Swapping to led's. Some advice would be good

Ok first of all thanks for checking this out. I have been growing with HID lights for about 5 years and now feel its the right time to swap over.
The ones I like are the penatrator x2's my local hydro shop stocks them and they look good. I am not falling for there ball shit hype tho,
at present I have a 720w plasma in the middle and 4 600w HPSon the four corners. My plan is to swap out the soduims for LED's.
ive been looking at the Chinese made x2 and they look the same except for a "copper core heat sink" is that helpfully? Worth twice/thrice the amount?
has anyone bought from any of the Chinese companys?
How did you get on?
pay advice would be great

720 watt plasma??? LG??..............swapping out 2400watts of HPS is gonna cost BIG $$$$/ budget?

If they use enough heatsink surface are or active cooling to keep the LEDs running at 50-60c that is all that matters no expensive copper needed. Better off that your hard earned money goes toward higher efficiency LEDs. Cree XTE and Luxeon ES are top notch. Osram golden dragons are decent. Anything less than that and you are better off sticking to HPS IMHO.

If they do not specify the bin of the LEDs you can assume 15% radiometric efficiency which is 1/3 what it should be.

Make sure you're picking something with a decent spectrum (not just red and blue), and check on warranty. That's one of my big qualms with buying stuff straight from China... generally the spectrum has no research behind it, and cheap parts and no warranty are a very, very bad combination. There's a lot of information on these, and other, forums, if you dig.

mamakush said:

Make sure you're picking something with a decent spectrum (not just red and blue), and check on warranty. That's one of my big qualms with buying stuff straight from China... generally the spectrum has no research behind it, and cheap parts and no warranty are a very, very bad combination. There's a lot of information on these, and other, forums, if you dig.

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Absolutely agree, the LED market is so competitive but what pees me off is when someone finds a good one that works and reviews it on here with a grow journal etc.. they get slagged as advertising it as some sort of secret sales person, like me, i bought a light many months ago, from a UK based company, no waiting time for me at all for parts, all good technology inside and excellent customer service, but the main thing is they work brilliantly, for my area and needs so i reviewed it, and bang, got accused of advertising. Even when i posted pics of my grow using them, madness pure madness when all we are trying to is filter out the fake from the genuine.

eBay has penetrator X2 series without the name for sale for ALOT less and its protected by ebay instead of sending a western union payment to a scammer!! I use them and they are amazing.

Mixwholesale on ebay has 135 ufos 7 band. Work well for me. But. Get the 270 watt worth the extra 60 bucks

Mixwholesale on ebay has 135 ufos 7 band. Work well for me. But. Get the 270 watt worth the extra 60 bucks

LEDHydroponics.co.uk check them out, the supplier is a lovely bloke, open to deals especially when it comes to grow journals. Can ship to USA in 7 days. any more info, message me! Got a grow journal on at mo using one of his lights (from many) ill be testing the new mixed array helios range aswell soon. Keep watching this space.