Just bought a blackstar 100w by lighthouse hydro

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psychedelic son

Well-Known Member
Hey I just made a drunken stoned ebay purchase last night and now have a led light on the way. I was wondering if anyone's got any tips, advice, or pics of what this things capable of. Lighthouse hydro responded to an email I sent them in less than a day which to me shows good product support. So what they said is that its only 7" in diameter 65w actual power draw and they recommended one per sqft. Here's a link for full specs http://www.gothamhydroponics.com/led-grow-lights/100w-led-grow-light-blackstar-100-watt-flowering-hydroponics.html . They haggle price wise cause I got it for less but what does everyone think? Mother plant/veg light or supplemental flower light? Right now i veg under cfl and flower under 400w hps. I think the uv would be an excellent addition to a flower room though.
 
karr

karr

Well-Known Member
What do those 100w deals go for?

The blackstar lights in general seem to perform well, especially for their price. Personally I don't like Gotham hydro, kinda a shady business.
 
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psychedelic son

Well-Known Member
I paid 120$ for it and its true draw is 65w so $2 a Watt is reasonable with this technology I guess. All led companies seem shady especially the fact that they advertise one thing but when you call them out they say another is proof to me. I just want to try led without a huge investment. I might in a couple months do a single plant grow report but I really don't know what to do with it. I didn't mean to buy it so I'm trying to figure out what it would be good for.
 
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psychedelic son

Well-Known Member
For anyone wondering switching from cfl to led for my veg chamber temperature from 85F to 77F outside room temp is about 72F so thats a significant drop in temperature for equal light coverage. This is day one with this new light btw.
 
karr

karr

Well-Known Member
Yes i would flower soon and tie the plant down to maximize all the light you can, even scrog it like my sig. its a great way to get a lot out of a led. Im still on my first LED only harvest, so i cant speak to numbers, but its looking good!

As i said, the blackstar seem to really be decent units, especially for the price. It took me forever to find a company that i didnt think was shady, but i paid a premium for sure.

throw up some pics and update us!
 
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psychedelic son

Well-Known Member
For now its just a veg light I won't be around to flower until summer but I'll probably try a single plant grow with it and if it does well I plan on a serious upgrade cause I ALWAYS have temp issues with HID. I just didn't want to dive head first into something and spend over a grand and be disappointed. However temp wise so much better than cfl 85 room temp down to 75. I didn't even check canopy temp with cfl but it was 75 with the blackstar and the plants have grown like crazy in the past 12 hours!
 
donniemcm

donniemcm

Well-Known Member
I had fantastic results with that same light but I also had a 105w (actual) CFL going with it.... kept them both about an inch from the canopy and it was the bushiest plant ever...lol~ I now have since ordered another and am flowering with both of them with a 150w HPS.... results are MUCH better than I ever expected.... check my threads if you'd like to see:) good luck!!
 
maps84

maps84

Well-Known Member
I got the new UFO 135W from blackstar.. This thing puts out a great amount of light and actually brought my closet temps down by 5° from when I had CFL running, it seems capable of handling the space but I really don't care, this is just a run test. I'll most likely end up buying another one and run them side by side to maximize my closet yield (2x2 area, 4 plants). Each unit emits 12000 lumens with a PAR of a wooping 290W, that's almost 3 times what a 400W HPS puts out, nevertheless I remain very skeptical whether this light will translate into a bigger yield than even a 250 HPS. We'll find out in 2 months or so.

View attachment 1997042
 
The Dawg

The Dawg

Well-Known Member
karr said:
What do those 100w deals go for?

The blackstar lights in general seem to perform well, especially for their price. Personally I don't like Gotham hydro, kinda a shady business.
Click to expand...
Karr I Was Thinking About Buying A Lighthouse Tent From Gotham.Could Please Explain Your Issues With Gotham.If You Dont Feel Comfortable Posting In Public You Can Pm Me.Peace And Hair Grease :weed:
 
karr

karr

Well-Known Member
The Dawg said:
Karr I Was Thinking About Buying A Lighthouse Tent From Gotham.Could Please Explain Your Issues With Gotham.If You Dont Feel Comfortable Posting In Public You Can Pm Me.Peace And Hair Grease :weed:
Click to expand...
Haha I almost feel like a nutter since I post this so often. But here goes again. If you look up some of their ads you might find a "grow boys" magazine grow light competation. This reference was on every ad in the past and was one of their key selling points for a while.

Well the problem is when you researched this competation first find that their own link doesn't work. If you google and find the site by another means you find the competation and the magazine, which states that the light won. There were no details, no competitors, no results, nothing. Not a good start. Researching more you find that the magazine that hosted the competation compared various new technology and equipment as well as other duties of a general cannabis magazine....only not. That's what they want you to think. The magazine site is full of dead links, and contentless pages. In fact the only page that had any words at all was the page declairing their light as winner. The entire site existed for that one single link.

Basically they set up a sham website to give their light credibility. The name of the magazine was similar to an established magazine, but not the same.

Basically that makes me doubt their credibility on all fronts, how can i believe anything they say or do?

If they are capable of doing this, is it not possible...nay probable that they created anonymous forum users and falsified grow journals to add further credence to their product?

It's a slippery slope.
 
