2 New Models of the Maxibright Daylight LED Grow Lights Have Arrived
We make no secret of the fact that we love the 660w Maxibright Daylight LED grow light. It has a great spectrum, its highly efficient, and because of its design, it has a far superior footprint and a much more even spread of light than any traditional “block” type LED grow light can achieve.
The idea of spreading the LEDs out over a large area of the grow was inspired. When used in a 1.2m square tent, the plant growth and yield is just as good at the sides and in the corners as they are in the middle of the tent.
With the built-in dimmer, you don’t need to buy something separately to get that facility and that is a big bonus.
It’s only Achilles heel is that it is only really intended to be used in a 1.2m square grow tent.
Well, now they have made accommodations for growers using smaller tent sizes by releasing 2 new models. The design is slightly different. Instead of the layout of bars which fit over virtually the whole grow area the LEDs are mounted in either 2 or 3 squares on to the box containing the LED driver module. The 300w version is intended for use in 1m square tent and the 200w version is intended for a 0.8m square tent. They don’t quite spread right over the whole grow area, but they certainly achieve a much better spread than other LED grow lights in this region of the market.
The units utilise very efficient, top bin Lumled LEDs in white, deep red and far-red colours and the efficiency of the fixtures is 2.3 mols/Joule. They are passively cooled so there are no whirring fans. This method of cooling also eliminates the chance of a mechanical failure.
The units have a switch so you can set it to 1 of 5 power settings – 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%. That’s very useful if you want don’t need the fixture to run at full brightness and you want to reduce the power down. Because the units are very efficient at converting electricity to light instead of heat, they are unlikely to cause heat problems but on a scorching day you may like to give your plants a slightly easier time of it by turning down the power.
Most of the LEDs are white (87.6%). These provide lots of blue, as well as yellow, green and red. There is a myth that plants do not use green light. They do, and green light penetrates further down into the canopy. It is great for the overall health of a plant as it stimulates the production of certain healthful compounds as well as general photosynthesis.
The addition of some deep red LEDs (8.4%, 660nm) bolster the yields during the fruiting/flowering stage. The inclusion of far red LEDs (4%) stimulates an even stronger flowering response from the plant.
The resulting spectrum is as follows:
The footprint of the 200w is very suitable for a 0.6m x 0.6m square tent:
And the footprint of the 300w unit is suitable for a 0.8m x 0.8m square tent:
For best results, the 200w unit should be hung as low as 25cm above the plants while the 300w can be hung as low as 45cm. However, never start them off this low. Start at double those distanced and reduce the height above the canopy gradually over a few days. Alternatively, use the above distances but start off with the units dimmed and increase the brightness every 2-3 days or so.
These units really do deliver superb value for money at their price points. You will not be disappointed!
