Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I typically start off any of my grow light reviews with this boilerplate intro of "why" I am reviewing grow lights: If you follow (or read) my Amazon reviews you can see that I've been running numerous agricultural/botanical science experiments for the last few years. I have literally purchased almost every single "LED Grow Light" on Amazon. I continue to purchase them and test them as others request. I have tested all of the 300-600w, all the 36w, 48w, and 60w "LED grow light bulbs", all the way up to to the majority of the 600-2000W LED panels. I have been been running everything in two laboratories with controlled environments. I use a Apogee Quantum Par meter sq520, GrowLink, Intellidose, and Smartgrow system, as well as several other sensors for testing redundancies. The plants in the (recent) experiments are: Basil (normal and purple), Bunching Onions, Mint, Arugula, Okra, Tomatoes, Strawberries (several varieties) , Dill, Lettuce (several varieties), Lavender, Peppers, tissue cultures of California Redwoods, Marijuana (Indica and Sativa strain), tissue cultures of peas. Nutrient delivery is computer controlled and precisely monitored by a Growlink system and an AutoGrow Intellidose system (I'm super redundant). Over the last 18 months I ran experiments in DWC hydroponics, STERILE, DWC "Bennie", Aeroponics, Ebb and flow, ebb and drain, Kratky method, and full aquaponic systems. I state all this because when I say "a plant grows well under this light", I want it to have some scientific reasoning. This review is specifically for the Canagrow 300W COD LED Grow light. It is a full spectrum light, therefore is is not purple but a "normal" bulb color. Some Amazon shoppers tend to believe this means it is less effective for the plants. This is not true. This grow light covers the 3000k spectrum and is more than sufficient for most plants during vegetative growth, bloom, and for general supplemental lighting. Some growers of special plants may desire more red spectrum during mid to late bloom but this is a niche scenario from a manufacturers perspective. Full spectrum means the light looks like the color of a normal lightbulb. For this reason I call it "neighbor friendly" as you won't be blasting purple lighting all over. When choosing any LED grow light is important to understand your plant's requirements. I tested several Canagrow 300w LEDs on several plants over the last few months : Microgreens, Kale, and Little Gem lettuce. My results were excellent with all three. I feel confident in saying that you won't go wrong with choosing the Canagrow 300w grow light because this light is a well built LED (100,000hr lifespan) that is suitable for a wide variety of uses. It covers all ranges of typical grow light uses (within reason!). It can be used for germinating/sprouting, seedlings, microgreens, main lighting or supplemental, vegetative growth and full bloom from closet grows to larger tent grow operations if you deploy many of them. I've reviewed almost all the lights in the Canagrow lineup. Simply saying that the Canagrow is built well is an understatement. It is the Mercedes Benz of LED grow lights on Amazon. It is very well made with a beautiful gold anodized aluminum shell covering an aluminum heatsink. A 50,000 hr fan keeps the (industry gold standard) LED running at nominal temps. With a laser temperature probe the gold shell registered at a (normal) 107f in an ambient temp room of 84f. This is completely acceptable and within the lower ranges of high powered LED lights, however I wouldn't immediately touch it until it cools off. The fan is extremely quiet and not noticeable. The Canagrow 300w light comes in the standard e26/27 bulb size, so it will fit anywhere a normal light bulb fits. Although this is called the Canagrow "150w" LED, it only pulls 44w from the wall. The name "300w" comes from a naming convention meaning it can replace a "300w bulb equivalent". The Canagrow definitely CAN. The light has a relatively low thermal footprint. In other words It will not dump a tremendous amount of heat into your grow tent or grow area. You can safely get your plants foliage within 8" from the LED (as long as the plant can sustain the max μmols) however anything closer would be too intense for almost all plants. Leaving this light on a 12hr daily timer schedule, this light cost me less than $10 (electric) a month to run in my parts of the world. Very reasonable for the power it puts