You can not be more inexperience than I am in these matters, so obviously take this with a grain of salt.
Been wanting some HID lights but never wanted the cash outlay. Not enjoying our long, cold winter, I started looking around again and came across Gotham Hydroponics with some incredibly cheap grow light kits.
I could be wrong but the main concern with these cheap kits is the ballast
so I did a google search and it seemed that everyone who actually owned the Revolt ballast liked it with the ones saying spend more being the ones who did not own them.
Decided to give it a shot and for about $300, including shipping, I bought 2 "kits", 1 400 watt MH and HPS and 1 250 watt MH and HPS. Each kit included a reflector, the MH and HPS bulbs, ratchet pulleys, a mechanical timer and of course the Revolt digital ballasts.
Now I have only been using them for a week, plus have no other experience, but at least for the moment I could not be happier.
The ballast at least seem to be very high quality cosmetically and build wise. I obviously can't speak to the longevity yet.
There is actually one down side. Looking into HID lights, of course the greatest concern is not only the heat from the bulbs, but also from the ballasts. I built a room in my garage, which is heated separately with a gas furnace, and I insulated it well thinking the heat from the ballasts would actually help keep the room a bit warmer. I am guessing all digital ballasts are the same, but forget about the he Revolt ballast adding heat to the room as it basically just gets warm to touch. I would move it outside the grow room if it started getting around 80 or so, but it would be easy to keep cool if you couldn't.
The 400 watt has a built in fan and "dimmer" control and the 250 watt does not have neither.
Only time will tell, but my hopes are much higher now that I have them as I do think they are going to last (famous last words), so for now, I am thinking what a fantastic deal........
I was going to put together a whole bunch of cfl's as my grow lights, but for $300 I got 2 complete kits and much better lighting. Love those ratchet hangars too....I am going to get more of those for other purposes.
If my opinion changes, I will post it, but for now, if you are looking for HID lighting, personally I would trot over to Gotham.
AND......now they do give u a 20% discount if you leave a good review in a forum and then send them a link to it. For obvious reasons, I am not sending them a link to this, so in case you are wondering, it has nothing to do with the 20% discount.......is just I always see everyone asking about these inexpensive lights so thought I would share my experience........
Been wanting some HID lights but never wanted the cash outlay. Not enjoying our long, cold winter, I started looking around again and came across Gotham Hydroponics with some incredibly cheap grow light kits.
I could be wrong but the main concern with these cheap kits is the ballast
so I did a google search and it seemed that everyone who actually owned the Revolt ballast liked it with the ones saying spend more being the ones who did not own them.
Decided to give it a shot and for about $300, including shipping, I bought 2 "kits", 1 400 watt MH and HPS and 1 250 watt MH and HPS. Each kit included a reflector, the MH and HPS bulbs, ratchet pulleys, a mechanical timer and of course the Revolt digital ballasts.
Now I have only been using them for a week, plus have no other experience, but at least for the moment I could not be happier.
The ballast at least seem to be very high quality cosmetically and build wise. I obviously can't speak to the longevity yet.
There is actually one down side. Looking into HID lights, of course the greatest concern is not only the heat from the bulbs, but also from the ballasts. I built a room in my garage, which is heated separately with a gas furnace, and I insulated it well thinking the heat from the ballasts would actually help keep the room a bit warmer. I am guessing all digital ballasts are the same, but forget about the he Revolt ballast adding heat to the room as it basically just gets warm to touch. I would move it outside the grow room if it started getting around 80 or so, but it would be easy to keep cool if you couldn't.
The 400 watt has a built in fan and "dimmer" control and the 250 watt does not have neither.
Only time will tell, but my hopes are much higher now that I have them as I do think they are going to last (famous last words), so for now, I am thinking what a fantastic deal........
I was going to put together a whole bunch of cfl's as my grow lights, but for $300 I got 2 complete kits and much better lighting. Love those ratchet hangars too....I am going to get more of those for other purposes.
If my opinion changes, I will post it, but for now, if you are looking for HID lighting, personally I would trot over to Gotham.
AND......now they do give u a 20% discount if you leave a good review in a forum and then send them a link to it. For obvious reasons, I am not sending them a link to this, so in case you are wondering, it has nothing to do with the 20% discount.......is just I always see everyone asking about these inexpensive lights so thought I would share my experience........
