Mars Hydro FC 4800 480W LED Grow Light VS ECO Farm Samsung UV+ IR 480W LED Grow Light Reviews

There’s no doubt in my mind that LED grow lights are the best lights for indoor growing. But with so many different styles and wattages of indoor garden lights how do you choose the best LED grow lights for plants in your home? Just because a grow light system is popular on Amazon, doesn’t mean it’s right for you. That’s why I’ve compiled my research to help you choose the best indoor plant grow lights for your unique growing situation.

Light spectrum
While plants can grow under most spectrums, to make the process efficient they need specific wavelengths throughout each growth stage. High quality LED lights provide the full spectrum of light, allowing you to select the best one for each growing stage. Plants naturally react and grow based on the spectrum of light they get outdoors. They will grow as long as they receive blue and red lights, though most good LED lights offer the full spectrum. The spectrum you use in different stages will affect the plant’s growing patterns.

• Blue lights (400nm – 500nm): Blue lights are often used in the vegetative stage of growth. That’s because this spectrum mimics the sunlight during summertime. Plants use this blue spectrum as a hint to spread its leaves in order to soak up as much sun as possible during the summer. It’s recommended to use blue light during the plant’s vegetative stage so it spreads and grows leafy. However, if you use blue light throughout growing you’ll get plants with short stems but with large healthy leaves.


• Red lights (660nm – 730nm): Red or yellow lights are often used in the flowering stage of growth. This spectrum mimics the sunlight during the fall. This is when plants grow tall to prepare for the upcoming winter. Taller plants are in a better position to bud and pollinate via winter winds. Using more red light stimulates your cannabis to grow taller and flower (promoting bud growth).

Since you’re playing the role of the sun, you can choose the optimal spectrum of light for the strain of weed you’re growing. Most LED grow lights come with customized spectrums of light that are optimized for speedy growth. Manufacturers often state the great PAR of their LED grow lights. Photosynthetically active radiation, or PAR, is the wavelengths of light between 400nm and 700nm. These wavelengths are the best for photosynthesis.

Amount of light
The more light your plants receive, the better they grow. So, how do you find an LED grow light that emits the highest quantity of light? For one, LED lights are already designed to directly aim at the plant. Panels that are 3W per bulb produce the highest yield without burning the plant. More panels help spread light over more area. It’s recommended to use an LED grow light with over 2 panels if you plan on having a large growing space.

Wattage per square foot and coverage area
Your grow lights will be running for long hours, so you’ll want to save electricity.You’ll want to check the electrical output of your light, which should optimally stay over 300W. If the wattage is too high, you can run the risk of burning your plants. The recommended amount for growing cannabis is 50-60 watts per square foot. You will also want to know how much area your lights can cover. Most lights we recommended today have a coverage area of 3 ft x 3 ft at the vegetative stage.

Low heat emission
It’s important to find an LED grow light with low heat emission. You don’t want to run the risk of burning or discoloring your plants. You can put lights with low emission close to your plants, allowing them to receive more direct light. Controlling the temperature of your grow room is important for saving electricity and room temperatures contribute heavily to plant growth. If the air is humid, similar to the tropics, your plants grow optimally. Grow lights that emit too much heat turn the air dry, meaning your plants won’t grow.

Quality of materials
LED lights can be an expensive investment and the quality of your light source highly affects the yield. You want an LED light that gives off 3W per bulb, meaning the semiconductor chip needs to be of high quality. You need to look for durability; very durable LED grow lights last for 50,000 hours plus. Look for manufacturers that state longer warranties (2 years plus). They are most likely using the highest quality materials. Most grow lights we suggested today come with a hanging hook and power cord.
Now that you know what to look for when buying LED grow lights, see below for our reviews of the top ten LED grow lights on the market.

Mars Hydro FC 4800 480W LED Grow Light

Mars Hydro FC 4800 480W LED Grow Light with Samsung LM301B Osram Diodes。 Silent fanless design. No fans zero noise. Built-in large areas of solid aluminum heat sinks, essential for heat dissipation while ensuring long lifespan of the light.
Perfect for 5ft×5ft coverage. Remember to properly adjust the height and brightness accordingly to your plants desired level for optimal growth.

• DLC&ETL listed


• Samsung Lm301b&Osram 660nm Leds


• More than 50% higher in PPFD compared with HID lamps


• Balance, full-spectrum light output


• Energy saving with 50% lower power consumption than HID lamps


• Slim design that is foldable up to 180 degrees, making it small, compact, and easy to install


• 6 passively cooled bars provide broad-coverage lighting for full-term growth


• Dimmable box


• Reliably sourced components including inventronics drivers


• Manufacture's warranty: 3 years


• IP65 waterproof

ECO Farm Samsung UV+ IR 480W LED Grow Light

This fixture provides you with total control over everything. With onboard dimming function, growers can set the ideal intensity at any stage of plant growth for optimal photosynthesis activation.

PPF & Par Efficacy
The ECO Farm Samsung LED grow light produces a PPF output of 1514.7μmol/s and a PAR efficacy of 2.8 umol/J making this fixture incredibly efficient compared to other commercial fixures.

Energy Output
The ECO Farm Samsung LED grow light provides its users with an average 40% reduction on energy and costs. This is the ultimate combination of increasing the amount of light energy reaching your plants while also shrinking costs.

The ECO Farm Samsung LED grow light allows for even light distribution, and is precisely designed to deliver uniform levels of photosynthesis flux density, or PPFD.

Spectrum
The specially deployed full spectrum fills the negligence of the main photoreceptors and pigments outside the 730nm IR and 395nm UV range, and it is suitable for reproduction to aging in indoor environments.

Why Choose LED Plant Lights?

There are many different kinds of grow light fixtures including High-Intensity Discharge or HID grow lights, Metal Halide, ceramic metal halide (CMH), High-Pressure Sodium (HPS), and good old everyday fluorescent lights. All of these types of lights to grow plants have their supporters and applications. However, as the best all-around indoor plant grow lights, my preference is for LED (Light Emitting Diodes) plant lights.

There are a number of reasons I prefer growing with LED lights:

• LEDs are energy efficient grow lights and last for up to 50,000 hours. If you’re using them on a 12-hour timer this is equal to 11 years. Some people argue LEDs are expensive and, to be fair, they have a higher upfront cost than their HPS counterparts. Over time, however, they are cheap grow lights to run long-term thanks to their reduced power consumption.


• They can be plugged into a regular socket and usually don’t require a separate ballast so they are easier to use in small spaces.


• LED plant grow lights produce less heat than HPS grow lights and can be placed closer to your plants without risking damage. Producing less heat also means you expend less energy maintaining the correct temperature in your grow room.


• LEDs can be customized to emit specific wavelengths of light (for example you can have red LED grow lights but studies show adding green and blue LED grow lights will help plants perform better. With LEDs you can adjust the colour balance to suit the specific plant type.)


• LED full spectrum grow lights are the best grow lights for cannabis. (I’ll discuss why LEDs are the best lights for growing cannabis in full detail in their own section below.)


• LEDs don’t contain harmful mercury so they don’t need to be disposed of in a particular way. This, in addition to their energy efficiency, makes LED grow lights the best choice for the environment.

Final thoughts

LED grow lights have not always been popular with marijuana growers. However, technology has improved, and so have LED lighting systems. Although they would not have been a reasonable choice for marijuana growers five or ten years ago, they are becoming more popular every day. We can now find LED lights not only in the marijuana grow room, but also in cars, offices, and homes.

Many people swear by LEDs instead of HID setups, asserting that they are a far superior and more energy conscious option. If you go with LEDs, you will save energy, money, and management time.