How to Choose a LED Grow Light in 2023 – Top 10 Tips

The best LED grow light is definitely subjective but these are the top 10 features and tips on how to choose one in 2023. After reviewing and using over 20 grow lights from seed to harvest, these are my recommendation on how to pick the best ones for weed & cannabis.

Top Picks All Verified and Used:

2 x 2 Grow Tent <- CLICK AND USE CODE SFHWGROW
$110 – 150 Watts: 3 Year Warranty, continuous dial, 352 Samsung LM301B LED’s, Verified, Great Distribution

2 x 4 Grow Tent <- CLICK AND USE CODE SFHWGROW
$220 – 200 Watts(Tested at 220) 5 Year Warranty, continuous dial, 606 Samsung LM301B LED’s, Verified, Great Distribution

3 x 3 Grow Tent: <- CLICK AND USE CODE SFHWGROW
$200 – 200 Watts: 5 Year Warranty, continuous dial, 606 Samsung LM301B LED’s, Verified, Great Distribution

4 x 4 Grow Tent: <- CLICK AND CLIP COUPON
$550 – 480 Watts: 1 Year Warranty, continuous dial, 1680 Samsung LM301B LED’s, Verified, Great Distribution, Pre Assembled

5×5 Grow Tent: <- CLICK AND CLIP COUPON
$730 – 730 Watts: 1 Year Warranty, continuous dial, 2688 Samsung LM301B LED’s, Verified, Great Distribution, Pre Assembled

Time Stamps:

0:19 Number 10. The Diodes
In 2023 the best diodes are still Samsung’s LM301H and LM301B diodes. There’s other companies that claim theyre better, but the only tests conducted are from the same companies making the claims. BUZZER.

0:42 Number 9. The number of LED’s.
This is self explanatory. The more diodes, the more potential light. Pay attention to this because usually cheaper lights have really low LED counts.

0:58 Number 8: LED Spacing
How the chips are placed is important. For instance, bar lights have a better distribution than most panel lights because they are spaced apart. Most panel lights today have the LED’s spaced tighter around the edges, but Ive seen some weird lights that don’t look symmetric. Panel lights have really high light intensities directly under the center of the light and lower intensities as you get further out. Look for higher concentrations of LED’s on the edges for both.

1:28 Number 7: Spectrum
This factor could be ignored because as long as you’re buying a full spectrum grow light, it will emit all the colors of light you need. A simple thing you could do is check to make sure there’s 3 different types of chips (yellow, white and red diodes). The red diodes emit infrared light and OSRAM is the leader in this space.

1:55 Number 6, The Driver
I always thought meanwell and inventronics were the best drivers, but then I reviewed the updated 2023 Spider Farmer SF2000. I’ll admit, when they told me that they no longer licensed meanwell drivers, I assumed the upgrade was a cost cutting downgrade. The new unlicensed version actually performed better then the meanwell version, so I admit it, I was wrong. Regardless, drivers matter and two well known reliable drivers I have used are Meanwell and Inventronics, I have yet to test the longevity of the in house spider farmer driver which leads me to.

2:41 Number 5: Warranties.
Now even though the unlicensed driver performs better, is there longevity. Most lights come with a warranty and for me 3 years is standard.

3:25 Number 4: A Continuous Dimmer.
Plants need different light intensities at different stages of their lives and you could adjust this by raising or lowering the light, or by using the dial. Some lights have interval lighting which is often at 25, 50, 75 and 100%, but continuous dials is by far the most convenient feature for targeting light intensity.

3:58 Number 3: Price
This definitely matter to me and to be honest, I’ve seen super expensive lights and the performance does not warrant the increase in price. All of these lights have the same components and the only thing that I could really tell is different, is sturdiness.

4:23 Number 2: Heat
This is absolutely the most neglected factor when it comes to picking lights. If you live in a place with hot summers, you cannot ignore temperature. Some lights get extremely hot and off the bat, you must eliminate these unless you are only growing in the winter. Unfortunately, a lot of online reviewers don’t consider this in their reviews and you won’t even notice this until mid to late bloom.

4:59 Number 1: WATCH THE VIDEO

Now when picking a light, the rule I use is 30 watts of lighting for each square foot of grow space. 3 by 3 is 9 feet, so that’s 270 watts, 4 x 4 is 16 square feet so 480 watts.