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Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light – Item of the Day

The Survival Podcast Posted on by

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Note – This is an encore item and one I am bringing around yet again for a few reasons.  First we are hitting the time of the year to start plants.  For a lot of the country the time to start peppers, tomatoes, etc. is about Valentines day.  That is only a week away, (crazy I know) so get the stuff set up now or next thing you know it will be March.  Second is the price has dropped a bit since the last time, these lights are now only 28 bucks with free shipping.  Third is simply the value.  These are not the best plant lights in the world, what they are is damn good for how cheap they are.  They are the second highest selling item by volume on TspAz.com and I have yet to get a single complaint.  Additionally today’s show is about, you guessed it, starting plants.

I am actually going to keep looking for a better value in lights, something that works better for the same money or works as good for less, but I have not found such a light yet.  These are great for starting plants in winter for spring, just get them very close to your plants, have a plan to raise them a bit as the plants grow.  For more tips tune in to today’s podcast later today.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light.

To grow well plants need full spectrum lighting and as LED technology has advanced it has become the go to choice of professionals in the indoor farming market.  Not only does it grow plants with greater vigor than florescent lighting it has a massive cost savings in electrical use and LEDs last a long longer so the longer equipment life cycle further drives down total cost.

Still the cost of quality LED grow lights has been quite high and it has held back the small time and hobby gardener for quite a while.  Recently some low cost lights have come along and worked okay but were made so cheaply that they would often fail in 90-180 days for many users.  And with that any savings was gone.

Over the past two years a company called Kingbo began producing some smaller LED grow lights and developed a good reputation with them, but they were two small to be useful to me for starting flats of seeds.  When they came out with the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light I was pretty happy but figured I would wait a while and let others try it out and see what kind of reputation it had after some use by the market.

It has now been around about 9 months and seems to have maintained a good reputation.  I also like that they offer a full 12 month warranty and a 30 day money back satisfaction guarantee.

The big thing I like is how well it works, see the video below of one youtuber who tested his on basil and watermelon.  When you hear me talk about healthy and stocky seedlings this is what I am talking about.  I like this light so much that I recently ordered 4 of them for my own seed starting this year.  I’ll be putting together my system and sharing it with you soon.

In any event if you are looking for a great grow light to start your own plants indoors, of do indoor farming with a grow tent, check this one out, at 29 dollars with 4.6 stars with over 160 reviews it is hard to beat on the current market.   I do expect over the years for this technology to continue to improve and become more affordable, but at present time the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light is my current top choice of what is available.  I have waited long enough to adopt LED grow light technology.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. Check out these videos testing testing the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light.

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Comments

Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light – Item of the Day — 31 Comments

  1. “Currently unavailable”
    Something tells me the seller has had a recent, unprecedented spike in demand….

    • Where are you, it may be a warehouse issue by region or something, I don’t have that much clout. I can still order more here. You may want to check again.

    • They went up 3 bucks in price! I have adjusted the post, they are still a good deal at 37, if they happen to go higher someone please let me know.

      Steve Harris explained this to me. Sellers get positions on Amazon due to volume of sales and reviews, if they run out of inventory at Amazon in the FBA program (fulfilled by Amazon) they lose everything and go to the bottom of the pile.

      So as inventory goes down they keep raising their price, when they only have one or two left they put the price so high no one will buy it. So that they have time to restock. Looking at my reports this post moved about 80, not a massive quantity but enough to start the process I guess.

    • okay I can’t guarantee this and I don’t know this company but this looks like the same product under a different name, even two of the photos are the same. A lot of stuff coming out of China is made in one place and sold under various names.

      http://amzn.to/2j1544R

      Comes with a 30 day money back guarantee and 12 month warranty.

      Has less reviews but the reviews seem pretty good. Hope this helps and hey it costs like 8 bucks less.

  4. Thanks for recommending this. If there is such a high demand for them among your listeners, maybe the company would be interested in joining the MSB?

    My main interest is not for starting seeds nor growing indoors year-round, but for getting tender plants through the winter. This has been a perennial challenge for me in western Pennsylvania, and as best I can tell lack of good light does seem to be the main issue when I bring them inside.

    • I did reach out, they responded but they are clearly out of Hong Kong and lets just say there is a BIG language barrier there.

    • Oh let me add, getting adult plants though winter YOU MIGHT want to scale up in power, or at least, get a reflector tent or build some sort of reflective “box”.

      I have not done it yet but I think just taking reflective insulation from Lowes, and wrapping it around a shelf or stand made of scrap wood, would work well.

