T5 Ho Grow Light - 4 Foot 4 Lamps - DL844 Fluorescent Hydroponic Indoor Fixture UL Listed - Bloom Veg Daisy Chain with Bulbs

It started out as a scheme to over-winter my 15yr old geranium under lights and ended with an early start for my garden seedlings and later when I moved my succulent garden and house plants over, made for an even bigger success! I have a 20 inch patio pot that has deep red geraniums that I winter over every year in the dining room. Its 15 years old and still growing strong. The weak winter light through the patio door is sufficient to keep it semi-dormant but this past year I decided to give it full light and see what it would do. it was so beautiful all summer I was greedy for winter color. Its usually outside from early spring to 1st hard frost. I gave it a "rest" from October to December and then from Mid December I pruned it back, fed it well and turned on the lights and it went crazy! So did a fuschia, a baby pink geranium and my houseplants! I screwed together a 4ft stand made entirely of galvanized plumbing pipe I bought at Home depot. Threw my houseplants and the flowers under the lights and they couldn't be happier! I liked them so well that I bought a 5 tier storage shelf from Costco and decided I would utilize an unused corner of my dining room and start my garden seedlings upstairs for once. Unlike the LEDS I had cobbled together in years past with makeshift shelves in the basement I decided to fashion together a proper set of shelves upstairs where I could keep an eye on things and not have to run the stairs several times a day. They easily mounted on hooks I screwed under each shelf and the hanging chain is fully adjustable to raise the lights as the seedlings grew. The units are light weight and I love how bright they are! The reflector and tubes are wide enough to cover 5 full size 1020 trays side by side and yet have 2 on/off switches so you can turn off half the tubes if you do not need as much light. The 4 fluorescent tubes put out enough warmth that I did not need to use heat mats to germinate the seeds. They grew faster under the lights than I was ready to put them out in the garden so next year I'm going to have to start them a month later. We had an unexpected cold and very wet spring this year but they were all happy under the lights. Now I have my succulent garden under the lights on a timer and they are thriving with beautiful color and no etioliation. I paid twice as much for half the size and half the brightness of LED lights when I should have gone for the fluorescent grow lights all along. I didn't notice an jump in my electricity bill so the fluorescent fixtures are still a better buy. Plus you can replace the tubes when they eventually burn out. The LED fixtures are unreliable and very costly to replace. I had one that ran only 3months at 12hrs a day before burning out which was only a little over 1,000 hrs instead of the minimum 20,000 hrs you were promised on the box. And when a LED burns out there is no replacement bulb, you have to buy a whole new fixture. bummer. put me out $67. Where's the savings in that?ADDENDUM: 2nd year failures: I own 6 of the 4- bulb 45" wide fixtures. Each fixture has 2 light switches, each operates a pair of tubes. On 2 of the fixtures the switch just quit. The pair of tubes that correspond with that circuit just quit. No way of taking it apart to check it out. On several of the fixtures the tube socket were you mount the pins in and twist to lock and engage the power, the flimsy sockets flex out of shape inside when you try to rotate the tube pins so you can't change the tubes anymore. The whole fixture has pressed tabs that were used for closures at each stage of assembly so there are no screws to open the housing for repairs or inspection. While I really like the function of this fixture, its over all value is limited due to poor, cheap construction. Lasting only two years without failures is not good value. Inability to repair is also failure. I'm looking elsewhere for similar features but better made. Stand by

I bought this light fixture about 2-1/2 years ago and have been using them constantly since then, mostly about 14 hours per day (using an inexpensive wall outlet timer). I used an old "Jump Start" frame to hang them (which had a single 4' bulb) and although this set of 4 bulbs is heavier than the original, it is still light enough that the frame is able to support it. I have used this bank of lights to grow everything from tomato and flower seedlings to herbs to Christmas cactus, and all the plants have really thrived under these lights. This fixture produces a lot of light and the reflector really directs all the light downward toward the plants. I think having 4 bulbs (as opposed to 1 or 2 bulbs) makes a huge difference. Also the bulbs don't get hot so I can put the seedlings a few inches from them which really helps with good strong growth. I also like the 2-switch system where you can turn the outer and inner bulbs on/off independently.A few days ago, the inner bank of lights stopped working. (It wasn't the bulbs because when I moved them to the outer bank, they were fine.) I found my original order and went online. There I saw that this fixture has a 5-year warranty and so I contacted the supplier, BrightFuture, about replacing the defective unit. They emailed me back right away. They told me that the unit I bought back in October of 2014 only had a 1-year warranty, but they are still going to send me a new replacement unit and a shipping label to send the defective unit back. That is what I call truly outstanding service!!!When these lights stopped working, I considered replacing the fluorescent fixture with inexpensive LED grow light banks. My plan was to put 3 11" square banks together to cover about the same area as the four 4' fluorescent bulbs. The cost was about the same (about $32 per bank) and the LED lights use less power. But then I did some research online (mostly YouTube) and discovered that the LED lights were not nearly as successful as the fluorescent lights at producing good growth from the plants. I think that this is because the cheap LED banks just don't produce as much light (fewer lumens) as the T-5 bulbs. (I would guess that the more expensive LED grow lights produce better results, but I don't have several hundred dollars to spend on fancier LED grow lights.) I haven't tried other grow lights, except the single bulb 'Jump Start', but after doing a fair amount of research, I think this is by far the best 'bang for the buck' when it comes to grow lights, especially since they are backed by such great service!

My teenage son used this light to grow tomato plants in his closet. Why he did it in there, I'll never know, but him and his friends would spend hours taking care of those tomatoes! Who knew that teenagers like gardening so much? Those boys worked hard and would come out of there red-eyed and starving; so hungry that they ate all of the tomatoes before I even got to see them! The plants were enormous, and they put off a strong odor, so I'm sure the tomatoes were wonderful. People even wanted the dried-up bits, so I'd say my boy has quite the green thumb. This light was more popular than the Nintendo he begged for; teenagers, I'll never understand them!Okay, okay, in all seriousness, this light has a lot of bang for your buck, and has been a great help in getting a head start on the gardening season. The seedlings under my old, perfectly adequate, light were diving for this one; very impressive. The construction is sturdy enough to get the job done, and the hanger chains allow for plenty of adjustment. Very bright, and next to no heat. Shipped quick, and the bulbs were packaged securely. No complaints at all.One tip for those planning on using this to start garden seedlings: With any light, no matter how bright, make sure your plants get a little bit of sun each day. Going straight from indoors to the full natural sun of a garden will often shock, or burn, plants -enough to kill them. A little indoor sun each day will allow them to adjust to full sun without issue. Learned that the hard way :(