Just bought a blackstar 100w by lighthouse hydro

I get your point, I guess the wiser would be to wait for our harvest and judge. Here're some pics of my set up. I'm thinking about getting another but that'd be for the next run if this happen to sucks on weight. PAR readings of my lamps are almost double of a 400W at 12" though and it's putting out 12000 lumens as well.

SLH from Barneys Farm
White Widow for Dinafem (freebie)


Next Day

I too have a widow growing. I started a journal but I had some real teething issues at the start and at one point thought it was all over. One of the 4 plants pushed through, she's a warrior. Up until 3 days ago I was growing with cfls in a DR60 tent. I know there are just as many cfl nay-sayers as there are for LED but my node spacing is tighter than a v_ never mind, you get me lol.

My phone is dead for a few more days but I will get some pics of her up too. I have been flowering her for a month now, but started too early (like I said teething problems) so one month into flower she's a squat 25" tall, but she has buds growing all the way down every branch. I also thought f*ck it and tied some of her 4 tops down to the side, I figured this gives the LED panel the best shot at impressing me. I just hope that she could take the stress so late in the game. But like I said, she's a warrior!

Quitekeen said:

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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I agree with that.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a strong warranty, but ultimately, I'd rather have a good product than a good warranty.

In some businesses, a long warranty is a sign of a weak product, not a strong one. The long warranty exists solely to reassure the doubtful that the product is good.

When the product is ACTUALLY good, the offered warranty can be average; people buy based on reputation. A truly good product doesn't need a long warranty because it works well out of the box (ie good quality control) and is designed to spec so it won't fail under ordinary use. With products like that, the warranty basically just acts as a backup in case a bad unit slips by quality control or has a defective part that fails quickly.

Further, a warranty is only useful while the company in question is around to honor it. Bluntly, its probably a pretty safe bet that not all of the LED companies around today will still be doing business in 3-4 years. Even with the best intentions, your extended warranty may be worthless if your product fails in a few years.

Lastly, at best a warranty can get you a replacement product. But you're still out the hassle of not having your light when you need it (perhaps in the middle of a grow), and waiting for that replacement to arrive. Further, if the fundamental design is weak, then your "free" replacement is likely to be just as weak.

Put differently, even if Ford is willing to fix your Pinto every time it breaks at no charge to you, do you really want to be taking it to the shop every single week?

quite, valid and agreed.

one point however, when you are running accounts for a business, offering a warranty is counted towards loss. The longer the warranty offered, the more risk the company is taking by being willing to honor it (we must assume they intend to be in business long enough to honor the warranty they offer). It actually doesnt work out for a company to offer an extended warranty when they dont make a product that can hold up to it. When companies offer long warranties for crap products the warranty is almost always a payed for optional extra, as is the case with Dell desktops, cell phones etc.

Dell's are crap lol... anyways.. this pic was taken right now.. this light is proving to be good to grow small colas as it's really brought down the space between nodes, look at the growth only from 2 days.


Does it seem fake?

maps84 said:

Dell's are crap lol...

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too true! its such a shame what they have done to Alienware's reputation. Its like if McDonalds bought Charlie Trotters, or Ramsay's in London. Actually it was researching the downfall of Alienware that has made me decide to build my own desktop... there's a pattern emerging here, grow my own bud, make my own cpu. F*ck made in China... MADE IN MY HOUSE!

and no it doesnt seem fake? why would you ask that?

Hey another update about the blackstar 100w. I used a watt meter and its only 39w. Growth has been phenomenal but it can only cover a very small area so I'm kind of pissed. It's a great little light but for the price dont even look at it step up to the 135w but knowing lighthouse its probably not to many more watts...

Lighthouse hydro contacted me back and I'm trading it in for the 135w overall its a great light just not the coverage area I wanted. Here's the official word:

"First thing if note is the change in the LED's over the past 3 years. 3 years ago (I still have the lights in the shop) most lights including the Lighthouse 90w were using 1w chips and pulling about 90 actual watts. That same light today pulls about 60w but puts out about 15% more PAR and lumens than it did back then. This is true of all of the chipsets.

The 2w chipset is currently only used in the 100w and 600w lights. All others have moved to the 3w chipset.


1w chips are currently pulling about .64w per chip
2w chips are pulling about .82w per chip
3w chips are pulling about 1.6-1.8w per chip


PAR output is actually most efficient in the 2w chips. Thus the light you have is actually one of the most efficient in terms of power consumed to light output. You are welcome to return the light and put the money spent towards something else. HOWEVER, if you get a 50 you will see a reduction of both light output and power draw. If you go with the 135 you will see a jump in both.. but that's because of the 3w chip. "

So for the pc grower this would be a great light but I want the increased output of the 135w. These guys have been great to deal with and that little 39w blackstar has vegged my mother plant like cfls never could but it seems like it is only for 1 small plant.

LEDs VEG amazing, especially the blackstar mix. We'll see about flower production. One of my plants got really sick when starting to grow buds, she's been treated with H2o2 and superthrive, does any other LED user had this issue? where a perfectly healthy plant wilted completely in a 12 hour window?

psychedelic son said:

Lighthouse hydro contacted me back and I'm trading it in for the 135w overall its a great light just not the coverage area I wanted. Here's the official word:

"First thing if note is the change in the LED's over the past 3 years. 3 years ago (I still have the lights in the shop) most lights including the Lighthouse 90w were using 1w chips and pulling about 90 actual watts. That same light today pulls about 60w but puts out about 15% more PAR and lumens than it did back then. This is true of all of the chipsets.

The 2w chipset is currently only used in the 100w and 600w lights. All others have moved to the 3w chipset.


1w chips are currently pulling about .64w per chip
2w chips are pulling about .82w per chip
3w chips are pulling about 1.6-1.8w per chip


PAR output is actually most efficient in the 2w chips. Thus the light you have is actually one of the most efficient in terms of power consumed to light output. You are welcome to return the light and put the money spent towards something else. HOWEVER, if you get a 50 you will see a reduction of both light output and power draw. If you go with the 135 you will see a jump in both.. but that's because of the 3w chip. "

So for the pc grower this would be a great light but I want the increased output of the 135w. These guys have been great to deal with and that little 39w blackstar has vegged my mother plant like cfls never could but it seems like it is only for 1 small plant.

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Your 3W values are low. Most companies run 3W LED's at 2W.

Beefbisquit said:

Your 3W values are low. Most companies run 3W LED's at 2W.

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I thought the same but im wondering if it runs just a bit cooler that way, i recieved my two bs 240 s today and i notice its heatsinks are somewhat less than others...

richinweed said:

I thought the same but im wondering if it runs just a bit cooler that way, i recieved my two bs 240 s today and i notice its heatsinks are somewhat less than others...

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Its not just lighthouse hydro, ALL manufacturers have to run a lower value than the led is actually rated at, we all know electrical circuits and electronics can't be pushed at 100 percent or shit happens.

hows the 100 watt one? the bs 500 with UV ships with a piece of shit power cord, just got mine today and plugged it in, moved the light a bit and it broke connection (shitty chinese power cord) , I changed the power cord out with a more quality one and its good to go.

The 100w is to small for me at 39w its only enough for 1 small mother plant I won't even try to flower with it. The plant that is under it looks insane though it's about 3x bushier than the cfl plants. I think for veg its great but I wanted at least 60w actual draw. I think I'm going to trade in for 240w.

psychedelic son said:

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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Hey, howd you manage to get a discount?