With the explosion of hydroponics, indoor growing, and the LED grow light industry, it’s no surprise that there are a ton of companies in the market right now.
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A few years ago, LEDs were all the rage and companies were touting incredible yields with low energy costs…
It wasn’t completely false, but the marketing claims were far greater than the lights actually produced in practice.
These days, the LED grow light industry has matured from both a product and marketing perspective. One popular player in the industry is Viparspectra, a Chinese company whose lights are popular for beginner growers.
In this article, I’m going to take a look at their product line and give my Viparspectra review from top to bottom. We’ll look at:
- The features they offerThe build quality of their lightsAll of the specificationsTheir warranty policy
…and much more. Let’s get into it.
Quick Take
This is a long and meaty review piece, so if you just want the quick take on Viparspectra as a brand, here it is:
- Reflector-Series 450wReflector-Series 600wDimmable Series PAR450wDimmable Series PAR600w
Company Background
Viparspectra is a brand owned by the Chinese company Shenzhen Bailuo Technology Co., Ltd. They’re based in Guangdong, China and are bringing LED directly to market themselves instead of going through a distributor or middleman.
As far as the quality of their lights, their stated aim is, “…to stay somewhere in the middle with well designed, well-made fixtures, at reasonable prices and no unnecessary extras.”
What Type of LEDs Do They Use?
Viparspectra uses a combination of Bridgelux and Epileds, both well-known LED manufacturers that make quality chips. They use chips in the following spectrum ranges:
- Infrared – 730nm660nm630nm615nm595nm580nm475nm460nm445nm440nm3000K7500K
This is a full spectrum LED array, meaning it’s possible to grow most plants through their entire lifecycle without having to switch lights (a problem you run into when growing with only metal halide or high pressure sodium lights).
More importantly, all Viparspectra lights come with a Vegetative and Bloom switch, meaning you can turn off a specific spectral range of the lights to manipulate the spectrum that you’re giving your plants.
Further Resources:
- Indoor Grow Lights OverviewHow Do Plants Use Light?
Viparspectra’s Warranty
Whenever you buy a LED grow light, it’s important to check the warranty that the company offers. I can’t tell you how many times I hear about people buying a light and it dies on them in the first month of operation. To protect against that, the better companies offer a warranty that covers any initial light failures. The best companies offer even more protection than that. The quality of a light manufacturer’s warranty is a direct signal as to how much they believe in the product that they’re making and selling to you.
Here is the standard warranty that Viparspectra provides, found on all of its products:
We offer three years warranty for all of our products purchased against manufacturing defects, from the date of purchase. If you need warranty assistance, please contact us as soon as possible.
The warranty does not cover damage due to high moisture levels, water, power surges, improper hanging/mounting, improper use, dust build-up or user modifications.
For buyers in the USA, if any lights stop working within 30 days, you can choose:
(A) Exchange. We will email you a pre-paid return label, please ship the light back to our USA warranty center. A replacement will be sent to you for free as soon as we receive the defective light.
(B) Money back. We will email you a pre-paid return label, please ship the light back to our USA warranty center. You will get your money back as soon as we receive the defective light.
(C) Repairing.We can send parts free of charge immediately if you’d like to repair simple defect. Or we will email you a pre-paid return label to bring light back, then ship back to you after we repair it. All for free.
- For buyers outside of the USA, if any lights stop working within 30 days, you can choose:
(A) Exchange. Please ship the light back to our warehouse, buyer pays return shipping. A replacement will be sent to you for free as soon as we receive the defective light.
(B) Money back. Please ship the light back to our warehouse, buyer pays return shipping. You will get your money back as soon as we receive the defective light.
(C) Repairing. We can send parts free of charge immediately if you’d like to repair simple defect.
If a light is sent in with damage that is not covered under warranty, we may still be able to perform warranty service, however that is at our discretion and repairs may bear a cost which will be assessed prior to repairing the light.
Our company reserve the interpretation right of this warranty structure. If you have any questions about our warranty policy, please contact us.
Product Line
Reflector-Series
True to its name, the Reflector-Series is a line of lights from Viparspectra that offer built-in reflectors to help direct all of the light down towards your plant canopy instead of scattering it around your grow tent or grow room.
The most popular lights in the Reflector-Series are the 450w and the 600w models, mostly due to the fact that most growers are in the mid-range as far as the size of their grow goes. Larger growers will often buy a few 450w or 600w models and run them instead of opting for the 900w or 1200w model.
Save for the wattage difference, there isn’t a whole lot of difference between the different models in the Reflector-Series. All of them come with the following:
- Vegetative and Bloom switches4.72″ fansAluminum cooling heat sinks3 year warranty + 30 day breakage replace / repair / refund policy
Reflector-Series 300w
Reflector-Series 450w LED
Reflector-Series 600w LED
Reflector-Series 900w LED
Reflector-Series 1200w LED
Dimmable Series
The Dimmable Series from Viparspectra offers what its name suggests as a main feature: the ability to dim the output of the light on three channels:
- RedWhiteBlue
Here’s what it looks like on the light:
This features gives you an incredible amount of control on the spectral output of these lights. If you’re an experienced grower and know exactly what spectrum you want to deliver your plants throughout their growth cycle, you may want to opt for the Dimmable Series over the Reflector-Series.
Because the only major difference in these lights is their wattages, here’s what every Dimmable Series light includes:
- 3.2″ front-fans0.8″ aluminum heat sinksYOYO light hangers6′ power cord
Dimmable Series PAR450 LED
Dimmable Series PAR600 LED
Dimmable Series PAR700 LED
Dimmable Series PAR1200 LED
Final Take
If you want to grow with LEDs and you’re a beginner to intermediate grower, Viparspectra lights are a solid choice. They’ve got a solid 3-year warranty and 30-day refund / replace / repair policy, offer a relatively full-spectrum LED array on their lights, and come with a host of features that make them solid picks in the mid-range.
