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Growers need grow lights of different sizes and wattages based on the type of plants they are growing and also on the number of plants that they are growing. This 450W grow light from ViparSpectra is one of the best LED grow lights that one can get hold of if they are planning on growing marijuana. There are a large number of benefits that this grow light provides to the growers who use them – including but not limited to low power consumption and a high yield per square foot result for your plants.
ViparSpectra makes grow lights of different wattages and each of these variants has something unique to offer. As to why we chose the 450W LED grow light from the company over any other variant, you’ll see that this fits in the perfect sweet spot in the price-quality matrix. ViparSpectra has been around the markets for quite a long time and is a brand known for its effective and efficient grow lights. The company also makes lighting equipment for aquariums as well as other non-lighting equipment too.
Over the course of this article, we shall be taking a detailed look at the ViparSpectra 450W LED grow light and discuss in detail each of the aspects of this device which make it one of the best in the markets. We shall take a close look at the pros and cons of this grow light, as well as talk about everything else you need to know before you purchase it. We even go into the depths of who this grow light is meant for. In addition to all this, we also provide you with a quick insight into the brand ViparSpectra so that you know exactly what you are buying!
However, before we jump into ViparSpectra and it’s grow light, we must also address the most basic topic at hand: what is a grow light and why plants need it. This is something that needs to be understood first before talking about this grow light and reviewing it. We shall provide you with a quick primer on that for your reference but you can go through our website to get a better idea on grow lights in general.
What are Grow Lights? Why Do Marijuana Plants Need Them?
Grow lights are important for plants because they substitute the natural light of the sun. Plants require sunlight for various purposes, but the most important of these is that it helps them prepare ‘food’. This plant food comes in the form of sugars (like molasses) and carbohydrates that are present in the plant body and the sunlight helps break them down and circulate to all the parts.
Furthermore, sunlight also helps the cannabis plants in various other ways. Lights of different wavelengths play a different role in the process of growing the plant. Marijuana plants require red lights to help them during the blooming phase while they need blue light to help them during the seedling and vegetative phase. Lights also play a role in determining the flavour, smell and potency of the plant in many cases. However, when you grow your plants indoors, there’s no natural light to provide to your plants. This is where you need to make use of grow lights.
Grow lights, when growing your plants indoors, basically help substitute the natural light of the sun. Using a full-spectrum grow light will help you achieve the best results as that will be as close to artificially recreating natural lighting as you can get. Another thing about grow lights that you need to keep in mind is that you can not only use them indoors but outdoors as well. Outdoor grow lights are useful to extend lighting hours. If the sunset is at 7 pm, you can start using these lights from 5:30 or 6 pm to ensure that a stable quantity of light is provided to your plant. This is especially useful during the vegging and seedling phases where plants need between 18 to 22 hours of light.
Another simple reason that growers make use of grow lights is that everyone wants a high return on their investment. Using a grow light ensures optimal condition for your plants because you can tweak the intensity, the distance, and the time of the light to ensure that your plants are getting the best possible care. In the end, you get a high yield per square foot, which is basically getting more buds.
All of these reasons put together explain why grow lights are so important to the growers and why they need to be chosen wisely. Talking of making wise decisions while choosing your grow light, let us now take a look at brand ViparSpectra – which is the manufacturer of the ViparSpectra 450W LED grow light that we shall soon be reviewing.
Brand Review: ViparSpectra
In 2021, ViparSpectra entered its 10th year of providing the growers with lighting solutions. With a decade’s worth of experience behind them, the company is indeed one of the most trusted brands out there. One of the key reasons behind their success has been the fact that they have constantly been innovating their offerings. Their grow lights are always of the latest, modern standards and help provide the best quality of lighting to their customers.
Using these grow lights has proven to be quite effective and users have noticed a significant boost in the quality of their plants – and that they have been getting better flowers and higher yields. Besides that, another major advantage of using these grow lights is that of the top-quality service that you get from ViparSpectra. The company honors their warranty and is generally very good when it comes to customer care, unlike many other names in the markets, people who make use of their products have always been satisfied with the after-sales service. All in all this makes ViparSpectra one of the best LED grow light manufacturers in the world!
