Photontek LED lights

Looking at the 1000w and 600w fixtures. Has anyone ran them yet or had experience with photontek as a company?

I need to switch to LED to reduce my heat load, and to just get with the times. My local shop has these and they seem legit. Just hoping for some feedback.

Links for reference/info

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I think the gavita 1700 gives better coverage around the edges, looking at its ppfd chart compared to their 600. And it’s just about the same price. I paid 1100 for my gavita and other people on here have talked about seeing it for $1000.

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I can get a deal on these though…we get that small town family discount. Puts the 600 at about 850. I’ll compare to the gavita.

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I can get you the gavita for under 1000 I believe. Let me call tomorrow

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Photontek is the US brand of Lumatek, so I’m sure it’s a quality light. Check out a YouTube channel called Migro. The guy does testing and reviews on a few different Photontek lights as well as the Lumatek Zeus 600w. Might help you with your decision. I think they would be great lights to upgrade to especially if price is right.

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Mammoth got the 10 Bar refurbs for $899. Only a few lights better, and they cost twice the price.

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I saw that they were the US lumatek…which was kinda why I was leaning this way on a new light.

@vortal have you seen the mammoths or have any experience with them?

I run mammoth. Got mine at $899 on 4/20 love em.

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I ran one of those demo 600W in a room with mixed brands. That one by far was the worst one, you are better off getting Gavita\Luxx\Grower’s Choice based on my personal experience. I think some places are slanging the Gavitas ~$850 out the door but you got the find a place that will hook you up at 5% above cost or lower.

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If heat load is your main driver for the switch, check out Agnetix. They’re water cooler and extremely efficient.

This is in reference to the photontek 600?

You ran an early demo light in a room with a bunch of different brands and didn’t like how the flowers looked under this one light huh?

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Yes, the 600. Was also a monocrop, so it was pretty easy to see what lights performed best. In the same room I had 4x Grower’s Choice 680s, 1x Gavita 1700e, 1x Photontek 600, 1x Vanquish 650W, 1x Phantom Photo-Bio (8 total). The development under the 600 was the worst.

Each light was responsible for a 4x4 FastFit Tray. Not trying to sell other brands, just personal observation. This was my second run with these same exact lights, both times the Photontek was the worst producing (weight, bag appeal, etc.). The controller to dim the light is detached hanging from the unit, so that is a positive thing compared to the others.

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Thank you. That explanation was very helpful.

I would just like to avoid gavita if possible.

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Yeah no prob, I replaced the 1000W Phantom DE I originally had with Gavita’s. My new spot got set up with all Luxx 645’s, but they just dropped a new 860w https://www.luxxlighting.com/860xr. Depending on your budget, I would go Grower’s Choice (beware they might degrade after 2+ years) or Luxx. The Photo-Bio from Phantom was pretty solid aswell, not sure the price though.

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@vortal have you seen the 10 bar mammoths with 8 regular bars and two uv bars that can be controlled independently?

That kinda seems awesome.

I use the 10 bars with all par bars and then I run a bunch of their UV fixtures seperate. I also swear by UV. I have used UV since the best option was lizard bulbs, switched to kessil H380’s and now I’m on their(mammoth) UV bars.

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I think with the skint n dint option I’ll have to splurge for those uv bars. I’m going to start with 1 uv bar per panel and see how they do. I like the idea of independent uv control.

Thank you for helping me with my decision

You really want to keep your UV dense. You should do half a room with 1 bar on each side of the 10 Bar. You will be extremely happy with UV promise.

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I won a 600w photontek led in a giveaway and it works amazingly, I use it as my momma light and 50% is all I need to keep em happy

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To update with what I actually bought…

I bought these… because of how they interface with the trolmaster and that the far red is controlled independently, and their warranty seems to be quite good. Plus they were 15% off which made their price more palatable. Never thought I’d buy one of these style lights over a bar light…but here I am.

https://www.thinkgrowled.com/#/modelipro

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