ViparSpetra LED Grow Light

Specifications, description and review of the VIPARSPECTRA LED Grow Light Full Spectrum, Veg and Bloom Switches Full Spectrum Plant Growing Lights for Indoor Plants, Veg, and Flower.

For the cost of this Grow light, it’s Great. Obviously it’s not the expensive professional lights seen in major grow operations, but definitely worth the cost if you have a smaller grow operation.

Construction of the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light itself feels pretty rugged. Metal housing, nice large fairly quiet fans. The noise output is comparable to PC fans.

There are a few other options to include a 300W, 450W, 600W and even a 900W Grow Light.

Specifications of the VIPARSPECTRA VP600 600W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum:

• Dimensions: 15.7×9.4×3 inches
• Item Weight: 9.5 lbs
• Replaces a 400W HPS/MH
• Use for all stages grow and flowering
• Vegetative Coverage at 32″: 3x3ft
• Flowering Coverage at 22″: 2.5×2.5ft
• Avg. Power Draw: 265W±3%
• (120pcs) High Intensity 5W Epiled/Bridgelux LEDs
• Input: AC100-240V, 50-60Hz
• Lifespan: 100,000 hours

The light offer optimal full spectrum lighting which provides plants in all stages from veg to flowering. This results in bigger buds and higher yield all while saving you on energy costs.

Daisy Chain feature assists growers to connect multiple lights together with fewer outlets.

Upgraded aluminum cooling heat sinks and advanced high speed quiet fans are great for heat dissipation.

PPFD directly under the Fixture

PPFD is photosynthetic photon flux density. PPFD measures the amount of PAR that actually arrives at the plant, or as a scientist might say: “the number of photosynthetically active photons that fall on a given surface each second”. PPFD is a ‘spot’ measurement of a specific location on your plant canopy, and it is measured in micromoles per square meter per second (μmol/m2/s).

Optimal Spectrum & High PAR Value

The secret to VIPARSPECTRA’s success is optimal full spectrum lighting which provides plants in all stages from veg to flower with everything they need in the natural sunlight. This results in bigger buds and higher yield all while saving you on energy costs. The light is scientifically engineered to keep the balance with excellent PAR Output and suitable Coverage.

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Convenient Daisy Chain Function

The daisy chain feature which assists growers to use multiple lights together with less outlet. No additional cords is needed, just simply plug in the provided power cord into the second light’s outlet to achieve connection among multiple units.

Using Suggestion for the ViparSpetra LED Grow Lights: Remember to properly adjust the height accordingly to your plants’ response.

Using the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light – Germination Stage

For Germination Stage : Recommend hanging it at 40″ -44″ above the plants, and turn on VEG switch. Lighting for 10 hours per day.

Young Vegetative

For Young Vegetative : Recommend hanging the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light at 36″ -40″ above the plants, and turn on VEG switch. Lighting for 12 hours per day.

Vegetative Stage

For Vegetative Stage : Recommend hanging the ViparSpetra LED Grow light at 28″ -36″ above the plants, and turn on both VEG and BLOOM switches. Lighting for 18 hours per day.

Flowering Stage

For Flowering and Fruit Stage: Recommend hanging ViparSpetra LED Grow light at 20″ -24″ above the plants, and turn on both VEG and BLOOM switches for flowering stage. Lighting for 12 hours per day.

Review of the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light

We wanted to quote this review as it was one of the more detailed and thorough reviews of the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light we read. Review was written by Josh.

Most people getting this light are like I was and are just starting out. There aren’t many (any?) professional or enthusiast third-party reviews of this light and because of that, I was a bit skeptical of the output claims. The light was pretty cheap, at least compared to other “well-reviewed” lights, and at the time I was not sure I’d stick with this hobby. Growing things is a lot of work, inside or outside, so I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it and then abandon it like so many other hobbies I’ve tried.

Anyway, construction wise the light itself feels pretty rugged. Metal housing, nice large fairly quiet fans. The noise output is comparable to PC fans. They actually appear to be PC fans, which is perfectly fine, PC fans work great at cooling electronics seeing as that’s what they are designed for. I chose the 450W version of this light mainly because of the ability to switch off the “bloom” spectrum of lights. After further research, however, I’ve found that this is not something you’d actually want to do, just leave both on.