ViparSpectra 450W LED Grow Light
ViparSpectra 450W LED Grow Light Review:
Let us now cut straight to the chase – to take a look at the main topic at hand for which you have come here. Let us take a look at each of the features of this grow light in detail and understand why it is so special and why so many growers are attracted to it. This is an in-depth review, and we are going to follow it up with a final rating as well as a look at the pros and cons of this grow light before providing the final verdict:
1. Design and Durability
When we talk about the design and durability of this grow light, we notice that it is quite a generic-looking grow light – but one which gets the job done! This grow light comes with quite a tough and long-lasting design. It features vents on all sides for the heat to escape. On one of the sides, the ViparSpectra branding along with two switches is present – one for the VEG mode of lighting and another for the BLOOM mode of lighting (one each for the vegging as well as flowering phase).
The main power port is located on the back, where there’s another port which supports daisy chaining, but more on that later. There are four hoops which are used to hang the grow light to the grow tent or the grow room. Vents for fans are also present, as two fans work to keep the grow light cool (we shall discuss this in detail in the heat dissipation section). In the front, you can notice that there are three panels of lighting which have a glass in front of them – a total of 90LEDs which work together to provide the plants with a bright lighting experience.
2. Lighting Spectrum
As we’ve mentioned above, there are 90 LEDs which are fixed on to three panels in this grow light. Each of these operates at 5W to provide you a total output of 450W, which is quite impressive. Besides that, you get a full-spectrum lighting experience for your plants, which benefits them in both – the vegging phase as well as the flowering phase. This is an optimal lighting spectrum which will help you yield bigger flowers.
Besides that, the grow light has separate switches for each mode of lighting, which allows you to create ideal lighting scenarios for your plants based on which stage of growth they are in. Most growers keep both lights on at the same time but tweak them up based on their convenience. The light goes from 440nm to 730nm and from 3000K to 7500K, which is quite an impressive spectrum.
3. Power Consumption
While this is a 450W grow light, many rookie growers assume it will consume 450W of power as well. That’s not true at all. This grow light provides an output of 450W while consuming only 200W of power (with a variation of 3%). The light consumes less than half the power of the output it provides and is quite energy efficient. Another great feature that you get here is that of daisy-chaining. It means you do not have to plug this grow light to individual sockets but you can instead plug lights on to each other – however, we’d suggest you do not plug in anything more than 600W on a daisy chain to stay safe.
Talking about power consumption, another great thing here is that this is a UL-certified grow light, making it quite safe to use. It gives you a peace of mind as well that you are safe from any electric mishaps! Power-wise, this device ranks pretty high though we’d have appreciated it, even more, had the electricity consumption been even lower.
4. Heat Dissipation
Heat dissipation is quite efficient when it comes to this grow light from ViparSpectra. There are two fans located on the back of this grow light which allows all the heat to escape. These fans operate at a high speed and one of the best things about them is how silent they are when it comes to operations! Most grow lights actually have noisy fans which disturb the growers quite a bit. These are much easier on your ears! There are aluminum cooling sinks on this grow light which make the heat escaping the light much easier.
5. Coverage Offered
So the coverage offered by this grow light is one area where it faces some criticism, which we totally agree with too. The light covers about 2.5ft x 2.5ft during the vegging phase, which is quite small by itself, and when you lower it during the flowering stage, it gets reduced to 2 x 2 ft, which is even smaller. This is so small that even a personal-scale grower might need to make use of some extra lighting here and one light may not suffice. This makes it ideal as a booster light but in order to use it as the primary source of lighting you might need 2 to 4 of them to cover a decent area.
6. Brand Value and Credibility
In terms of brand value, credibility and trustworthiness, there’s no one even close to ViparSpectra! The company is an absolute gem of a name in the markets which has been around for over a decade. ViparSpectra is an expert in making grow lights and has won the confidence of millions of growers all over the world. You can trust this brand with your eyes wide shut. The product will last you for long and you are unlikely to face any problems. Even in case of something going wrong, you can trust the company’s excellent after-sales service to help you with it.
7. Cost, Warranty, and Delivery
Viparspetra has mastered the price-quality equation. You get a great service quality at a very affordable price. Cost has always been an attractive factor for most growers who buy ViparSpectra lights. The delivery here is done by Amazon, which is very quick as well as quite safe in these times of an ongoing global pandemic. Lastly, the warranty period is that of three years – one which most growers would be quite happy with! Given how well ViparSpectra fulfills its warranty promises, you’re really in safe hands!
