Kanzeon's Spider Farmer SF1000 Kit Review

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Kanzeon

Kanzeon

1,899
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Hey all!

So following in the footsteps of OG's like @1diesel1 and @BigCube, I recieved a SF-1000 kit from @SpiderFarmerLED to review.

Theyā€™re both better and more experienced growers than me, so their grow diaries and the pictures theyā€™ve taken will show the end results sufficiently. I hope to offer a different point of view. Iā€™ll do a more in-depth review, comparing the components to those offered by competitors at the same price range, as well as commenting on the construction. If there are outstanding flowers that come out of the tent that was part of that kit, Iā€™ll pop in with pictures.

Setup was simpleā€”no tools needed. The tent poles are made of metal, not PVC, which lends a substantial feeling of sturdiness. They're thick enough that itā€™s likely they could be used to ward off zombies in an emergency.

The walls are at least two layers- canvas on the outside and reflective mylar on the inside. The material is sturdy enough that it would take some force to tear or pierce it and thick enough to be able to maintain different temperature and humidity inside than outside. It significantly muffles the sound made by the fan. . Patches are included for any mishaps, which is a smart touch.

Setup is nothing more than constructing the frame, slipping the cover over the frame, and then hanging the light and ventilation. There's a floor piece that goes in after constructing the tent that's decently thick but not thick enough to insulate the plants from sitting on a cold floor. I'd like to see something included that would create an air gap underneath the potsā€”even if it were just a sheet of styrofoamā€”to keep the pots from sitting on the ground.

The light is decently constructed, with more heft to the aluminum back than pictures online really convey. Itā€™s far thicker than my old 100w HLG 100, though sadly not as efficiently named. The fixed driver on the back eliminates the design flaw iof the HLG 100 where the plugs on either end of the board can be broken if anything falls on the cord (even with a tiny amount of force) while itā€™s plugged into the light. Since mine broke because of this problem, Iā€™d definitely pick the Spider Farmer.

The diodes are marketed as Samsung LM301B, but there's nothing on the board that confirms that- unlike boards from other manufacturers that I have used. In an industry where buyers are rightfully suspicious of knock-offs, it would be nice to have confirmation that a customer is getting what they're paying for.

The flowering footprint of the light is 24x24 and the tent is 27x27, so the combination of the flowering footprint and the tent size is ideal. As long as thereā€™s a gap around the edge of a couple inches (which should be the case anyway if you donā€™t want botrytis or PM), a grower can go a full seedling to flower cycle in this tent. This is rare in kits at this price range, which makes the product very attractive.

The fan and carbon filter are also hefty and well-made, especially for a kit at this price. Running at full speed, the fanā€™s noise is roughly the same as a box fan. There's also a speed controller that comes with the fan and a timer for the light as well as a SCROG net. Everything worked out of the box except the thermometer/hygrometer that requires AAA batteries that arenā€™t included. I haveyet to test it.

Iā€™m generally suspicious of companies that market to new growers. Many tend to cut corners on construction or components, because new growers donā€™t know the proverbial tricks of the trade. This isnā€™t the case here. It genuinely seems like Spider Farmer put some thought into this kit.

Spider Farmerā€™s two chief competitors, Mars Hydro and Vivosun, offer products with significantly inferior lights than the one that comes with the SF-1000. The 100w Mars Hydro TS600 (equal in wattage to the SF1000) only has a flowering footprint of 1.5 x 1.5 feet in a tent thatā€™s 27x27, while Vivosun ā€œoffersā€ old blurple lights that look like they came out before the first iphone and could concuss an attacking bear in their tent package. Yikes.

My main concern is the warranty. According to the User Manual, there is free shipping on replacement/repaired parts only for the first 90 days. For the rest of the first year, ā€œbuyers only have to pay one-way freight and repairing fees.ā€ After one year, the buyer has to pay shipping both ways, as well as ā€œrepairing fees.ā€ Itā€™s essentially a warranty written to discourage people from making a claim after 90 days, which raises more red flags than flew over Moscow in the cold war. In addition to that, there's some confusion as to what their relationship is with Meizhi, and there's been some controversy about their PAR readings.

