Hortilux FS UV T5's

Discussion in 'GK Product Reviews' started by nippie, Nov 4, 2016.

  1. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

    So I stopped at the hydro store to get a couple items and was looking at the t5s since mine need to be replaced and hortilux rep walked in.

    Anyways after going back and forth for a moment I agreed to try them since as most of you know i am a huge hortilux fan.

    I bulked at the initial price but a deal was struck up between shop and all involved. Instead of running their full line of veg bulbs which is three separate bulb (two diff colors and two full spectrum UV bulbs) I agreed to pick up Full Spec UV bulbs.

    I'm going to put two in one t5 (4 bulb) unit and keep one unit as standard t5s. If they work as advertised i plan on switching the others out for the colors for a full test.

    He said I should see a noticeable difference in the next 7-10 days.

    We shall see if these bulbs are worth the hype.

    http://www.eyehortilux.com/products/power-veg.aspx
     
  2. ResinRubber

    ResinRubber Civilly disobedient/Mod

    And how much did they want to nick you for them?
     
  3. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

    I think they run about $24.95 for 2' and $29.95 for 4'

    my store gives me 10% off automatically but since rep was there, and i balked even after sales pitch about price we did come to an agreement.

    I have the reps card and told him I'd let him know my honest opinion as I would others

    I'll get some pictures going on this thread also but I'm thinking if I don't see a drastic diference it would be hard pressed to buy the other 2 bulbs for a full test (420 and 460 veg bulbs)

    I would be very interested in adding this to my flower LED carts though, the extra UV would be nice to see if it adds frost since it's not that cheap reptile light bullshit but an actual reputable company.

    I think the hardest thing about this test is to make sure I put plants back to their same spots so I can tell which ones were under UV and which under standard ( there's 2, 2' 4 bulb units in the tent and only one unit is getting 2 UV bulbs.....god I hope that makes sense, a lot of numbers lol)
     
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  4. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

    the lights don't seem nearly as bright, bulb farthest in the back and then second from front are the hortilux


    [​IMG]


    .

    i just transferred some rooted clones that are near the rear under UV bulbs and also kept 4 in under the front light to see how they compare to each other

    just cut some things back, lets see how they respond but back of the tent if what we are going to compare to the front.

    I'm thinking we should all of them stop the drooping from watering and trimming, but i'm think the rear leaves should be praising the light with the next several days. I know the super blue hortilux does this in beg, but this is supposed to replace it for those who don't need HID in veg from what the rep was saying


    [​IMG]
     
  5. ResinRubber

    ResinRubber Civilly disobedient/Mod

    From what I've read of other folks using UV flouros for clones, the growth pattern isn't really that different. The benefit seems to be the leaf structure itself is more robust. The leaves are thicker and more leathery than clones vegged under regular T5's. Glad we're going to get some confirmation first hand on GK.
     
  6. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

  7. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

    observations are it wasn't an overnight things at all.

    leaves do seem darker green which is hard to show in the picture, but those under the hortilux did seem to grow closer nodes and become bushier than those under normal veg t5s

    I'll get some pix of the clones up in a few, but it's not anything as noticable with them, except slight color difference. The plants do seem a little happier

    i'm on the fence about replacing the other bulbs at the moment with the 420 and 460 bulbs. I may come spring when i replace all the t5s or if i get a hair up my ass next time at the store.

    they do seem to work, but are they worth the money?? I'm not exactly sure, but Im only a 1.5 weeks into this so we shall see
     
  8. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

    alrighty, i'm going to say they are worth the investment.

    took longer than expected to see results from them but you can totally tell a difference
     
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  9. SuperMoChombo

    SuperMoChombo Well-Known Member

    I'm a hortilux fan for the 600/1000W HPS bulb as sort of an industry standard (although I use ushio) I read the info on these bulbs you are testing on their website. Can somebody point out the info on PAR that I am missing?

    $30 per 4' t5 bulb?
     
  10. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

    I'm sure it's somewhere, but you prob won't like what you see if you are basing off solely off par. I believe I either read on their site that they had lower part output than some other bulbs.

    I gotta find it, but it's because of uv vs just light I believe they said, par only measures visible or something, I d9nt know for sure. they do seem a tad dimmer but only testing full spectrum uv bulbs at the moment not the full set up.