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  5. I think you need to advise everyone that when using lights such as these, they need to think about their eyes. Plants love UV and IR; humans eyes do not. Don’t go cheap on protecting your eyes, they are worth too much, get a solid quality set of safety glasses. I would even go as far as to tell people to pay attention to the nanometer range they say they cover. You would be amazed at just how narrow a range certain glasses cover, and don’t actually cover the full UV or IR area.

    Make sure they are a wrap around model to avoid stray exposure. They make different types for color correcting your vision based on the light source (LED, Metal Halide, etc.). Make sure you have to right glasses for the right source. It is one thing to get solar light (your silly if you don’t use sunglasses, but that is just my opinion), it is completely different to have a UV-IR source right near your face.

    What makes these light dangerous to people is the fact that they don’t have any green in them. Yours eyes are most sensitive to green, it falls off pretty rapidly as you head to blue and red. So you can sit there and stare at these lights for a long time, that is bad when the main point of these lights is to pump UV and IR into plants. If they had some green, it would probably be so intense that you would not even be able to look at it but for a second or two.

    • http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/sixth/bsl.gif

      Sorry, I had to post that…

      I snagged two of these the last time they were posted, and they are pretty great! They are shockingly thin, and do not put out almost any heat. I was pretty surprised that even four T8 bulbs get hot enough to thermally burn tiny plant starts. I will definitely use some tin foil to make a reflector for this though to put more light back on the plants.

  6. Just in case you were wondering

    Question I Asked
    I just got one and 4 of the led’s do not light up and two more are very dim. this isn’t normal is it?

    Answer:
    Dear JM,
    Thanks for your question, the ratio have 4pcs IR and 2pcs UV they are very dim but they are very important for the plants growing, it is normal.
    Any question please let us know.
    Thanks and best regards,

  7. Yeah it should not be looked at. I was looking at it on edge and could clearly see the difference. They are in a pattern so it is either intentional (which it is) or it could be a fault in the way it is wired (which it isn’t).

  8. The last three of my seven finally came yesterday: All came through intact, all light right up.

    Now I’ve got to nail down the mechanics of stringing them up in my shelf unit. And: Has anyone figured out the ‘fan/ducting’ equation for the grow tents? I take it, airflow is frequently necessary, just not sure if it’s as ‘essential’ when sprouting seeds over the course of 60days or so. But I could see where hitting them with a steady breeze would produce stronger stems.

    There’s a lot of options out there, but opinoins vary. Seems there’s a fair amount of (sic) ‘roll-yer-own’ to some of these processes. 😛

    • I find that having a fan or air movement for at least some of the day helps keep down gnats, fungus and damping off issues. I don’t know that you need to have a constant breeze. I just open up my grow tent for a few hours and have the ceiling fan in that room run, and that seems to help significantly.

      • Thanks for the info.

        Since posting the above, I went with the Vivosun 48″x24″x60″ grow tent (reportedly a bit heavier built on the zippers – a fail point I gather), and added the lowest CFM 4″ duct fan I could find (TerraBloom Inline Fan 100 CFM, 4 Inch). I’ve got the fan suspended from the bsmt ceiling in a flexduct coming out of one of the vertical ‘chimney’ holes of the tent.

        I’ve got a 36x14x54″ 3-shelf wire unit inside, and plan to have three shelves of seed-trays going under the six lights. Upper pair of lights are swagged from the tent cross-braces, and only the bottom two shelves are in. Looks workable for now.

        Unfortunatey my basement runs fairly cool (58-60, MN winter), and even with six of the Kingbo’s fired up in the tent, I haven’t been able to get the temp up into the low-80s target I’d like for seed sprouting.

        I tried cutting down the inlet in the 4″ flex duct I’ve got drawing ambient air in (down to ~2″x2″), but the 100CFM fan still moves too much cold air in. Temps pretty much peak out around 69.

        So today I just got one of the cheesey/shortlived fan-speed reducers (Active Air ACSC Duct Fan Speed Adjuster). From the reviews, and the obvious identical nature across brands, it’s clear it’s cheap chinese crap. But I want to see how attenuating the fan can get the temp better balanced. I’m currently letting things warm up with the fan turned down a tad, to see where the temp settles out. If it works, but wears out in a few months, I’ll look at upgrading to a better speed mgmt solution.

        On the ‘wiggling the stems’ front: Once I’ve got the temp balanced, I’ve got an 8″ Holmes Lil’ Blizzard Oscillating fan I plan to get into play.

