Caring for your light

[GMO]

Following on from our warranty and repair thread, here is some information regarding keeping your light in good working order.

Invisible Sun LED lights have a life span of 5 years or more, at 5 years the LED and driver will still run over 90% efficient. That's a lot of operation hours which will surely give you a lot of harvests over that timeframe.

However, a poorly looked after light may have a shorter life span, upkeep and general care of your light is required to get it through to the 5 year mark.

Cleaning

Cleaning your lights after each cycle is one of the most effective ways to prolong your lights lifespan.

The led boards in particular need a good clean, gunk builds up on the LEDs after prolonged use, just as it would on any light bulb. If your plants touch the boards or even not, trichromes will transfer, these are visible in yellow stains or yellow patches on the white boards. The gunk can also build up on individual LEDs

To clean them off use ISOPROPYL only, 100% isopropyl wipes or ISOPROPYL Alcohol on a clean cotton rag.

To clean the individual LED simply gather the rag with ISOPROPYL on and do a gentle twist back an forth on the dirty LED, be gentle on the Reds & blues these have glass domes. You can clean the white LED a bit harder as they are less delicate.

Before using your lights again , make sure any isopropyl alcohol has evaporated entirely, switching on your lights with ISOPROPYL on the boards will ignite the alcohol.

Water

This seems obvious, but it's worth reiterating. Water on the LED boards will cause damage, don't get them wet. If they do get wet, dry them completely before using again..
Using humidifiers too close to the lights in veg can cause issues as the lights are generally dimmed and there is not enough heat to initiate evaporation before the water vapour hits the boards. We would always recommend dimming your lights to increase humidity in a grow room rather than using a humidifier when using LED. It's just as effective and cheaper on the pocket.

Signs of water damage are easy to spot, if you notice green copper discoloration around the LEDs then water has got into the copper tracks. At this point we would advise not using the boards.

Driver Care

Drivers have a very long lifespan, they can last for years and still run extremely efficiently. There are however ways to improve efficiency and longevity.

Don't turn up the onboard potentiometer, we set the potentiometer at the factory for each system, the potentiometer controls current output, increasing it will lead to running a higher current through your LED lights, over clocking the driver and leaving it open to potential failure. Yes your lights will be brighter but it will have more damaging effects on longevity of the driver and potentially LED blow outs.

You can increase your driver life span by dimming your light, running less than 100% is a excellent way to increase longevity of your driver and overall fixture. Dropping to 90% instead of 100% power could add years to your fixture. If you do decide to dim your light you can counter act the decrease in PAR by moving the light closer by a couple of inches.


Earthing / Grounding

Earthing or grounding your light is only required in certain situations. If you use a meanwell driver i.e 480w or under, you do not not need to worry about earthing, even if your driver is remote to you fixture. The drivers are earthed internally.

If you are using a 600w meanwell driver, you must either have the driver affixed to your light to earth it, or if your driver is remote, run an earth wire to the fixture from the driver.

If you have a newer fixture using the fahold drivers we now utilise then you do not need to earth the fixture, we have already done this inside the power cable inlet box.

If you remove the fahold driver from the light and run it remotely you will need to earth the driver to the fixture, via an earth wire.

Handling

Finally, handle your light with care, don't knock it about, if not in use cover in bubble wrap an put it back in its box. Don't rest things on the LED surface and do not place face down on a carpet. LED are static based devices, static from a carpet can cause malfunction of diodes.


If you follow the guides above you will no doubt surpass your estimated lifespan of 5 years and get countless harvests over that period. Take care of your fixture and make it work for you time and time again.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask below.