Final Rating:
We would rate this grow light four out of five stars. This rating could have been even higher, but the lack of coverage area deducts quite a bit of points. We are particularly happy with the kind of light that we get from the grow light. Besides that, the heat dissipation technology is on-point and it ensures that the noise is minimal too as that can be a major turn-off for many growers. In addition to all this, the 3 year warranty period is also pretty good – and lastly, the price is extremely lucrative!
Pros and Cons of ViparSpectra 450W LED Grow Light:
Let us now take a detailed look at the pros and cons of this 450W grow light from ViparSpectra:
Pros
- Seperate switches for VEG and BLOOM mode
- Supports daisy chaining
- Power consumption is minimal
- Affordable price point
- Excellent heat dissipation
- 3-year warranty period
- Wide spectrum of lighting
Cons
- Coverage too small for most growers
Final Verdict on ViparSpectra 450W LED Grow Light: Is it the right light for you?
If you look at this grow light, there’s just so much to gain. For the price it comes in at, you can’t get a better product. While some growers rightly point out that it covers a very small area, but if you are planning to use it as a backup grow light, or as an additional lighting source rather than using it as the ONLY lighting source, this is a great choice for you in that case. All in all, it is the right grow light for personal scale growers if they wish to use multiple units, or for those who are looking for an extra source of light to give their plants a boost during the flowering phase.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About LED Grow Lights
Here are the answers to some of the most common and frequently asked questions about grow lights. We have put them together at one place so that you can get a better perspective about them. If you have any more questions, ask us in the comments or drop us a mail and we shall update this section by answering them!
1. Is it legal to use grow lights to grow weed?
Yes, it is completely legal to make use of this grow light and the light itself poses no legal threat. However, growing weed might be something that can be a little problematic, especially if you are a resident of an area where it is illegal to do so. While most states in the US have now legalized the consumption as well as growing of weed, there are some states where the law against marijuana is still strictly enforced. Besides that, in some states, you are not allowed to grow beyond a certain limit so make sure you’re following that rule as well.
2. Can I use this grow light outdoors?
Yes! It’s a very common myth that these lights cannot be used outdoors. These are actually great lights for outdoor growers as they can help you provide light to the lower edges of the plant as well as to extend the daylight hours. If you are living in a region where light hours have been reduced due to winters, you might want to use these lights to provide an extra punch of lighting to your plants.
3. Can my plants grow without this grow light?
Yes, your plants can grow without a grow light if you choose to grow them outdoors. However, if you are growing them indoors then you might have a hard time without a grow light. Plants need light to prepare food – and even if your seedlings are growing, the health will be severely impacted and the plants will droop away eventually and will be stunted.
4. How many grow lights do I need to use?
The number of grow lights that you have to use depends upon the area that your plants are growing in. For a larger area, you will need to provide a higher number of plants – and for a smaller area, you will need a lesser number of lights. You must know two factors – first off, how much area do your plants cover, and secondly, can you grow light cover the area in which your plants are growing. For that, look up the flowering area coverage and you will get an accurate coverage figure.
5. Where can I buy the best grow lights?
The best place to buy grow lights is on Amazon’s website where you get the largest collection of grow lights in one place. Other than that, you can walk into any gardening store or multi-purpose store and you can find quite a few grow lights there as well. There are many LED light specialized retail outlets where you can get these lights too.
6. Does ViparSpectra honor its warranty?
Yes, ViparSpectra is one of the best and the most trusted names in the markets which is known for honoring their warranty. The company offers a long warranty period for the growers and ensures that they are getting the right kind of after-sales support that they deserve. Most growers who have used their products can totally attest to this fact that ViparSpectra is an amazing brand, especially in terms of fulfilling these warranty-related commitments.
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Conclusion
The ViparSpectra 450W LED grow light is one of the best LED grow lights out there for growers of all sorts. This particularly solves the needs of those growers who find the 300W grow light too small for their needs and the 600W grow light too big. This light is quite effective in terms of its functionalities and delivers exactly what it promises to! A great grow light, with a decent coverage and one that almost guarantees a higher yield per square foot for the growers. What more could you want! For any more questions about this grow light, send us a mail or let us know in the comments section below and we shall be happy to help you with it! Till then…
…Happy Growing! 🙂
A rotating team of writers and editors dedicated to providing reliable information for the readers of American Promise. We’re all passionate about cannabis and actively engaged in this “budding” industry.
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