The Dawg

The Dawg

Well-Known Member
karr said:
Haha I almost feel like a nutter since I post this so often. But here goes again. If you look up some of their ads you might find a "grow boys" magazine grow light competation. This reference was on every ad in the past and was one of their key selling points for a while.

Well the problem is when you researched this competation first find that their own link doesn't work. If you google and find the site by another means you find the competation and the magazine, which states that the light won. There were no details, no competitors, no results, nothing. Not a good start. Researching more you find that the magazine that hosted the competation compared various new technology and equipment as well as other duties of a general cannabis magazine....only not. That's what they want you to think. The magazine site is full of dead links, and contentless pages. In fact the only page that had any words at all was the page declairing their light as winner. The entire site existed for that one single link.

Basically they set up a sham website to give their light credibility. The name of the magazine was similar to an established magazine, but not the same.

Basically that makes me doubt their credibility on all fronts, how can i believe anything they say or do?

If they are capable of doing this, is it not possible...nay probable that they created anonymous forum users and falsified grow journals to add further credence to their product?

It's a slippery slope.
Click to expand...
Karr Thank You For Responding To My Question.I Just Read The Same Post On Another Thread Lol.Peace And Hair Grease :clap:
 
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ChucklesD

Well-Known Member
You forgot the part that the growboys competition site was registered to the blackstar people too...

I did a 4x4 grow with 6 blackstar 240 last year. Overall I really wasn't impressed, especially with penetration. If I was growing lettuce it would have been a different story. LED would be great for that. I still prefer HID lighting.
 
maps84

maps84

Well-Known Member
Leds at this point are intended for micro grows as I see it. I've got a blackstar running in my closet and plants love it, never saw a root mass develop so fast and the leaves are fattening up great while keeping a good internodal distance. I'm using a 135W UFO reckon I might need another unit to cover my 2x2 space like I'd want or compliment with CFL but I'm just testing LED. So far I've concluded you can't beat price vs performance of blackstars, they work! and there's people growing bud with this lights, not all of them have the skill to have their plants make a better use of it but still. I don't care what they did to get into the market nor the old webpage isn't updated, I wouldn't respect any company following that criteria. As for me costumer service from Gotham has been excellent, one of the best I've dealt with so far. So they're not shady, this tech is ALL shady and that's why we're all trying it although it's more expensive than traditional HPS. Some even dare to spend grands on brands that claim they can out yield a 1000WHPS like penetrators from Hygro Grow Led, you can't possible believe that!! Like everything if we want this technology -which seems promising- to develop we have to invest on it, so Kudos to all the led growers out there.
 
karr

karr

Well-Known Member
Oooo don't even get me started on hydro grow led haha


From my experience using my led as supplemental and now solo flowering for the first time, i completely agree that you can't get too much coverage and you really need to maximize the light you have, this game i about efficiency. Scrogging or at least some form of training is very essential IMO.
 
maps84

maps84

Well-Known Member
I'll see how my plants grow, but they're not stretching much verticaly. I have the BS (not bullshit haha) about 6-8" of the canopy, I got small clones for this test about 8" tall and intend to flower them as single colas, no training planned so far but will do if necessary. Figured if I had 4 colas I could harvest every 2-3 weeks SOG wise. The objective of the test is to get 1+Oz per plant whether with one or two UFO lights covering an area of 2x2 feet. I think it can be done, I'll know in a couple months.
 
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chewbaco

Member
I bought one of these too for a first time stealth grow that I'm still collecting bits for, it's quite a noisy fan. I've been trying to find out what airflow the fan runs at but no luck I'm afraid.

Here's a pic of the fan in case anyones interested in replacing it with a quieter one.

I was planning on replacing with a noctua nf-r8 fan.
IMG_20120116_004450.jpg
 
Quitekeen

Quitekeen

Active Member
Seems every LED company, even the US based and manufactured companies, have one issue or another with customer care, honesty, etc etc. There is the difference between the rather misleading advertised watts (watt of diode x # of diodes) vs actual pull. There are the made up contests, fake grow journals, youtube vids, till the cows come home.

So while its not right that Gotham/Lighthouse faked a contest win, but that doesnt make the panel crap. And since EVERY company is guilty of something or another, you cant single out one. I have had a good customer service experience with Gotham. The product works so far, I have yet to see the results of the grow of course.

I see the wattage discrepancy as being similar to the actual watts vs replacement watts issue that can crop up with novice cfl shoppers. Just do your research, get educated and realize that in America people lie about the products they sell you all the time. From your cereal to your tennis shoes to your house even. Dont take the word of the person or company selling you the product, get into some technical know how (it wont take a lot) and have some fun doing some stoned reading. Or trial and error it (if you happen to be filthy rich).

A lot of US based companies have long trial periods and 3-5 year warranties. Look for that and you know you are dealing with a company that stands by its product!
 
maps84

maps84

Well-Known Member
why would you want a warranty like that and pay for such a premium, when you'll most likely replace it in 2 years when the flying model comes out. No more hangers that's right!
 
Quitekeen

Quitekeen

Active Member
maps84 said:
why would you want a warranty like that and pay for such a premium, when you'll most likely replace it in 2 years when the flying model comes out. No more hangers that's right!
Click to expand...
HAHA i know right, things can only get better!

I wouldnt want the warranty but the fact that it exists is a sign that a company is willing to back up the product they make. Its jsut one way to help sift through the garbage, its not a tell-all about a company or panel.
 
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