Small.
Weak diodes.
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You probably found this page by searching for a review of the 180W Lighthouse Hydro Flowering grow light sold from Gotham Hydroponics; you may have tried a lot of different lights in the past. The fact is, the more research you do on indoor growing plants, the more confused you can get. Well, we are here to tell you about the 180W Lighthouse Hydro BlackStar Flowering LED. In this review, we will outline the pros and cons of using said grow light, so hopefully you can compare this light to other types of lights and make a more informed decision.
Overview of the 180W Lighthouse Hydro BlackStar Grow Light
The company that makes these lights, Lighthouse Hydro, is a quality manufacturer of LED grow lights. They are the manufacturer and Gotham Hydroponics is the distributor. The Blackstar Series is one of the best-selling series on the LED grow market. So you can be assured that you are buying a quality product. The 180W Lighthouse Hydro BlackStar Flowering Grow Light is rated for 50,000 hours of usage. Depending on how much you use these grow lights, they can last anywhere from 5 to 10 years…that’s years, not months. The price tag may appear pretty hefty at around $300, but over 5 years of use it’s still a great investment.
Warranty
The 180W Lighthouse Hydro BlackStar Grow Lights come with a one-year manufacturer’s warranty, so if anything happens to the product, you can send it back to them and get a new product sent right to your door. Having a warranty is a must when you are dealing with LED technology.
Avoiding Confusion the Flowering Vs High-Output Series
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like all the naming conventions being used by the LED grow companies. They are making it very hard to understand the different products. Gotham Hydroponics has a 180 W Blackstar flowering light and a 180 W Blackstar High-Output (vegetation) light. This review is about the flowering light. If you are purchasing this light from Amazon, then make sure you get the one you want. Here are some screen shots to help you distinguish.
The Blackstar series was developed using customer reviews and recommendations, so it is definitely a light geared towards growers. It comes with 2w and 3w LEDs (three watt LEDs are slowly becoming the industry standard).
180W Lighthouse Hydro BlackStar Grow Light vs Other Lights
If you haven’t used this brand of LED light before, then you may noticed a humming sound coming from your grow lights. That’s not necessarily a good thing. These BlackStar lights put off very little sound. It’s a silent but deadly setup for growing any type of plant indoors. Along with the quality of the product, and the performance, this light has a lot of upside to it versus traditional HID systems.
Best Place to Buy the 180W Lighthouse Hydro (Flowering Edition)
You can go directly to Gotham Hydroponics website to try and buy this light. However, you probably won’t find it there. Gotham is finding that most of its customers prefer to work through Amazon or EBay so it sells its products there. I personally think the best place to buy the light is Amazon. When you shop at Amazon your purchases are protected and you can usually find the cheapest prices. The best price I’ve seen for Blackstar 180 W flowering edition is $219 at Amazon.
Heat Dissipation and Dimensions
The 180 Watt Blackstar has three cooling fans on the back to help keep the diodes cool (this prolongs the life of the LED light). You can see the cooling fans in the picture below. Note that this light does not put out nearly as much heat as a traditional HID light.
The dimensions of this product are as follows: 12 inches long and 8.5 inches wide.
Conclusions
Our overall grade of this light is good. The price tag is pretty low for an LED light, and it’s a good light for flowering. Gotham even claims that it induces flowering sooner because of the far red spectrum. I would say it’s only average in the germination and vegetation stages (this is to be expected because the light is designed for flowering). If you are looking for a low-priced LED light, then this is a good option.
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