5+ Best HID Grow Lights For Growing Weed

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HID grow lights have been present for a long time even before the emergence of some of the modern light fixtures such as LEDs and Plasma grow light. For numerous years, they have been the most reliable choice a cannabis grower may choose for their farm. HID bulbs contain two different types of gas that light up when you turn them on. These two gases are Metal Halide (MH) and High-Pressure Sodium (HPS). With a high number of HID manufacturers releasing their product to the market, it has become even harder to get a top-quality HID grow light. Due to increased competition in bringing products to the market, it impacts the quality of lamps flowing into the market.

HID Grow Light

Numerous brands are registering massive failures with bulbs blowing up within the first few weeks of use. Still, the top HID grow lights in the market can deliver excellent results. If you are looking for an HID grow lamp to use on your farm, then you should select one of those listed below.

Our Top Picks Best Hid Grow Lights

iPower 400 Watt HPS MH Digital Dimmable Grow Light System

iPower has dominated the horticultural industry for more than a decade as one of the leading grow light manufacturers. The iPower 400 Watt HPS MH Digital Dimmable Grow Light System provides your plants with the necessary light it requires to rise from the seedling stage till it starts to flower. It gives a flicker-free light of high intensity and a better quality spectrum. It comes with a wing reflector measuring 19 inches that support a light coverage of up to 4 foot by 4 foot. The reflector has a German aluminum texture that helps to maximize the amount of light fed to the plants. It also has a digital dimmable ballast that you can use to dim the amount of power output by 100 percent, 75 percent, and 50 percent increasing the efficiency of your grow light. IPower focuses their strength on improving the security of all their lighting devices to ensure that you will not have

When using the iPower HPS MH Digital Dimmable Grow Light System, you need to ensure that you have a working ventilation system. The lamp produces a lot of heat that would damage your plants if you do not have a way to control the internal grow room climate.

Pros 

  • The lamp provides your plants with a full spectrum light that is beneficial for plant growth
  • It eliminates the need to use different types of lights in your grow room
  • It comes with a hood and reflector that ensures light distributes well to your plants
  • Since it contains a dimmer, you can regulate the amount of light flowing to the plants
  • It saves you on cost since it is a fully comprehensive system. You can, therefore, start planting immediately
  • The materials that make up the light are of top quality
  • It comes with a long-lasting bulb that has low instances of failure

Cons 

  • It produces a lot of heat that would otherwise destroy your plants if you do not have a proper ventilation system

Hydroplanet™ 600W Digital Dimmable Ballast HPS MH System

If you are looking for versatility in the type of lighting that you use, then the Hydroplanet™ Digital Dimmable Ballast HPS MH System may offer just that. You can choose to use either the MH or the HPS lamps with the fixture. You may as well decide to use both types of lamps and covert from one to another with ease. Once you set your lighting cycle, the lights will continually stay on due to an inbuilt protection mechanism by the lighting system. The bulbs will give you a flicker-free light of 90,000 lumens, which is good enough to provide you with a healthy plant yield. Its 600 watts digital ballast can support both 120 volts and 240 volts. The kit as well contains a high quality reflector that helps to distribute the right amount of light to your plants. Alongside, the bulbs in the fixture are double-ended, providing your plants with the right amount of light.

Pros 

  • The grow light is ETL certified
  • It has a highly reflective surface that aids in uniform light distribution
  • It is easy to install
  • The light is highly effective and specially made for the flowering and fruiting stages of growth.
  • The lamp comes with a two-year warranty

Cons 

  • The grow light fixture is slightly heavy

iPower 1000 Watt HPS Digital Dimmable Ballast Grow Light System

Another iPower light to grace the list is the 1000W HPS digital dimmable Ballast Grow Light. The lighting fixture is an excellent alternative to an LED light. Similar to the 400W, it stands out due to its dimmable feature with options ranging from 50 percent, 75 percent, and 100 percent. The iPower 1000W can as well support a power input of 120 volts and 240 volts. You may control the amount of light to that of need by the plants using the dimming feature. It, however, produces a brighter light output of about 140,000 lumens. The light bulb in use can last for about 24,000 hours in continuous use without flickering or blacking out. After 5000 hours of use, the bulb will maintain a 90 percent brightness throughout. The lamp produces a full spectrum light that can support growth through all the growing stages of your weed plants. It is the next best thing to an LED light.

It is essential to have a sound ventilation system in your grow tent when operating the iPower 1000 Watt HPS Digital Dimmable Ballast Grow Light System. It produces heat that if you do not get rid of, it may burn your plants.

Pros 

  • The grow light has a long lifespan of 24,000 hours.
  • It provides your plants with a full spectrum light that can support all the stages of your cannabis weed growth.
  • The light it produces does not flicker
  • It comes with a reflector that helps to distribute heat to your plants
  • You can control the amount of light for your plants using the digital dimmable feature of the lamp.

