Grower’s Choice 630W Dual Bulb CMH Kit vs ECO Farm CMH 630W Double Ended Grow Light Fixture Enclosed Kit Reviews 2020

Ceramic metal-halide bulbs are the grow lights of the future.

At least that’s what I keep hearing. Personally, I’m partial to LED technology, but I can’t deny CMH’s appeal.

But before we get to the pros and cons of LEC (Light Emitting Ceramic) lights, I just want to cut to the chase and give you our picks for the Best CMH Grow Lights. I’ll also give you our choices for the best grow bulbs, since it’s always good to have a backup and you’ll need a replacement eventually anyway.

What is a Ceramic Metal Halide Grow Light?

First of all, what are these lights actually called? Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH)? Light Emitting Ceramic (LEC)? Or are they Ceramic Discharge Metal Halide (CDM)?

The truth is that all those different names are talking about the same Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH) technology. LEC is actually a trademarked term for a CMH brand. In order to avoid confusion, I’m going to be using CMH in this article, which is the most common term.

Ceramic Metal Halide grow lights are basically a variation of MH grow lights with a little of HPS added into the mixture. A CMH uses a ceramic arc tube similar to those used in HPS grow lights instead of the quartz used in traditional metal halide grow lights.

The ceramic arc tubes operate at higher pressures than quartz glass tubes, which enables manufacturers to make more precise variations on the spectrum than with previous technologies.

ECO Farm CMH 630W Double Ended Grow Light Fixture Enclosed Kit

The ECO Farm CMH grow light is one of a kind because unlike many other lights, you can operate it remotely. It uses low frequency square wave ballast specifically designed for its high intensity lamp. The lamp is suitable for both the vegetative and flowering stages of crop growth, the light features an internal RF shielding and a multi-aspect protection circuit.

It is also versatile and comes with 120, 208 and 240 input voltages. The lamp is silent, energy efficient and reliable. You can mount the lamp next to either a reflector or a few feet away using lamp cord extensions. The light comes with an 8-inch 120v power cord and a three-year warranty.

• The trade name is a trusted name in the industry
• Comes with a long warranty of three years
• Has a high quality performance
• Uses the latest technology
• You can control the lamp remotely
• It is versatile
• Suitable for both vegetative and flowering stages
• Comes with instructions
• High power CH provided

Grower’s Choice 630W Dual Bulb CMH Kit

The 315-watt light bulb has 3000K and 37000 lumens with a rich full spectrum. The bulb uses low frequency ballast and comes with a phospar coating outside the arc tube, which adds to the rich light spectrum. The lights promote higher rates of metabolic crop activity and higher resin production through its powerful far-red spectra and UV lights.

It is best suited for the flowering and vegetative stages of weed growth. The CMH light also has a long life span of 15000 hours and comes with a one-year guarantee.

• Has one of the richest full spectrums
• More PAR on its bulbs than many other HPS grow lights
• Great UV light for production of more resin and metabolic activity
• Long lasting
• Comes with a one year warranty
• Available in different wattages
• Affordable

Choosing a Ballast for a Ceramic Metal Halide Light

The specifics of CMH ballasts are a little bit tricky. It is highly recommended that you purchase a whole CMH kit instead of trying to retrofit a CMH bulb into your old ballast.

Usually CMH do not run on most electronic ballasts due to the extremely high frequency these ballasts output. Regardless, there are some high end electronic ballasts that can run CMH grow lights without any problems due to their microprocessors.

To avoid any problems and confusion, CMH manufacturers insist that you buy a CMH grow light kit, this comes with the bulb, the ballasts and a reflector all attached together for ease of use and installation.

A benefit of the square-wave technology ballasts required to run them, is that you won’t have to deal with the electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues many growers experience with digital ballasts.

The Advantages of CMH Grow Lights

There’s a reason people are looking into CMH grow lights, and it’s the huge list of advantages when compared to almost every other grow light option.

Balanced spectrum

Not only do you get a more balanced spectrum that hits almost every sweet spot for your plants but they’re also better at turning your electricity into usable light.

By comparison, HPS and MH lights waste a lot of energy producing light at ranges that are not efficiently used by plants. This means that CMH are more PAR efficient than either HPS or MH, making them a better single light solution.

Color Rendering Index

They also have a more natural CRI (Color Rendering Index). CRI describes how the color of a light source changes how an object appears to the human eyes and how well subtle variations in color shades are revealed. The higher the CRI, the more realistic things look. CMH grow lights are generally rated between 80 to 96 CRI, by comparison, the sun is rated at 100 CRI. This means that CMH grow lights will let you see the true color of your plants without making your grow room look yellow, blue or purple.

Ultraviolet Radiation

CMH grow lights provide UV (ultra violet) radiation, which although being outside of our range of vision is beneficial (at certain ranges and intensities) to plant growth and development. They produce UV-A, UV-B and UV-C Light, but UV-C is generally very harmful to human eyes. So most high quality manufacturers use a glass filter to block the UV-C output while leaving UV-A and UV-B output intact.

Note: All HID bulbs emit some amount of UV radiation. The amount may vary and they’re sometimes shielded. But remember not to look at or work around a bulb with a broken outer glass jacket because UV radiation burns, and this damage is cumulative.

Longer Lasting

Ceramic arc tubes are more resistant to breakdown, so they last a lot longer than MH and HPS bulbs. In fact, CMH grow lights tend to last over 24,000 hours while keeping at least 80% of their original intensity at the 20,000-hour mark. This overshadows the common 10,000-hour replacement rule for HPS & MH bulbs.

Conclusion

With the above extensive review of CMH lights, we hope that you will know what to look out for when you are thinking of the kind of lighting system you want for your grow room. The lights are energy efficient, they produce less heat per watt and their light spread is good.

They are most suitable for the flowering and vegetative stages of crop growth and their lifespans depend with the models and wattage. Some of the lights come with great a UV light, which protects your crops from any harm.