White 61” t5 hybrid Fit and Finish

[Trey]

I really dislike leaving negative feedback in most circumstances, but I feel like this needs to be put out there.
Prior to purchasing this unit I did some research, and have to say that there are nearly zero reviews of these units containing anything but positive feedback.
I on the other hand have not been lucky enough to have such a great experience.

I received my unit just a couple of days ago and excitedly unpacked it. Upon inspection it was very obvious that there was a pretty large hiccup in the manufacturing/ assembly process for the unit I received.
The housing on each of the (2) units included is two separate aluminum pieces slid together and fastened from the inside with several small screws and plates. The ends on my units were misaligned which caused the soft end plates (which I’m assuming were forcefully attached) to be quite warped. One of the units was about 1/2” off and the other maybe 1/4”. I took a couple of photos, unfortunately I don’t have a photo of the housing on the more drastic unit pre repair, but you can get an idea by looking at the end plate.

And the housing of the other one

In that state the light is not able to assembled...
In the end it was fixable (thank goodness) by dismantling, adjusting, and reassembling. The end caps are easily moldable, and while not perfect, function just fine. Much more work than I would ever want to do on a piece of equipment at this price.
In addition to the assembly error, the finish on one of the housing units has a pretty noticeable defect in the powder coating.

Not something I really care about that much, but again, paying a premium price for anything in this hobby, I expect a better product. A product for instance that doesn’t have to be rebuilt before it can be assembled..

In the end I got it all put together last night, with Radion blues installed. Don’t mind the mess!

Despite the above issues, I am looking forward to see how the unit performs.

 

[AquaticLifeProducts]

Hi Trey, Sorry to see the problem with the fixture.

Two issues that I see. One is the finish on the fixture this is not what we expect to see on the housing, second is the shipping damage to the fixture. Was the fixture packaged and shipped in our box that states to not ship in our box? When the fixtures are hit on the ends there is absolutely a chance to slide the two parts in different directions. Causing the endplate of the T5 fixture to distort and bend. Each 2 lamp T5 fixture is made of two extrusions to allow the ballast to be installed in the one side and the other is for mounting the lamps. The fixtures end plates are used to keep it together until the heavier endplate connecting the two fixtures together is installed.

If you would like to reach out to me at [email protected] we can discuss further on how to help you out with the fixture.

 

[Trey]

Hi Trey, Sorry to see the problem with the fixture.

Two issues that I see. One is the finish on the fixture this is not what we expect to see on the housing, second is the shipping damage to the fixture. Was the fixture packaged and shipped in our box that states to not ship in our box? When the fixtures are hit on the ends there is absolutely a chance to slide the two parts in different directions. Causing the endplate of the T5 fixture to distort and bend. Each 2 lamp T5 fixture is made of two extrusions to allow the ballast to be installed in the one side and the other is for mounting the lamps. The fixtures end plates are used to keep it together until the heavier endplate connecting the two fixtures together is installed.

If you would like to reach out to me at [email protected] we can discuss further on how to help you out with the fixture.

Hi! Thanks for reaching out to me. Yes in fact the fixture was shipped in your packaging with no additional packaging on the exterior. Very interesting. I’ll shoot you a quick email.

EDIT:

After thinking about this for a couple of minutes I have realized that the likelihood of the misalignment happening in shipping is very very low.

The extrusions are held together interiorly by a series of small screws and plates. The screws leave noticeable marks on and through the powder coating. If the two extrusions were to separate and slide apart with the screws intact it would leave very obvious signs evident as scratching of the coating. There were no marks indicating such an event, thus a manufacturing error is likely the cause...

 

[Trey]

I do want to note for anyone viewing this thread that Dave from Aquatic life did reach out and offer to possibly replace the housing with the powder coat defect. I ultimately decided that the effort and time involved In disassembling, shipping, and then reassembling the unit would not be worth this.

 

[Michael Gray]

same exact shifting happened to me.. Dave set a time to talk via phone .... that being said i was able to fix it.. the end caps are pretty easy to bend and flatten back.. so i was able to do it... plus i was adding the decor endcaps so it further hid the ends.. looks beautiful....

but interesting that during shipping we had same issue.. must need better packaging... foam should be added