out. Any gripes? None. Zero. "Does the Canagrow 300w LED beat out the highly praised Taotronics 36w LED?" Yes of course. The Canagrow 150w (barely) beat it, this 300w stomps all over the Taotronics LED. Build quality. Comparing it to any other (proper) multispectrum/ full spectrum LED grow light on Amazon, it is the only e26 bulb style light to incorporate their own designed HSF (heatsink and fan). This shares an almost identical design to the 150w Canagrow LED, only differing by being slightly elongated in the body. Everyone else is using milled aluminum with cheap PCB leds. Canagrow uses rolled aluminum and COB (Korean made+++) LEDs on this light. Canagrow is a major focused manufacturer who is focused on advancing, designing, and manufacturing horticulture grow lights. They have Inventory capability and company reliability. Canagrow CAN supply 200x leds by next week if you needed it. Most other grow lights on Amazon are simply LED manufacturers repurposing aquarium lighting or generic LED lighting. For example...Taotronics is just a general technology product manufacturer, they make everything from USB drives, to headphones, foot massagers etc, therefore they are not, and most likely will never be focused on horticulture or botany advancements in LED lighting. Also the Taotronics LED (green version) has been out of inventory for over 6 months, meaning it most likely isn't coming back. I've also tried contacting Taotronics on several occasions and have never received a single response. Canagrow has excellent customer service and a staff that always responds quickly and kindly. Using an Apogee Full spectrum smart Quantum sensor the SQ-520 measured: 2500 micro moles at 4 inches 1230 micro moles at 8 inches 750 micro moles at 12 inches 451 micro moles at 18 inches 200 micro moles at 24 inches 130 micro moles at 36 inches You can use the following calculation to determine the hourly PAR. Substitute your actual instantaneous PAR measurement for the '55µmol’' below: Hourly PAR= (55µmol / m^2s) ( 60s / 1min) (60min / 1hr) (1 mol / 1 x 10^6µmol) = 0.36 mol / m^hour In case anyone isn't tracking along, I like to include some horticulture definitions: Humans use Lumens. Don't measure a lights effectiveness by it's luminosity. For example the FEIT 300watt LED $40 bulb is extremely bright and can light up a .25 acre backyard, it's marketed as "stadium lighting replacements" however it doesn't grow anything well. When I say "grows well" I am referring to fat, thick, COSTCO sized fruits and/or vegetables. Some other reviewers show skimpy, thin, stretched out, nutrient deficient plants, and say "this light grows it well". Everyone has different standards. Plants use PAR, PAR stands for photo-synthetically active radiation (PAR). PAR is NOT a measurement or “metric” like feet, inches or kilos. Rather, it defines the type of light needed to support photosynthesis. I mention Micromoles quite a bit (looks like this µmol ) – Intensity of a light is measured over a fixed area to understand the ability of a light to cover an area with that intensity (coverage). Micromoles of photons per square meter per second (µmol/m2/s) measures the intensity by taking measurements in a consistent 4 x 4 grid, measures the coverage of that intensity–commonly known as PPFD per 4 x 4 grid. Rather than measuring light intensity by lumens per watt with a lux meter, growers should use a quantum PAR meter to measure the micromoles of photons per square meter per second (µmol/m2/s) at the canopy level. To best calculate PAR light intensity coverage using PAR mapping 4 x 4 grids, be sure and measure at various heights. Spot readings (PPF) metrics are misleading. G rowers use PPFD per square meter to accurately measure intensity and coverage of that intensity. If you're like "whoa dood, I'm just trying to grow baby tomatoes for grams and you're going Bill Nye on me", I'm simply saying: This is a well built LED by a well-known manufacturer that is focused solely on LED grow lights. This is a reliable and powerful FULL SPECTRUM grow light. It comes with one of my highest recommendations.This should be considered a perfect LED for anything grow light related....sprouting, seedlings, cuttings/clonings, microgreens, main lighting or supplemental, vegetative growth, or full bloom from closet grows to larger tent grow operations. Thank you for taking the time to read my review, I appreciate it! If you found this helpful please give me a vote or a follow, it is why I make these reviews!