💡$1.01 Grow Light Review! 💡

[JohnAndSancho]

Ok yes. I'm serious. I spent some literal pocket change on a grow bulb. I'm having pretty good luck with some 2/$10 Sansi LEDs off of Amazon, and this company (Phlizon) has some ok reviews for anything manufactured after around 2023, so why not take a shot and see what $1.01 gets you shipped to your door. 

 

The photos don't do it any justice, just not in the way you're thinking. If I could find the photographer/editor they did, my plants would all sell and I'd have women lined up around the block. Of course they'd all be disappointed in the end, but anyway - on to the review. 

So me and Sancho take a leisurely stroll down to the mailbox after he checks on the kittens and pees a couple times, and there's a nondescript white bubble mailer. It definitely doesn't feel large enough to hold a lightbulb. Sancho pees a few more times, and then I bring him back inside and pass him back off to Mom since she has an air conditioner in her window. 

 

Finally, I'm alone with my precious little bundle of joy. What wonders of technology can possibly be packed into such a tiny package? I tear open the bubble mailer with the same level of excitement one can only compare to a text message from their boss, and inside is another discreet white envelope, marked only with a barcode. 

By now, my heart is racing. Actually that's a health problem, my resting heart rate is 95bpm which seems to concern my cardiologist about as much as the weather in Bucharest concerns me, but anyway I tear open the second envelope wondering what wonders await. 

It's a smushed little box! It's maybe 1"x1.5"x1". Your average Timex wristwatch comes in a larger box. Let's see what's inside, as I can feel my plants giddy with anticipation. 

 

No lens, just straight exposed LEDs. Actually I find the heatsink very attractive in the directional pattern it's machined in, and it does have a lightbulb base attached to it. 

All of this for the insane auction price of just $1.01? What a steal! Since my OG ghetto floor lamp grow bulb setup is still here, and all of my other bulbs are kinda warm right now, let's fire this bad boy up and see what it does! 

Wow, just remarkable. Look at that. It shines just as bright into my phone's camera as my TV remote control does. (Seriously, if your TV remote is IR and it's not acting right, your phone's camera is a good way to test it). 

 

All of this light output for just $1.01? All of my palms will be trunking in no time. I'll have no choice but to move to a tropical paradise now, and I can with all the money I saved from buying so-called "higher end" and "real" grow lights. 

 

In conclusion, it was $1.01 shipped to my door and as of this post my house hasn't burned down. And since McDonald's did away with the $1 drinks, what else can you buy with a dollar these days? I don't know, but it cost more to ship this thing from China and mail it to me than $1, but at least now I've got 2 bubble mailers and a tiny box. 

 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

Who needs 80$ grow lights when you can get 80 of those 😂. I think that was a smart purchase. I bought a few grow light bulbs at walmart for cheap too. Maybe 3$ each I forgot it was a while ago, but they have served me well over 2 years and my plants grow reasonably with them. Nothing special or expensive but I’m not a lab grower so it’s only for a few plants or for when winter rolls around and everything goes in the garage. Maybe I should buy 1 or two more lights eventually. 

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

Who needs 80$ grow lights when you can get 80 of those 😂. I think that was a smart purchase. I bought a few grow light bulbs at walmart for cheap too. Maybe 3$ each I forgot it was a while ago, but they have served me well over 2 years and my plants grow reasonably with them. Nothing special or expensive but I’m not a lab grower so it’s only for a few plants or for when winter rolls around and everything goes in the garage. Maybe I should buy 1 or two more lights eventually. 

I started out using old skool e26 bulbs because my first grow light setup in my apartment was the little arm for a reading lamp in some Target floor lamps, and I just ended up buying some corded and switched sockets and I guess it's working, but after a few years of learning and now that I'm not renting, I kinda wanna go to tube lights next, and from what I've read and seen just basic LED shop lights should be fine as long as they're around 5000k and 6000 lumens. I guess what I've got works now because every plant is a different size, but if I'm gonna be sprouting seeds and whatnot I want that light spread out more evenly. 

 

And fwiw I don't think this $1 bulb would do much good for anything other than a single sprout and I'd have to basically lay the bulb on top of it. But it was $1.01.