    But they like only hortilux does, makes their light better....more usable by the plants.

    I personally have not tried the 420 460 combo yet. but I do plan on purchasing them when I replace all the bulbs come spring.

    I got the line from hortilux not store rep about give a week and this and that...same old line most any rep will say to sell product. after a few weeks, you can see massive difference, and really they look healthier. that's not a measurable term, might now be worth extra 100 but I prob will use them from now on.

    The price does seem high, but frankly it's in line when you compare their hps pricing (double the cheap bulbs). I like em, they do work well....price is always something we bitch about, but I will absolutely say it's not snake oil......they're not magic either, but if yourequired dialed in, they do give you that little push if you know what I'm saying
     
  11. ResinRubber

    ResinRubber Civilly disobedient/Mod

    Here's a crash primer. Fucking hate HTG, but the vid is pretty good.

     
    nippie likes this.
  12. SuperMoChombo

    SuperMoChombo Well-Known Member

    PAR is very important and to not even measure it is remiss to me.

    The local shop here carries the cheapos at $8 per 4' bulb, and a bunch of others with prices like Hortilux is asking. I have always bought the cheapos. It costs me $70 to replace the bulbs in one of my 4' 8 bulb veg lights. To do it with Hortilix would be $240. So for more than triple the cost do I get more than triple the yield?

    Any chance the improvement you saw was just due to new bulbs? How sure are you that the improvement you see is MORE improvement than one would expect from a new set of your regular bulbs?

    I know Hortilux makes good products, and I'm not bashing them at all, I'm just saying that there is a tendency in the cultivation industry to go for gimmicks, and companies are all too happy to cash in on that. For me I get the exact results I want with the cheap bulbs. I don't want or need any more growth in veg. I'm pushing my space limits in my time allottment as is.

    One final thought - being able to reliably tie an increase in yield to veg bulbs would be hard because you'd have to eliminate all the other factors that effect yield after veg as variables. Impossible to do without strict controls. Bigger plants at flip do not always mean more bud.

    Marketing hype is almost as much of a turn off to me as listening to a politician talk, or a preacher preach. I could barely read through the website without gobbling anti-nausea medication.
     
  13. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

    I didn't say par wasn't important, just it's not the only measurement. and they do provide par measurement somewhere, but like I said on the full spectrum uv bulbs you're going to find its lowers than traditional full spectrum bulbs because you have some of the energy emitted as uv not visible light.

    Does that change when you add 420 and 460, not sure, but 8m guessing it does and prob makes par levels up for the fs bulbs that lack it somewhat.

    And triple yield is absolutely unreasonable, it's like even with hps bulbs, if you spend the extra 50 on hortilux and you get 10-20 more than the bulb paid for itself many many times over.

    Is there a chance it was new bulbs? I guess it's possible, it's possible that the perlite mixture was better, it's possible that the rear of the tent is more reflective, it's possibleasy many many things. but I switched both fixtures with new bulbs, but one fixture got 2 uv bulbs and 2 normal bulbs.

    As far as veg to flower flip, I haven't the slightest clue if it will make a difference except it does seem to keep nodes stacked better which I'm hoping to see a difference in flower. but to say what happens in veg doesn't carry over to flower is almost nonsense.

    Gimmicks, it's doubtful. I think all of all long time boys have tried in one way shape or another to add uv to our grows. reptile lights are gimmicks,but there's an absolute proven link to uv and plants. I highly doubt hortilux would spend the money or time, or even risk their name creating such a product because they're not competing with others at the moment in the market. hell it takes balls of steel to ask triplease for your product if it's a fad, nor do I think anyone would say hortilux isn't the leader in the lighting industry.

    Are they hyping and marketing the product, yeap....trying to recoup the development costs.

    Hortilux makes great products for the most part, but I wouldn't buy their gold ballasts because they are shit and I've told them their gold ballast is shit. their platinum ballasts are awesome, but not the gold. coincidence that they are no longer making them and I think the shitty roll out of that line actually delayed the t5s so thr same exact thing didn't happen again.

    But I would say it's like adding co2 to your grow. if you ain't dialed in to begin with you'll probably won't even notice results. it's like when you see growers chains their tales switching nutes every grow and wondering why they can't dial in

    And again, a replacement for their Super blue, these are not. those still crush these t5s as far as veg in large area.
     

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