T5 Grow Lights 4 Ft 8 Bulbs Fixture with 6500K Fluorescent HO Bulbs, T5 Grow Lights for Indoor Plants, UL Listed, 15 ft Power Cord with Hanger

I have two grow rooms in my basement - one for flats of veggies and smaller plants and one for larger floor plants that include large herb plants and larger veggies such as tomatoes and bell peppers. In this review, I will compare the Vivosun 4-foot 8-lamp, which I have used for a couple of years for my 5-foot shelves to this Hydro Planet 4-foot 8-lamp fixture that I an using in the second grow room for floor plants.Both at excellent T5HO grow lights that supply excellent lighting for superior plant growth. Where they are similar is that both fixtures: 1 - Are the same size - 2' x 4'. 2 - Included long, heavy duty electrical cords - Hydroplanet is 15' and Vivosun is 8'. 3 - Use accordion shaped reflective material under the tubes for better distribution of lighting. 4 - Include 8 T5HO 6500 K florescent tubes. 5 - Include 2 switches so that half the lights can be shut off. 6 - Can be daisy-chained 7 - Include hangers to hang the lights 8- Can be used vertically or horizontallyWhere these plant lights differ is that Hydroplanet includes pulleys to hang the lights and enable height adjustment and Vivosun does not. For the Vivosun fixture, the pulleys must be bought separately if you need them. The attached holder on the Hydroplanet light is a heavy triangular metal piece that will last a long time and can be easily removed and replaced for a different configuration. The Vivosun lights have a coated wire hanger that is looped at the top for hanging. Over time, the coating on the wire frays. Since the wire is set into the top of the fixture, the fixture would have to be taken apart if the wire breaks. I have included pictures to show the holders on both fixtures and also one of an older Vivosun holder that has frayed. In addition the electrical cord on the Hydroplanet fixture is 7' longer than that on the Vivosun fixture. Although the holder on the HydroPlanet light is stronger, it would have to be replaced if used on shelves to allow more grow room for plants. I have been using the Vivosun lights on my shelves for over 4 years. The plastic covering on the hanging wires has frayed on some of them, but, as yet, none of them has broken.In summary, I very much like both grow lights, but prefer the Vivosun fixture for my grow shelves because the holder is flexible. I can get this fixture much closer to the upper shelf by pulling it through the shelf above it. By doing this there is less space wasted in height adjustment. For my floor plants, I prefer the Hydroplanet fixtures because the holder is much more sturdy.I also want to mention the use of LED tubes for these fixtures vs. using the provided T5HO tubes provided. Although both sellers will tell you that you can't use LED tubes, this is not entirely true. You just need to use T5 LED tubes that work with a ballast. Sunlite makes LED tubes made for T5 fixtures that are also 6500 K and are also sold on Amazon. The T5HO tubes use 54 watts of power vs. 25 watts used by the LED tubes. If you have only one fixture, this may not impact your electric bill by much, but for someone that has a number of these fixtures, like me, using LED tubes is a huge savings on electricity. In addition, the T5HO tube give off a lot of heat. Within a couple of minutes of turning them on, they are too hot to touch. The LED tubes emit very little heat and can be placed closer to plants without burning them. They also keep your grow room cooler. I also tested PAR readings of the T5HO tubes vs. the readings of the LED tubes. At a distance of 12 inches, the PAR readings of the LED lights were about 100 nm higher than the T5HO tubes. This means the plants have more usable light by using the LED tubes.UPDATE 6/26/20:I now have 4 of these fixtures and have decided to reduce the star rating from 5 to 4 since Hydroplanet seems to have a problem with quality control. The last 3 of these fixtures I received have at least 2-3 dents in the reflective material above the tubes. Although this doesn't affect the quality of the lighting, considering the cost of these fixtures I believe quality control should be much better than it is.I hope this review was helpful for you.

Shipping got held up a long time. But it made it nicely packaged and the bulbs were inside a hard tube with cardboard spacers and soft caps on tube. The reflector has a protective film to keep it shiny. Both switches worked as they should. Be careful how you hold the light because the reflector will bend trying to support the weight of the unit. Still pretty strong. Can't really go wrong with a fluorescent grow light

Packaging was absolutely immaculate. I felt bad opening it up. Came in a second larger box that had packing materials. The box that contained the light was packed very well. No damage to unit.The light itself has really great reflectors and were clean. I am using T5HO ATI salt water fish tank bulbs. The fixture lit them up perfectly. The hanging kit is easy and very functional. Actually was surprised how easy this was to hang. I didn't get frustrated and didn't break a sweat, ha.Fixture has only been on for a day now. I'll report back in a few months with any changes. But at the moment I could not be more happy.Note: If you are using T5 bulbs for a reef system just buy this fixture. No need to spend $1000 on a crazy ATI T5 fixture. This has an on and an off, and honestly that's all you need. Being able to dim and program is just a gimmick. Buy a $15 digital timer and you're set.

