Why are LED lights so Expensive?

[Fishingandreefing]

Yup. My buddy just put over $80k of speakers, subs, and amps in his 39 foot nor tech. A boat with 4 mercury 450r’s on the back. Yup. That’s $250k in engines. And people complain about a $800 light fixture that will save them money in the long run. LOL

that’s nothing! People spend a million dollar on a license plate or a painting that is so ugly I just want to rip it up. But op just want to vent why is it so expensive lol

 

[45ZoaGarden]

The only thing I can say it’s lots of people had problems with them. And to be fair, thing do break but again I can’t justify paying that much. There’s a high mark up there and consumers like you willing to pay, good. That’s your money, you can throw them away if you want but just don’t burn them and it’s against the law lol. I have the freedom to voice my opinion so does your freedom or choice to spend whatever you want and those company love you very much!

Hmmm... I’ve never had issues with my vortechs. They’re so expensive because they have incomparable output for their size, are dead quiet, don’t put any heat into the tank, have built in settings, and can connect to your phone allowing you to create a schedule. And they aren’t very pricey compared to sillier sized wave makers.

 

[h2so4hurts]

I have hydra 26’s I bought in 2011 still going strong over my New Waterbox 130.4 after they came off an old tank. That’s running every day for 9 years with zero issues.

Congrats. You're likely an outlier. Diodes burn out and unless you have a DIY build or want to pull out a soldering iron on an Orphek you're not ever replacing those. Forums and product review pages are littered with accounts of people having their Kessil and ATI fixtures die only to be told that the solution to the problem was to buy a new one. Totally fine if you don't care about that and see value in rolling the dice because you don't want to replace bulbs. I'm just saying there are cheaper options that provide the same performance.

 

[X-37B]

LED lighting does not cost a lot of money. Look at all of the inexpensive units out there.

Features and tech cost money... of which you NEED none of these but people want them. Like so many other things in life, the wants cost.

Well said. Its just like live sales. I want it so I will pay twice what its worth and now its mine lol.
I see it on ebay all the time. People get caught up in I want it mode and pay more for used than the same new product.

 

[atoll]

It’s a niche market and you get what you pay for.
[/QUOTE]

Or not as you prefer. Did people pay for cracked cases, poor mobus issues? I guess they must have then in that case. Personally I wouldn't pay top price for those so I didn't.

 

[X-37B]

I will throw this out their. I went to one lfs yesterday and picked up a couple frags. I got their as they opened.
All their frag tanks run radions with all blue chanels.
One of the frag tanks that is seperate from the linked systems looked awesome and I thought they changed the light.
They had the whites on and WOW it looked like a T5 or MH tank which was very close to the look on my system, maybe even a bit crisper in the white range.
I bouht 2 frags, both that came out of the all blue.
One was a wild acro that I had been watching for 3 months. The colony was put in the white system and actually looked better to me.
Got my frag home and it looked like the white system in my tank.
I am thinking of a hybrid system in the future.
Used radions and T5.
I could live with and justify the price from the way that tank looked.

 

[Hydrored]

It’s a niche market and you get what you pay for.

Or not as you prefer. Did people pay for cracked cases, poor mobus issues? I guess they must have then in that case. Personally I wouldn't pay top price for those so I didn't.
[/QUOTE]

this is the reason I sold all my G5 Radions, went to ReeFi and I understand it’s still an expensive product, but I feel like I got what I paid for and the absolute best customer support I have ever experienced from a hobby product.

 

[fcmatt]

If an expensive neptune trident device has sold out for almost a year or ?more?... just how small is the market really now days?

 

[Ratherbeflyen]

I thought the pricing was ridiculous myself, so I spent some time doing some research and built my own LED. I also added 4 bulb T5 retrofit kit. Total cost was less than $500 for a 6' 220 gallon tank. I encourage everyone interested to do the same.

Other than replacing bulb's, it's been problem free for 2+ years and I'm happy with the results.

 

[jda]

I stared an "expensive hobby" thread in the lounge and in a handful of pages only one poster has indicted that reefing is the most expensive hobby that they have.

I have told people this for a long time, but kinda stopped because nobody wanted to hear it... but reefing is not an expensive hobby. If you think that it is, then you have chosen really poorly, should probably not have a hobby and/or need to buckle up for when you need/choose to expand your purview into other things.

Library books, a pair of shoes to walk/run, pair of binoculars to watch some birds can all be done really cheap if people want cheap hobbies.

The quotes in the first post are just for Simon.