        I’ve got to get things squared up, as I want to get my broc & lettuce seeds started in there this week (9wks pre last frost ; zone 4b). Probably sow a few early tomatoes as well. 😀

  9. Prior to this post, I had bought 4 cheap ones on sale for $15 each at Amazon… in less than one month, they are all starting to fail. Just bought one of these. Hoping it will go the distance. I did a side by side test last year (I have one LED light that I paid like $60 for two years ago that is still going strong – big, heavy thing with a glass cover & a fan) and the plants under the LED were significantly sturdier.

  11. Bought 2, what is the coverage for starting seeds? How high up should they be placed? Thanks!

  12. Just bought one for my seed starts. It will be interesting to compare with the older style setup I have.

  13. What are you fencing Patrick Roehrman?  I have a 20 mile pulsing charger and four strands of electric for my chicken coop with a second charger on the shelf as a backup and that whole setup was less than $200.

     

    I have a timer turn the fence on at sundown and off at about 9:00 AM, but I have little kids that might still find a way to touch the fence, so I said if I’m going to use an electric fence I’d need to see what it feels like to touch it.  Is it like diving into a bath of lava or getting your hand smacked.  I’ll say it’s very painful, like getting smacked with a flexible metal ruler.  I haven’t been able to get myself to touch it again, but it’s not going to cause any damage to the kids.  I also have two cameras recording the fence, and when coyotes and raccoons touch it, they run for the hills.  So it’s a fantastically valuable tool.  It doesn’t kill them, but it definitely encourages them to never go there again.

  14. If I’m looking to do an indoor aquaponics system with a 100 gallon stock tank and some of the concrete mixing tray ebb and flow beds…what would you recommend for lights?  is one of these 45 W’s enough for each bed, maybe with a grow tent?  If not, looks like for the price of two of these, I could get a

    KINGBO 300W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum Dual Optical Lens-Series for Marijuana Indoor Plants Veg and Bloom?12-Bands 5W?
    I’m wondering if that would be sufficient, but it does look kind of small in terms of footprint.   Also, to protect my eyes and increase efficiency, I’m looking around for a good reflector/grow tent but can’t seem to find a style that would fit easily around this style ebb/flow bed.  anyone have thoughts?
    thanks!

    • The 45 watt kingbos are great but have limits, a mixing tray will need at least 2 and they will need to be kept close. They are working in my indoor system because there are three in an array and it is all grocery regrow, it takes a lot more light to get baby seeds off to a good start.

      I have that 300 watt light in a grow tent starting peppers and such, it is pretty impressive but likely over kill and if you want to do a large system with it and get coverage you’ll need a light bar like this, http://amzn.to/2DTwd8c

      It moves the light back and forth and though as expensive as another big light it pays for itself FAST. How, the light eats 300 watts of power the bar eats only 5.

      Now what I would likely do is simple T5 lights in your system. Arranged right one 4 bulb T5 array may cover two trays. Something like this with daylight spectrum bulbs something like this, http://amzn.to/2DJoYMA

      I think I am gonna order one of those to play with because if it is good quality its a good deal as a 4 light fixture at Lowes/Depot is about 90 dollars and the lights are 10-12 a piece. But 4 feet should cover both trays and T5s are great for growing indoors in a aquaponics system.

      In the end it all works but I think the T5s if you arrange your trays right will be your best bang for the buck.

  15. Just an update I haven’t seen anyone else post… The old link above worked today, they were in stock at $28.99. I ordered two, and they’re being delivered same day! Crazy. Thanks for the research and recommendation, Jack.

  16. My unheated greenhouse in zone 7b Oregon had spinach and lettuce turning yellow during the short days of winter.  She who must be obeyed put two of these in there and the green came right back, its supplemental light there not sole light for us.

    I’m glad also that they were recommended.

  17. I ordered 2 of these lights in December, they both showed up missing parts. One was missing the bracket on the light the other was missing the clip that goes to that bracket. I fixed both with some bailing wire, but I was still aggravated by the the fact that I bought 2 new lights that showed up missing parts.

    I contacted the seller and after a couple of email exchanges they shipped me another light that had been returned to amazon. Kingbo didn’t know what was wrong with the returned light but said I could use the hardware off of that light to make my other 2 lights right. The light showed up and it was a different style of light and the hardware didn’t match up.

    When I plugged it in it worked fine, the  only problem was it was missing a clip that went to the bracket on the light. Well out came the bailing wire again and now I have 3 lights for my seed starting rack.  Am I totally happy? No, but having bought several low end and high end lights for my planted fish tanks I know what to expect at this price point.

    If I had spent a hundred bucks for this light I would have returned it and given it a bad review on amazon. But I’m actually happy the way it worked out. The entry level price for led lights has come way down over the years, in a couple more years these things will be top quality at a great price.

    Aaron
    MSB Member
    Glendale, Az
    Booyah Farm

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