I took a risk with this purchase since I would normally purchase items such as this from a dedicated retail outlet, which may cost more for nearly the same thing but you are guaranteed better quality and customer service. However, I received this light fixture on time and even though the exterior packaging had some puncture damages on delivery I could not hear anything broken or rattling inside so I accepted delivery.Set up took very little time and fitting the eight bulbs was easy however it pays to insert and twist the bulbs into place by gently twisting the bulb at each end with finger and thumb into their locking position.This lamp is heavy! Do not trust the rope ratchet set which is included with the fixture. They are plastic internal ratchets and the clips are simply tied on to the rope not braced in any way, with the weight of this lamp I would be always nervous wondering if the ratchet would fail and drop the lights onto my precious ones below. I had the foresight to buy an Apollo ratchet rope set which have metal ratchets inside and used them to hang the fixture but even then I have included the inferior set as a backup.This lamp runs hot. You will need good fan ventilation and humidity control in your grow space, this morning, the lamps had been on for approx 5 hours after installing and I noticed my humidity was over 90% with water collecting on leaves that were touching each other, simply making sure that better airflow around that plant is my priority.So to sum up, I really do like this fixture so far, it is wide and gives awesome coverage in my 4x4 square tent, make sure you wear polarized sun glasses when being in your grow space when this lamp is on! Never!!!! Look directly at it when operating. These lights would make great vertical hanging fixtures for side lighting alongside an C.M.H. System or MH / HPS systemSo far so good, if this lamp continues to function as well as it is doing now, I would certainly buy another unit.

Plants grown under these lights were very happy, green and lush.

Shipped and arrived quickly, was packaged well. Bulbs were difficult to install. If you get this, make sure to install bulbs before hanging fixture. The whole thing feels pretty cool to the touch, even after running all 8 bulbs for 72+ hours, though I do notice some heat comes from the bulbs. Working under them you start to sweat pretty quickly. I have a fan pointed directly at bulbs so they can be closer to seedlings. Seedlings are growing short and sturdy, not reaching for light--I have all 8 bulbs on @ 5-6" from growth tips with no problems and great results.The light is awkward to hang by yourself, try to get help with it. I dislike the powder cord's location, but the length is great. I understand why it is where it is (on the corner), but it does sometimes influence the balance of the light. I attached a small level to the light to make accurate adjustments easier in the hopes to maintain even light distribution.I've recently seen these exact lights in nurseries, many of them hung quite far above the plants, which seemed very healthy and happy. It gave me some measure of confidence seeing the light I use at home used in a professional setting.The way the reflectors are shaped maximizes the vertical penetration of every individual T5 bulb, but does sacrifice some of the angular penetration of adjacent bulbs. I think the reflectors might be 60 degrees, so it's quite a layered spotlight effect. Would be effective at growing larger plants, like up to 5' would thrive under this. Anything 6' or taller you might start getting some die-back on lower branches that get no light.Anyway, I like it. Pretty good. Kind of annoying that you can't actually make all 8/8 bulbs face the same direction... There is tiny black printing on the bulb and I wanted that facing in, towards the fixture, for every bulb, but could only get 6/8 that way. The other 2 sockets, however they worked, made it impossible to put the bulb in with the text facing up. I spent like an hour on this, seriously it can't be done.Oh, also, one more problem with the light. It hangs from some triangular-shaped, galvanized steel wires, bent to slip into two slots of the light's frame on each end. Well, these triangular galvanized steel wires slide back and forth pretty easy, so it's entirely possible for you to mishandle these while moving the light and for them to slip out and your light come falling down. But that's only a possibility if you're holding the light BY the galvanized steel hangers and it then tilts to one side. So just hold the light by the frame whenever adjusting or moving it. Or use a zapstrap around the bottom outside of the triangle as a cinch, to keep them in their holes.So yeah, just the finnicky stuff with the cord, the the bulb direction, and the wire hangars it comes with is why it's 4 stars. I'd give 4 and 1/2 if I could. Because the light is powerful and affordable, lightweight and cool. It's very desirable in a garden and will have use in mine, even as I expand and upgrade to better lights--this one will still be excellent for seeds, clones, and vegetative growth. Also, as a Canadian on the PNW Coast, it was very hard to find any light fixture with affordable shipping on either globalsources, aliexpress, ebay, or amazon (.coms and .cas included). Looking at $ cost in CAD, this light consumes more watts and has a larger footprint than any other non-DIY grow light in it's price range. Simply put, for one single light, this will grow you the most for the least. Except if you're going to grow microgreens and quick short crops like that--then you'd get more out of a bunch of individual 2-bulb 4' T5 fixtures and work on a vertical setup imo. One of those 6' tall, 5-shelf chrome plated wire metal ones or something.

Not happy! Send wrong item. Supposed to be Hydro planet, got Solar flare Chinese lights. No hanging ropes. Will not buy again. No special reflectors!

La moitié des lumière ne fonctionnent plus après seulement 10mois d'utilisation. Je ne le recommande pas.