If any new growers, or growers looking to to switch over to a cost effective grow light that does a great job growing seedlings into monster plants and great buds the
@Marshydro TS1000 has worked wonders for me. I have two TS600's but my favourite is the TS1000.
Setup is easy and Mars provides everything you need in the box including cable to daisy chain the units if you have more than one. That's a nice feature to control lights in one easy step. There is also a solid feeling on/off switch right on the front and a highly functional dimmer dial on the front as well. This is nice as some lights have dimmer dials that you need a little screw driver to adjust. Not the TS1000, it's right up front. Putting together the control box and power supply are quick and easy, just screws right on. If you have too much heat in your tent you can put the power pack outside the tent, again nice feature. I don't have heat issues so keeping it on the light is fine for me.
The light also comes with ratchet hangers that are so great to use to adjust the height of your light. simply pull one side or the other to raise and lower and they lock into place so your lights aren't going anywhere. I use zip ties to create hanging loops around my tent cross-bar so that I can hook the lights right to the bar and still slide the side to side as needed. I buddy uses boxes to bring his plants closer to the lights, seems using the straps do a better job and adjust to your exact desired height. I also run my power cables through the carabiner hooks on the straps to a) keep them out of the way and b) keep everything looking tidy. I hate things looking cluttered. Grrrrrrr
At 150W at the wall this light puts out a good amount of light. It really brightens up my tent. I wish I knew how much better these are compared to the TS600's as I would have bought 2 of these instead of two 600's and 1 TS1000. But I was cheap when I was starting up and didn't know how much light I really needed. The TS600's are great for a 2x2 on a budget.
All of the lights have been great reliability wise, no problems there. I've had them on every day since September and they are performing superbly. I don't really see a bump in my hydro bill, all three of these light combined are about equal to 3 100W light bulbs so not too bad considering. They also make zero noise, gotta love that considering all the fans running in the tent make enough noise.
I also like the reflective housing. They really do throw plenty of light all around my tent and I have no dark zones or shadows. I find the TS1000 really brightens up the plants on either side of it under the TS600's for sure.
As mentioned in previous posts I want to set up another tent so I can cycle grows. I was looking on Amazon for lights yesturday and the
@Marshydro lights are still very competitive compared to others out there. Sure there are some cheaper ones, but I the type that if I try something, it works and it's a good value, why change the formula. So I'll be sticking with Mars for my new lights when I get around to buying a second tent. Wondering if anyone here has experience with Mars tents? Good quality? I bought a different brand tent, which I'm happy with, but just wondering about Mars tents. Biggest thing for me is quality of zipper. Gotta have a super durable zipper otherwise forget it.
Overall I really like my little first setup. The three Mars lights fit and work perfectly in my 2 x 4 tent. No regrets here and
@Marshydro has a loyal customer based on initial experience with their products. First impression is important to me, hard to make a second impression if the first one is bad. And so far Mars has met my expectations and best of all, these light grow good bud.
So there you have it, a bit more perspective about my experience with Mars light, straight from a noob grower with only two grows and counting!