You'll know after you have spent a year buying shit from aliexpress/alibaba
Some sellers go to great lengths to have positive reviews. I bought plenty things that I'm happy with, but teknik is not wrong.
If all the buyers of some of these lights were forced to review it 1.5 years later, you might get a different picture. Some will turn out to be fine, others will have had parts fail much sooner than they should have. It's not just a trope, I have a chinese board where diodes failed after 10 months. They also are skilled at making failing HID bulbs, which I hope have not burned down anything yet
Perhaps Tekniks comment on the comments was a little exxagarrated. There are videos advising on how to avoid fake reviewed products on alibaba, and there is no shortage of dishonest reviews. This does not mean that alibaba would have any interest in stopping real reviews. The final product is neither a comment section where everything is true, or a comment section where everything is false, but something in-between.
There are also multiple categories of fake reviews with the worst being generated by bots, and the best being generated by real humans.
Anyway, to your original question, having a 10% lower bin diode should affect you in a few different ways. First, you would have to use 10% more input power to get the same output. Secondly the heat will increase by as much as the light decreased. Thirdly your electricity bill will be that much higher.
When designing a system, different builders face different types of pressures and challenges. When I got my first set of LEDs I simply calculated watts/$ and went for the cheapest setup. By my third round I was in a position where ordering 100 strips is not any kind of problem.
Generally I think HLG made a reputation using top bin diodes, that allows them to charge premium. Right now it would seem you could get 200lm/w EB's at dirt cheap, or 220lm/w nichias for prices similar to HLG's...
We are right at the moment where HLG's special relationship with Samsung is a burden, rather then benefit. When Samsung puts out their next gen, HLG might have a premium product again, but the efficiency that built them reputation last year is hardly impressive right now.
And I guess that goes double for kingbrite. Samsungs rep came from when they were most efficient. Now they are not.
But it seems you already have the lights, so there is hardly any use wondering if there is something 10-20% more efficient out there.
It's all about how you use the lights. I still combine HPS with LED in the colder periods, get crazy swelling, and still dense nugs. I don't compare the HPS efficiency to the LEDs, but to the heating I would need without it.
I have many beginner growing friends who combine QB's, chinese blurples, etc... I feel they learn a lot in the process, one actually just won the public vote in a large cannabis cup... with his second crop.
When I started I spent a while looking at the alibaba offerings. At the time I decided to go with Vestas and TRP drivers that only gave me 130lm/w minus another 12% to the drivers. My logic was that I want to learn and understand, and I can do that best if I use gear that has a calculable output. Turns out I also got to explore higher CRI lighting at the same time.
The way I saw it I probably had a 90% chance to success using the alibaba gear, and a real chance for higher yields. But there always was that small chance that something would go wrong, and loosing a few hundred up front would have destroyed my project. Getting things started on a sure footing was the most important thing, and had that benefit of everything being calculable.
Now as a LED enthusiast I could actually order lights from alibaba, have experience and brand LEDs to compare them to, but I guess they are most attractive as a beginner light, for those on a tight budget.
We should probably make an 'alternatives to alibaba' thread to explore the cheapest of the cheap builds for those who are financially challenged. Hard to believe they can be much less then the cheapest builds that could be made from digikey.
The cheapest build right now is bridgelux gen3, no need to go to Alibaba, better to have proper warranty on drivers and no BS from China back yard operators. I am in China all the time I know how it works there, I do discourage Alibaba because it is so easy to get burnt by the suppliers but 80% of the time you will get a good deal that works fine but uses more electricity, it won't be as good as buying from someone with a good reputation such as HLG or Cutter but that's the risk you take. I have been involved in led lighting a very long time so I know the problems that occur and the ways many companies make products cheaper, it's really easy to make a product cheaper but in the end it costs more for the end user and that's what alot seem to miss from the equation. And one last time Alibaba reviews are bullshit, don't trust them. I don't care how fast a review is uploaded they are still filtered.
So I've got an HPS, CMH, COB\blurple, and a KINGBRITE QB with lm301h diodes all in the same tent
This is my first grow and im trying to educate myself as much as I can my first time
OK, I'm going to ask the question that no-one else has:
How on earth did you end up with a HPS, a CMH, COB and a bunch of fake QBs in one tent if you have never grown before? Where they donated to you by other growers?
I mean, I'm genuinely intrigued.
P.S. Have you tried putting a bad review up on Alibubba? I wonder how long they stay up . . . if they even make it up in the first place.
HLG can claim that they get the best leds but is there any proof of it ? Kingbrite on ali is already in the business and they have many happy customers, even if you get not the best bins, nobody can check it but even then the price of HLG is more than 200% of the price of kingbrite, if you light losses is maybe 20%, put one board more and even then you made a good profit on light lux for the value. But this is only a statement if and if so you can discuss about this for a long time.
I know not all the sellers on ali have a good reputation on the forums but kingbrite is one of the best sellers over there.
I bought 2 setups from Alibaba and they both are working great! One in my flowering tent is producing some nice big frosty buds, better than the hps I had in there, at less wattage. No complaints at all
