Erligpowht 45W LED Grow Light Review

Growing indoors with LEDs usually requires a notoriously expensive upfront investment. However, there are certain scenarios where this just isn’t true. Depending on what you’re trying to grow, you can use an LED grow light that’s both affordable and effective. Priced considerably lower than your typical LED Grow Light, the Erligpowht 45W LED Panel is a popular choice if you’re interested in growing leafy greens, sprouts, cloning, or light vegging on a small scale. In order to fully test it out, we ordered one and gave it a whirl.

First Impressions

Upon it’s arrival, we were excited to get it plugged in and ready to go. Right from unboxing, we could tell that it was of lesser quality than any of the more expensive LED grow lights that we typically review here on LED Grow Light Guide. Although it’s incredibly lightweight at just over 2.5 lbs, the Erligpowht 45W LED Grow Light has a back shell that’s made out of a paper material. Yes – paper. We don’t see this material holding up well over time, which is why they make it clear in their notes that it’s not waterproof and you should never expose it to heat, hot steam, and other things like corrosive gasses. However, once we plugged it in, we were fairly impressed with the amount of brightness it had. Although probably not incredibly effective for large scale growing, our initial impression of it changed a bit.

Spectrum

Built with a total of 225 LED’s in a Red and Blue color pattern, it has a decent spectrum but it doesn’t cover very many different wavelengths. The red is 650 nanometers while the blues are 465 nanometers – this isn’t very broad which is one of the reasons we feel it won’t do that well with growing fruits and flowers. Additionally, Erligpowht states that the diodes may have 10-30 nanometer differences, which actually isn’t the worst thing – we’d like to see a more uniform spectrum.

Coverage

Designed to be suspended anywhere from 1.5 feet to 6 feet above the canopy of your plants, the Erligpowht 45W LED Grow Light doesn’t have a whole lot of coverage. We’d recommend keeping your growing environment within a 2 ft. x 2 ft. dimension and keeping the panel no further than 1.5 feet away for the most effectiveness.

Ideal Uses

Since the diodes used on the panel aren’t even rated for 1 watt, we really can’t stand behind this LED’s effectiveness. We’ve tested grow lights on LED Grow Light Guide that cost over $2500 – the Erligpowht 45W LED Grow Light comes nowhere close to the quality of even a $100 panel. However, for the price at under $40 it has to be good at something – right? True. For small indoor gardens, bonsair trees, leafy greens, sprouts, cloning, and light vegging, we think it’ll work just fine for most light uses. However, there isn’t enough intensity, brightness, and PAR to bloom flowers and create fruits.

Lifespan

Rated for a lifespan of 50,000 hours, the Erligpowht 45W LED Grow Light seems like it’ll last a long time, but will it? Although it may seem like your typical entry-level grow light, it has one real problem going for it that we’d like to point out. There’s no cooling or heat dissipation system in use. As many know, having the proper cooling in place can make a substantial difference in the over longevity and lifespan of the panel. Yes, it’s not very high powered, but without any cooling, we can’t see it lasting more than a couple grows.

Quality

With a paper backing and an ABS plastic material, it’s obviously not made with top of the line parts and materials. Although it’s very lightweight, we feel that the absence of a proper cooling system really marks it down for it’s quality rating. When any light is turned on for multiple hours in a row, LED or not, heat naturally builds up – and you don’t want to let that get out of control. But how can you honestly control the heat if they didn’t even build cooling fans into the design? Poor workmanship and build quality in our book!

The diodes are cheap, the casing is cheap, and the light really isn’t all that bright. We don’t think it’ll hold up well in any growing environment since it’s not built to even handle a light misting. Not to mention, the diodes are no-brand knock-offs that likely won’t last more than a few months.

The hanging system is simple, but really not the best. There aren’t any eyelets like your typical grow light, there are just two intersecting cables that are permanently screwed into the top of the panel with a centered hook.

Final Thoughts

Although we went into our review of the Erligpowht 45W LED Grow Light with some preconceived notions, we weren’t surprised to find out that it’s lacking in several areas. With low quality diodes, a moderate amount of brightness, and no cooling system in place, we wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending it to anyone – except for those who don’t have more than $50 to spend to get themselves familiar with grow lighting for leafy greens, but doesn’t want to rely on it for blooming flowers.

Spending just $60-$50 more will set you up with a much nicer panel that you’ll likely be much more pleased with. Checkout the GalaxyHydro COB LED Grow Light or the RoleadRo COB LED Grow Light if you want an entry-level panel that will perform much better than the Erligpowht 45W LED Grow Light, although they’ll cost a bit more. In the long run, you won’t regret spending a few more bucks to get the right light.