THIS! I don't know how many times I tried to save a little bit of money, and it quickly backfired on me, and I end up buying the expensive brand and wishing I would have done so from the beginning.Often called Buy it once, Ive seen too many buy a $50 china light and had issues, was unable to get parts or support, then got irate and bought a kessil or Ai Prime. Would have been best to buy the kessil or prime up front
Though a few times I also splurged a little to get something a bit more expensive with wifi or something and realized that I have to pay another $200-$400 for some kind of box to actually make the wifi work if my tank isn't next to a computer.
TBH personally, I'm ok with things being more expensive, as long as they ARE better, and I wish they would just come with everything they need to work all the functions. I am really tired of spending $500+ on something that doesn't ACTUALLY have all the things, and you end up upgrading it and in the end, spending $1000 on something that if you would have just gotten sometime "tried and true" for $300 without wifi. For example, seneye+ reef monitor. It's a great device, doesn't get me wrong, but I spent $300 for it, just to realize that if my tank isn't close enough to my computer to run a USB too, I have to spend another $300 on their dry box webserver. I ended up just running an extra-long USB to my computer, but it was still a pain. For a device that I spent $300 on, and that I have $10 usbs that can make my crappy coffee pot connect to wifi, it's kind of a pain that it's SO expensive just for a box to make it work.