That being said, Spider Farmerā€™s main competitors, Vivosun and Mars Hydro, are no better. Mars Hydro is essentially the Charlie Sheen of grow light companies, and I wouldnā€™t trust it alone with one of my family members or anyone under the age of 8, and Vivosun still somehow thinks itā€™s okay to charge people actual money for a blurple starter kit in this the year of our lord two thousand and twenty one. Who knows who either of them are owned by or affiliated with.

Ultimately time will tell: Do they honor reasonable requests outside of their written policy? Are they a legitimate company or a hidden subsidiary of another corporation that will disappear and come back with a new name to dodge warranty lawsuits and Amazon claims? For the moment Iā€™m not sure, but nothing leads me to believe that anything in the tent would fail within a year. At the very least, however, Iā€™d like to see a real extended warranty available.

Thereā€™s room for improvement from Spider Farmer, but the performance of the light in relation to tent space clearly outclasses others in the same price range . Factor in the poles that could deflect a bullet, a thicker heatsink than HLGā€™s equivalent model, thick tent material, included patches, ease of setup, well-built fan, and quality filter, and it would be very hard for me to recommend a kit at this price point over this one, warranty concerns notwithstanding.
 
Perrin6363

Perrin6363

638
143
Hey all!

So following in the footsteps of OG's like @1diesel1 and @BigCube, I recieved a SF-1000 kit from @SpiderFarmerLED to review.

Theyā€™re both better and more experienced growers than me, so their grow diaries and the pictures theyā€™ve taken will show the end results sufficiently. I hope to offer a different point of view. Iā€™ll do a more in-depth review, comparing the components to those offered by competitors at the same price range, as well as commenting on the construction. If there are outstanding flowers that come out of the tent that was part of that kit, Iā€™ll pop in with pictures.

Setup was simpleā€”no tools needed. The tent poles are made of metal, not PVC, which lends a substantial feeling of sturdiness. They're thick enough that itā€™s likely they could be used to ward off zombies in an emergency.

The walls are at least two layers- canvas on the outside and reflective mylar on the inside. The material is sturdy enough that it would take some force to tear or pierce it and thick enough to be able to maintain different temperature and humidity inside than outside. It significantly muffles the sound made by the fan. . Patches are included for any mishaps, which is a smart touch.

Setup is nothing more than constructing the frame, slipping the cover over the frame, and then hanging the light and ventilation. There's a floor piece that goes in after constructing the tent that's decently thick but not thick enough to insulate the plants from sitting on a cold floor. I'd like to see something included that would create an air gap underneath the potsā€”even if it were just a sheet of styrofoamā€”to keep the pots from sitting on the ground.

The light is decently constructed, with more heft to the aluminum back than pictures online really convey. Itā€™s far thicker than my old 100w HLG 100, though sadly not as efficiently named. The fixed driver on the back eliminates the design flaw iof the HLG 100 where the plugs on either end of the board can be broken if anything falls on the cord (even with a tiny amount of force) while itā€™s plugged into the light. Since mine broke because of this problem, Iā€™d definitely pick the Spider Farmer.

The diodes are marketed as Samsung LM301B, but there's nothing on the board that confirms that- unlike boards from other manufacturers that I have used. In an industry where buyers are rightfully suspicious of knock-offs, it would be nice to have confirmation that a customer is getting what they're paying for.

The flowering footprint of the light is 24x24 and the tent is 27x27, so the combination of the flowering footprint and the tent size is ideal. As long as thereā€™s a gap around the edge of a couple inches (which should be the case anyway if you donā€™t want botrytis or PM), a grower can go a full seedling to flower cycle in this tent. This is rare in kits at this price range, which makes the product very attractive.