Cons 

  • The lamp has some parts that may be difficult to replace once it damages
  • It is costlier than its HPS counterparts in the market

Yield Lab 600w High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) Digital HID Grow Light Bulb

If you want a grow light that will provide you more lumens that power it consumes, then you should get the Yield Lab 600w HPS Digital HID Grow Light Bulb. All the HID products by Yield Labs go through a UL and CE testing to ensure that they are safe for use in an indoor environment. You can get a yield growing fixture with a 400w, 600W and 1000W ballast depending on the size of your grow area. The 600W grow light can effectively cover an area ranging from 4ft by 4ft to 5ft by 5ft. The lamp can produce a vigorous light intensity of about 90,000 lumens made up of different light wavelengths comprising of the yellow, red, orange, and blue spectrum. The light it produces helps to increase the yields of your plants effortlessly. By using the Yield Grow Light Bulb, you will get a 20 percent increase in the amount of flowering than any other bulb in the market.

Pros 

  • The bulb has a high PAR efficiency
  • It can have a long lifespan of 24,000 hours.
  • The bulbs provide a light spectrum that supports dense vegetative growth together with the flowering stage.
  • The bulb has a higher blue spectrum production than any other in the market
  • It leads to an increase in the budding of your cannabis plants by 20 percent

Cons 

  • The bulbs produce a lot of heat. Therefore, you need a fan to control the heat in your grow room

Eye Hortilux HX66620 Super HPS Lamp

One other grow light that deserves plenty of mention is the Eye Hortilux HX66620 Super HPS Lamp. The 400W grow light is a product of one of the premium horticultural lighting brands that have been in the market for more than 20 years. Among its kind, the bulbs lead in the PAR and lumens that they produce according to the PPFDD. THE grow light leads to the development of bigger and fuller flowers with overall high yields. The bulbs are environmentally friendly, and you can dispose off them without the need to recycle. You should, however, carefully consider the laws of the area you reside in to prevent charges of pollution. You may find some differences between the Eye Hortilux HX66620 Super HPS Lamp and other HPS grow light. However, you should go for the Eye Hortilux HPS Lamp if you want a top-quality product.

Pros 

  • The grow light is especially helpful during the flowering phase of your cannabis plants
  • The grow light registers a high lumen and PAR value
  • The lamp is made of top quality products and delivers top quality results
  • The lamp is environmentally friendly and free from lead
  • The grow lamp comes with a one year warranty

Cons 

  • The bulb has a pretty high cost, mainly due to the replacement that you have to do after every 9 to 12 months.

What Should You Consider When Choosing An HID Bulb

When purchasing an HID grow light, there are several factors you should consider that affect your growing setup. By considering these matters, you can be sure of experiencing bigger and better yield during the harvesting period.

  • The type of ballast your grow light uses

Every HID grow light requires a ballast to operate. It is, therefore, essential to get the right ballast. But how do you tell if a ballast is good enough? You should consider factors such as bulb protection, its dimming abilities, and flexibility in power usage.

It is best to consider a digital ballast since it can run with different types of bulbs without consuming much electricity while still maintaining high light output.

  • Single-Ended or Double-Ended bulbs?

You can find HID grow lights as either double-ended or single-ended, with single-ended bulbs taking the form of incandescent light and using an arc tube to produce light. Double-ended bulbs, on the other hand, are similar to fluorescent tubes and are the most popular to cannabis growers. You should strive to get a double-ended bulb since they emit more light than single-ended bulbs. Instead of a vacuum, the bulbs have nitrogen that they use to produce more light.

  • What is the size of the coverage Area

The size of your growing area will determine the size of the HID grow lamp and the wattage to use. You can find various wattage levels of grow lights from 150W to 1000W. Each lap wattage has a distance of its reach, with the lowest having the lowest spread while the highest has the highest reach. The wattage of a grow light also determines the distance that you should hang your grow light above the plants. The higher the wattage, the higher the amount of heat the lamp provides. Therefore, you should place it a bit further from the plants to prevent any instances of burning.

Related Post:

LED vs. HID Grow Lights?

LED vs. HID GROW lights

HPS and MH bulbs have been around the market for more time than LED lamps due to their reliability in an indoor setting. The bulbs are bright, powerful, and inexpensive. However, LEDs have gone through various innovations over time and today provide similar results to HID bulbs while solving some of the problems facing the HID bulbs. With an LED lamp, you can get a full spectrum light that gets rid of the need to switch the bulbs you are using through the different stages of your cannabis plant growth. It produces an equal amount of heat to an HID while consuming less energy and running at relatively cooler temperatures. LED lights are therefore significantly superior that HID grow lights in its technicalities. However, you can choose to use either depending on the results you want to achieve.

Conclusion

The most challenging part of setting up an indoor grow room is selecting the light to use. The competition is not only in the different brands creating lights but the different types of lamps to use. However, one of the best ways to escape this confusion is by choosing a grow light by considering the phases of your plant growth. HID light bulbs can provide you with the best results once your cannabis plants start flowering. You can trust them to increase the amount of yield leading to better harvests.

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Bowden draws from over a decade of home growing experience as well as consulting for small-scale and hobbyist-level growers. He has written hundreds of articles, thought pieces, and tutorials about growing cannabis at home

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