So, let’s move on to the light output of the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light. I mean, that’s what everyone cares about, right?

Manufacturer’s Specs of the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light

VIPARSPECTRA lists the light as having a PPFD (aka PAR rating or PPF) of about 619 μmol/s at 18″ directly in the center and a lovely 1186 PPFD at 12″. They do not say whether they measured this in a tent or in free air. They also don’t say what they used to measure it. For this price point, 619 PPFD sounded pretty good. I had assumed they measured this in a tent. The other lights on Amazon around this price are right around 500 PPFD at 18″, so that’s a pretty big jump.

Now here’s where we get into some shady business. The manufacturer of the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light says you can use this for the vegetative state (when a plant is just growing) at 24″, but they rate the exact center for 619 PPFD at 18″… plants need about 500~600 in the vegetative state, though generally more is better, 500 is considered the minimum. So 18″ is the actual vegetative height. They also say to use 18″ when your plant is flowering, but 619 is too low for flowering since you’d want 1000~1100. Based on their chart that would mean 12″ for flowering. So their claims of 2’x2′ for flowering and 2.5’x2.5′ for veg are wrong, even by the listed PPFD.

Actual Specs

So what are the actual specs of the light when we reivewed the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light? At 18″ in a tent, you’re looking at right around 710 PPFD. That’s 91 more than the rated output. I was actually really surprised by this. Based on the readings I took, you don’t get down to below 500 PPFD at 18″ until about 9″ out from the center. So, you can veg with this light in roughly a 1.5′ x 1.5′ area if you want to keep things optimal, but you could probably get away with 2′ x 1.5′ if you were stretched for cash and wanted more area. At 24″ the rating was around 350 PPFD in the center, not something that would be good for veg at all unless you want your plants to stretch a lot. Now that’d probably be fine for plants just starting to leave the seedling stage or plants that never get very large (herbs, microgreens, etc), but not for plants that get large or bushy.

Now, what about flowering with the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light? At 12″ the rated output is 1186 PPFD, measured in a tent it’s actually a whopping 1273 PPFD in the center and just over 1000 PPFD at about 9″ from the center, with it quickly dropping off after that. The problem is at 12″ my plants actually got some minor light burn, so 14″ seems the most optimal height for flowering. At 14″ it was just under 1100 PPFD, but the area of >1000 PPFD was only about 1’x1′. So, if you’re flowering what I believe most of you are flowering, that’s 1 plant in optimal conditions or 2 in acceptable conditions.

Note: Their entire chart is slightly under what you can expect in a tent. I got 100~120 PPFD on the edges where they say to expect 70~90 PPFD. I did measure the light with the bloom light off. At 18″ it drops to 370~380 PPFD, about half. Just don’t bother with it, leave both on.

Conclusion and review of the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light

The light output of the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light is a bit better than advertised. The usable area is mixed because the PPFD they measured seems accurate, however, they state outright in the product description that the area is a lot larger than it is. But, it all depends on what you are growing.

Seedlings only need right around 150-200 PPFD. In fact, stronger is bad. Sadly, seedlings like a little IR and I believe the IR lights are on the bloom side, so you’d still want to run both light settings. You could have a very large herb or microgreen garden with this light. If you are growing something *else* then stick with 2 plants max.

If you are set on getting a “blurple” (a mixture of individual LEDs, mostly blue and red) LED that’s in this price range, this is the one to get. There are some DIY solutions that are cheaper and just as good or the same price and better if you are willing to do a little work. So look into COBs or quantum boards if you are fine with a bit of DIY. If you just want something you can take out of the box and use, this is perfect for that and you’ll have to spend a good bit more to beat it.

I took off 1 star for the misleading usable area sizes, most people don’t know what PPFD is or how to use it, so they won’t know those are wrong. They will trust the manufacturer’s specifications and spend more time in the vegetative state with more stretch and then when flowering they’ll get smaller flowers or less fruit as a result. If you stick to my recommendations you’ll see faster growth and larger/more flowers/fruit.

I took off half a star for the bloom light disable (that, again, you should not use) because it’s misleading. I took off another half star because while this light is cheap for a blurple light, there are even better lights out there for the same price (or less). They just aren’t on Amazon. All PPFD of the ViparSpetra LED Grow Light measurements were taken with an Apogee MQ-500 inside of an iPower tent.