The fan and carbon filter are also hefty and well-made, especially for a kit at this price. Running at full speed, the fanā€™s noise is roughly the same as a box fan. There's also a speed controller that comes with the fan and a timer for the light as well as a SCROG net. Everything worked out of the box except the thermometer/hygrometer that requires AAA batteries that arenā€™t included. I haveyet to test it.

Iā€™m generally suspicious of companies that market to new growers. Many tend to cut corners on construction or components, because new growers donā€™t know the proverbial tricks of the trade. This isnā€™t the case here. It genuinely seems like Spider Farmer put some thought into this kit.

Spider Farmerā€™s two chief competitors, Mars Hydro and Vivosun, offer products with significantly inferior lights than the one that comes with the SF-1000. The 100w Mars Hydro TS600 (equal in wattage to the SF1000) only has a flowering footprint of 1.5 x 1.5 feet in a tent thatā€™s 27x27, while Vivosun ā€œoffersā€ old blurple lights that look like they came out before the first iphone and could concuss an attacking bear in their tent package. Yikes.

My main concern is the warranty. According to the User Manual, there is free shipping on replacement/repaired parts only for the first 90 days. For the rest of the first year, ā€œbuyers only have to pay one-way freight and repairing fees.ā€ After one year, the buyer has to pay shipping both ways, as well as ā€œrepairing fees.ā€ Itā€™s essentially a warranty written to discourage people from making a claim after 90 days, which raises more red flags than flew over Moscow in the cold war. In addition to that, there's some confusion as to what their relationship is with Meizhi, and there's been some controversy about their PAR readings.

That being said, Spider Farmerā€™s main competitors, Vivosun and Mars Hydro, are no better. Mars Hydro is essentially the Charlie Sheen of grow light companies, and I wouldnā€™t trust it alone with one of my family members or anyone under the age of 8, and Vivosun still somehow thinks itā€™s okay to charge people actual money for a blurple starter kit in this the year of our lord two thousand and twenty one. Who knows who either of them are owned by or affiliated with.

Ultimately time will tell: Do they honor reasonable requests outside of their written policy? Are they a legitimate company or a hidden subsidiary of another corporation that will disappear and come back with a new name to dodge warranty lawsuits and Amazon claims? For the moment Iā€™m not sure, but nothing leads me to believe that anything in the tent would fail within a year. At the very least, however, Iā€™d like to see a real extended warranty available.

Thereā€™s room for improvement from Spider Farmer, but the performance of the light in relation to tent space clearly outclasses others in the same price range . Factor in the poles that could deflect a bullet, a thicker heatsink than HLGā€™s equivalent model, thick tent material, included patches, ease of setup, well-built fan, and quality filter, and it would be very hard for me to recommend a kit at this price point over this one, warranty concerns notwithstanding.
What kind of ppfd readings are you getting? I'm very confused as I just bought an sf1000 but it's weaker than the cheap lights I got off Amazon. That doesn't make sense. I literally could've gotten 2 stronger lights for this price one. I thought the dimmer knob was broke. But I got out there this morning, armed with info from you guys, flipped that little switch that controls the knob, that controls the light intensity and proceeded to dim the light. Which broke my damn heart. I was really hoping to see the light get brighter when I turned that knob.
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

1,899
263
Welp, this light is dead after 16 months. That's unfortunately kinda what I expected.
 
BigCube

BigCube

2,676
263
Welp, this light is dead after 16 months. That's unfortunately kinda what I expected.

Oh wow. That sucks. Mine still works. The girl I gave it to upgraded, so I got it back a few months ago.

Been in use the entire time. Maybe you got a bad one? I'm using mine in a 2x2 for keeping mother's and clones.
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

1,899
263
Oh wow. That sucks. Mine still works. The girl I gave it to upgraded, so I got it back a few months ago.

Been in use the entire time. Maybe you got a bad one? I'm using mine in a 2x2 for keeping mother's and clones.

Yep, that's exactly what I was using mine for too. 12/12 since the jump, 90% dimmer, and it's dead now. šŸ˜”
 

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