 

[Aardvark1134]

When a nice 300Gallon custom system with good equipment and full set of corals and fish, with a quality you would like to have in your main room costs more than a cheap new car or 1/2 a nice new car...yes it's an expensive hobby. If you want a 29G with with 3 fish and 5 corals with cords and pipes everywhere and hang on equipment then no it's not expensive

 

[Fishingandreefing]

Hmmm... I’ve never had issues with my vortechs. They’re so expensive because they have incomparable output for their size, are dead quiet, don’t put any heat into the tank, have built in settings, and can connect to your phone allowing you to create a schedule. And they aren’t very pricey compared to sillier sized wave makers.

then good for you. My Jebao are dead silent as well and to be honest, just the build quality on the ones I got are not as good as the previous generation, but I can live with that based on the price point. I don’t need to control my pump via the phone, I set it and forget it! it’s $67.99 vs $400? Again, that’s your money, your choice.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I thought the pricing was ridiculous myself, so I spent some time doing some research and built my own LED. I also added 4 bulb T5 retrofit kit. Total cost was less than $500 for a 6' 220 gallon tank. I encourage everyone interested to do the same.

Other than replacing bulb's, it's been problem free for 2+ years and I'm happy with the results.

Nice set up and love people who knows how to diy.

 

[atoll]

then good for you. My Jebao are dead silent as well and to be honest, just the build quality on the ones I got are not as good as the previous generation, but I can give with that based on the price point. I don’t need to control my pump via the phone, I set it and forget it! it’s $67.99 vs $400? Again, that’s your money, your choice.

I have 2 x MP40s a Jebao gyre and A couple of Jebao pumps. Can't really fault them esp with the sinewave technology. They have all the programming I could need, are silent and so far lasting well. When my MP40s give up the ghost I doubt I will be buying them again. Will the MP40s outlast my Jebao's I certainly hope so. However, I can buy quite a few Jebao pumps for the price of an MP40.

 

[Ike]

Historically, you get what you pay for when it comes to lighting. I don't see LEDs as being much different. Cheaper ones can work well, but usually at the cost of bells and whistles and some nicer quality materials and light. The fact that you can effectively light a 75 gal. reef tank for less than $400 is something we couldn't have dreamed of back when MH was the preferred lighting, and that's not even with factoring in inflation from the 90's to today.

This hobby is cheaper and easier than it has ever been when you start factoring in inflation and the wide array of good and inexpensive products out there. It's an expensive hobby and if you don't have the coin for the best of the best LEDs, there are plenty of other good options, even non LEDs...

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I have 2 x MP40s a Jebao gyre and A couple of Jebao pumps. Can't really fault them esp with the sinewave technology. They have all the programming I could need, are silent and so far lasting well. When my MP40s give up the ghost I doubt I will be buying them again. Will the MP40s outlast my Jebao's I certainly hope so. However, I can buy quite a few Jebao pumps for the price of an MP40.

Absolutely agree. I am running a Jebao ow25 in my 120 for close to 2 years, dead silent and going strong. I don’t even clean it. Now with my reefer 350, I got the newer model sow8s. The quality is not as good as the ow but like you mentioned, the sine wave tech, dead silent. Not going to jinx myself and hopefully it will last for a couple of year. Guess what? If it breaks, click click amazon, around $70, I get another new one. No headache!

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Yup. My buddy just put over $80k of speakers, subs, and amps in his 39 foot nor tech. A boat with 4 mercury 450r’s on the back. Yup. That’s $250k in engines. And people complain about a $800 light fixture that will save them money in the long run. LOL

Again, that's all subjective. Sounds like your friend wont bat an eye at an $80k expense, but the majority of people reading yout post don't even make that in a years salary and for them $800 is a big expense.

 

[X-37B]

Absolutely agree. I am running a Jebao ow25 in my 120 for close to 2 years, dead silent and going strong. I don’t even clean it. Now with my reefer 350, I got the newer model sow8s. The quality is not as good as the ow but like you mentioned, the sine wave tech, dead silent. Not going to jinx myself and hopefully it will last for a couple of year. Guess what? If it breaks, click click amazon, around $70, I get another new one. No headache!

I ran 2 jeabo ow25 in my 120 along with 2 tunze 6095. Just picked up 4 used 6105's for $200, a steal.
Replaced the ow25 with the 6105.
No complaints with the jeabos but wont suport china anymore.
They are cleaned and put away for backup.

I agree that this hobby, like any other, can be as exspensive as you want or not.

So many equipment choices we should be so lucky.

 

[Aardvark1134]

My 1st job was selling computers and stereos at circuit city. We had a AV room setup with our most expensive system, a midrange system and cheap one. We ended up having to remove the mid range one from the room as people could not tell the difference between it and the super expensive one and would buy the midrange one once they realised it was just as good and some even thought it sounded better. 80K-200K for a stereo is either so you can go... look what I have and you don't...or someone who got ripped off. Example a Burgatti Veyron costs $21,000 just to have the oil changed...it's the rip off price you pay to keep your look what I have and you don't have running.

 

[hart24601]

When I was looking at lighting a 36” I priced out reef bright 250w MH fixture with their ballast and radium bulbs with hanging kit from brs was around $500. 32” reefbreeders led is $590 and have tank mount options and pulls 230w full blast. Not really dissimilar and I personally prefer the RB to MH alone. RB are used by battlecorals aquaculture and some amazing tanks as well.