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sun Kevins long term review of the Sun Blaze 4ft 8 bulb

KevinH

KevinH

OK I picked this up to for 200.00 It is the Sun Blaze 48 4 foot 8 bulb. Nice heavy 16 ga power lead it has 2 rocker on/off switch's, Each operates 4 of the 8 lights Covers 4 trays or 22.5x47x2.5. It comes packed really well And is surprisingly light weight. This is a long term review and is also the first review i have done of this type. My main reason I want to do this is because every one i found for this light is on some weed growing site. But its a T5 and 90% of us here use a T5. My reason for picking was because of that reason. Also I am pretty much copying Spankyscolts starter set up. I will get photos up here tonight until then I have a glog Kevins late start.
 
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The light with 8 of 8 on..
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light with 4 of 4 on..
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I've got the exact same light and it works great!  I've got another one that I use just for my (and the wifes) seedlings.  I'm thinking about moving to LED for the seedlings and adding those 8 bulbs to the other 8, making 80,000 lumens.  
 
Those two, coupled with Orca grow film walls, should fix any "lighting deadspots" I may have.
 
Look forward to your long term review.
 
Yea tomorrow I need to build a stand for it. Right now I have it propped on 2 box's. 2 inch PVC should hold it.
 
But yea it is keeping soil temps up and is covering them way better then the light's I have that on top of my domes. They worked don't get me wrong but this is a much better investment.
 
So far the only thing I can say is use a small fan to stay on top of temps. The small fan will also help with stronger plants.
 
Ok built a pic stand and added a fan. Temps under the light where over 100 most the day. Now the grow table is in the garage and it was a 90 deg. Day.
 
Ok. Going to make some more adjustments. II am going to move the plants off the stand to lower the temps on the planets.
 
KevinH said:
Yea tomorrow I need to build a stand for it. Right now I have it propped on 2 box's. 2 inch PVC should hold it.
 
But yea it is keeping soil temps up and is covering them way better then the light's I have that on top of my domes. They worked don't get me wrong but this is a much better investment.
 
So far the only thing I can say is use a small fan to stay on top of temps. The small fan will also help with stronger plants.
Click to expand...
 
I made my lighting stand from a moveable clothing rack.  Too the cross bars apart and extended them with 1" EMT piping, out to 5 feet.  Then the vertical pieces, I separated the pieces and extended them to 6 feet tall.  It's extremely solid to the points that I can do pull ups on the bar.  The clothes rack was 20 bucks on craigslist.
 
So far I haver zero complaints this is the first time I have started super hots and or used a light. My main problem is the ambient temperature in my garage. I did some checking and the light is not that hot. So I am leaving the door open so as to get some AC to the garage all night.

So with that said is there a burn in time with grow lights?

What would folks like to know about this light?
I will do my best to get the answers you may want. But so far this is a light I will recommend to anyone.
 
Ok folks I want to add that it seems the temp coming off my light have went down. I have there for raised the plants closer to the light. They have so far responded well. Think I might add a pair of 2 bulb 4 foot lights. So over all I would say Sun Blaze makes a great light, I only wish I had more options for how the 4 lights turn off with thd rocker switchs and that they where on the opposite side of the power coard.
 
Sounds like success is being made with your lights.  I'm about a weekend away from spinning my system up with 1 x Reaper and 1 x Choco Moruga.  Just waiting for them to finish their third set of true leaves.
 
How are the temps between your plants and the lights?  I'm seeing around 86-88 with a fan blowing under the light, keeping fresh air circulating.  I've got the light about 3 inchs from the tops of my plants.  A little bit of sun tan, but no burn and not wilting.
 
All in all, I love these lights.  BUT!, I'm starting to look into LED lights...
 
Yea with temps I'm seeing 90 to 100. I moved mine closer as well. They seem to be liking it so far. I am going to re pot here soon into 1 gal. Pots and new GF OF/HF mix 50/50
 
OK Going to post some more pics to night but here is a quick up date. I have had this light going for months now on a 18/6 cycle with zero problems. In fact even with just the 8 6500k lights i am getting flower buds on the plants still under it. I did pick up a set of the ratchet adjuster's to make things simple. Odds are in the coming year I will pick up a 2nd light and be set for a while.
 
Thanks for the review. I have been looking at different options for my seed starting.  I have been using cfl's.
 
These are all different verities of hots that have been under t5 ho 8 bulb enviro grows with 6500 bulbs for 1 month. So you can compare to the sun blaze. Fixtures cost me $260cad and came with the bulbs. They also have the 2 rocker switch. I have a few plants that have buds starting on them.
 
Hey Kevin,

I have the 4ft 4-bulb version. This is its third year. I've only had one bulb burn out on me so far, my only complaint is that this year I took it back out of the package and somehow the rocker switch came apart. Took me a while to find the spring and little plastic bit to put it back on.

Kind of annoying such an expensive piece of equipment can be taken down by something so trivial, I'm of the opinion it would have been better without the switch. I have mine hooked up to a timer so I never use it anyway.
 
Remember they have a 5 year warranty. Yea other then the bulb issues its a great light. I have 2 now I bought 1 that was 4 years old for 100.00 So I basically have a 4 foot 8 bulb.
 
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