there is a very faint light still emitted from the fixture?

With it plugged into a timer, this wouldn't be an issue, but I'm running it through the controller and it's acts like it can't fully dim itself. More like it dims all the way to 1%, but can't get that last trickle of power to cut off to total dark. I don't think it would be an issue, as it's so faint and maybe about what a 1/4 moon at night would be, but you hate to take chances with flowering and all.

Thanks for any insight you may have experienced with the light.

(Other than this, it's absolutely an incredible light.)

Just to follow up, and not be a complete drive by, I did find out that on some of the early runs of lights the drivers can trickle a very, very slight voltage to the LED's and cause them to glow ever so slightly. We're talking not even enough to register on a meter an inch or two away.

Each strip has its own driver, and they are a constant current type driver which always has a minimal voltage present so when it is turned up the voltage doesn't spike. I guess on some of those earlier versions that "sleep" voltage is passed through the LED's and makes them glow just a touch.


Anyway, thought I would share what I found.

I am running 4 hlg v2, a few days from chop and first time in the room after lights out in 8 weeks and noticed there is till a slight glow!! Interesting tho, plants are doing fine with no signs of any issues ... but def a bit concerning

vorTx said:

Just to follow up, and not be a complete drive by, I did find out that on some of the early runs of lights the drivers can trickle a very, very slight voltage to the LED's and cause them to glow ever so slightly. We're talking not even enough to register on a meter an inch or two away.

Each strip has its own driver, and they are a constant current type driver which always has a minimal voltage present so when it is turned up the voltage doesn't spike. I guess on some of those earlier versions that "sleep" voltage is passed through the LED's and makes them glow just a touch.


Anyway, thought I would share what I found.

Click to expand...

So I bought 2 lights a week ago. One of them had a damaged m21 connector so growerschoice is sending me another. But both lights have 3 diodes on when set to off also using a controller. Using trolmaster over here. Contacted growers choice and they said that's not normal and to contact wherever you purchased for a exchange. I will be hopefully resolving this in the coming weeks.

traviablo said:

I am running 4 hlg v2, a few days from chop and first time in the room after lights out in 8 weeks and noticed there is till a slight glow!! Interesting tho, plants are doing fine with no signs of any issues ... but def a bit concerning

Click to expand...

Yes, quite a bit concerning.

I had a pretty extensive discussion with the good people at Growers Choice, and effectively while not "perfect", we're talking a level of light that is significantly less than a 1/4 moon, let alone a full moon. It wouldn't even register on my lux or par meter. But you know, as growers we all worry about any little possible thing.

Jwcgarden said:

So I bought 2 lights a week ago. One of them had a damaged m21 connector so growerschoice is sending me another. But both lights have 3 diodes on when set to off also using a controller. Using trolmaster over here. Contacted growers choice and they said that's not normal and to contact wherever you purchased for a exchange. I will be hopefully resolving this in the coming weeks.

Click to expand...

I found it was every diode. My understanding is that the issue was during the early production runs of the light. There is a very slight trickle current that is constantly available from each driver to its light strip. As a note, each strip/bar/whatever you wanna call it has its own driver. Not a bad idea as if one has a problem, it doesn't take out your entire light. Anyway, that trickle current helps in minimizing a startup voltage spike, and helps extend the life of the diodes.

It's this trickle current that was leaking to the bar, and thus creating the extremely faint glow. This would be with or without a controller. So it was a known issue, and they immediately offered to exchange the light out. I opted to not do so at this time. Kind of hard to grow plants without a light. Funny how that happens.

Once this round has completed, I may take them up on the offer and exchange it. Going to be a pain though as I have to ship back first, then they ship one to me once they have the old one. Had they been willing to ship first, then me ship back, I would have done it already.

The end result is it really isn't that big of a deal. The amount of light is so faint it won't make a difference. If these plants can do just fine at night under the moon, then this wouldn't have had any impact. For now I simply put the main power to the light on it's own timer that turns on/off 30 minutes before/after the controller turns the light on/off. Problem solved. No harm.

vorTx said:

Sorry to bump a 4-month stale thread with a first post, but I also am running an ROI-E680.

@Backfire1 have you noticed when the light is off, either with the knob on the rack or controller (if you have one) that there is a very faint light still emitted from the fixture?

With it plugged into a timer, this wouldn't be an issue, but I'm running it through the controller and it's acts like it can't fully dim itself. More like it dims all the way to 1%, but can't get that last trickle of power to cut off to total dark. I don't think it would be an issue, as it's so faint and maybe about what a 1/4 moon at night would be, but you hate to take chances with flowering and all.

Thanks for any insight you may have experienced with the light.

(Other than this, it's absolutely an incredible light.)

Click to expand...

If ur light was not completely shutting off or flickering ur timer or power bar is causing the problem. Don't blame growers choice when 90% time its the power bar or timers. Watch this video all was user error just my 2 cents.