My Impression of the Maxspect Razor 420 120watts LED (8000K)

[David]

Hi everyone

I am currently using the Maxspect 420 Razor 120w LED (8000K). Just to share my impression of this lighting.

Based on the marketing aspects of the light set, it seems that a lot of research has gone into this product to optimized plant growth and here are the extracts of it from the website.









On taking out from the box, the build is rather good and the whole aluminum chassis is basically a heat sink with a fan in the center. There is two options to set it up. Pendant or by stand provided. Originally I used the pendant since I already have the mounting point in my ceiling.

However here comes the first bomber. The Razor comes in three sizes. 1 foot single LED group, 2 feet double LED group and 3 feet triple LED group. This means that if you have a 4 footer, you need to get 2 x 2 feet set. if you have a 6 footer, you need to get 2 x 3 feet set. There are optional linking bars to joint them together but the problem is that it tends to sag where the joints are and it looks really funny.

Next is the height suspension. If you have a 2 feet depth and 2 feet wide tank, you need to suspend it quite low in order to get enough light to go to the bottom and at the end, after a lot of time adusted I found out that there is no difference between using their wire cables for pendant to the legs supplied, it may be better off to use the legs supplied so that you don't get that sagging in the center look.






Now to plug it in. The Razor Driver (the ballast if you want to call it that) comes as a separate unit from the light fitting. This is a good and bad thing. The good, it makes the lights looks really slim and the heat from the driver is not sitting over the tank. The bad is that you need to find a cool space to place it as it gets HOT and not a good idea to put in into your tank cabinet. So you need to find a place to put it. The next issue I have is where the wire comes out of the light set. I thought it would have been better if it came out from the top rather than the side. Its because of this wire that the two light set cannot meet each other back to back if the link bar option is used causing it to sag in the center and a clean look cannot be achieved.



Now to program the Razor. It comes with a two channel programmable for the sunrise and sunset or even moonlight environment. The intensity of lights are also programmable from 0% to 100 % according to the 6 TP (Timing Points) of the sunrise to sunset period.



The weakness about it is that you can only program it on a 12 hour basis. This means the sunset cannot exceed 11.30pm. So if you want to shut the lights after 12am or beyond, you need to cheat by setting the clock backwards. The next weakness is that if two sets or more is used, you have to sync the timing of each light set manually and somehow, it will be off by a few seconds unlike the higher end models offered by GM or Mitras that used Bluetooth to communicate for multiple light set sync.

The next issue I have is with the cooling fan. It blows downwards to the tank this means heating up the water but what really irritates me the most is that dust gets blown into the water as well....



My overall impression is that its value for money for a mid level LED light set. It is well built and a lot of research has more or less gone into this light set for planted tanks. There are some weakness in them but are not major issues as there are always work around them.

[AQMS]

Nice. Look like someone is switching to Led now...

[David]

tech junkie...no choice....resistance to trying out new tech is futile..... Now my backside is itchy to try out the Mitras.....

[AQMS]

tech junkie...no choice....resistance to trying out new tech is futile..... Now my backside is itchy to try out the Mitras.....

Mitras LX 6000?
That is super X led,it is german quality should be excellent!!

[David]

Yup that is the one..... at 1.6k per pop....



but that is not the most expensive....that prize goes to the ATI LED T5 combo.....the 2ft Super LED with T5 combo is 2K plus and its already selling well to reefers....and it is SUPER SEXY....looking at it and your saliva comes down like a waterfall ......

[Urban Aquaria]

tech junkie...no choice....resistance to trying out new tech is futile..... Now my backside is itchy to try out the Mitras.....

Thanks for the review, its very informative for those looking at these lights!

When you next switch your light systems... there will be many chaps here who would be keen to "adopt" your maxspect razors.

Good that you got the 120W units too, those can also individually fit 2ft tanks nicely.

[Urban Aquaria]

Btw, about the razor's in-built fans... from your experience so far, how hot does the maxspect unit get during operation, like say if its on full power intensity for 8 hours at a stretch? Does it get hot enough to activate the fans?

I'm guessing at certain lower light intensities when dimmed the heat output would probably be low enough not to activate the fans at all even for longer light photoperiods.

Also thinking if the fans could somehow be modded to blow in the opposite direction (ie. away from the water), so it blows upwards and draws heat away from the light set rather than blowing air downwards though it into the water, might not be as effective in cooling it though.

[David]

you are most welcome....and for LEDs in the market, the Razor is a good mid entry point level. Price point for the 2ft is about 600 a pop. I have not seen any other entry points and the Mitras is at 1.6K and the ATIs at 2K+ per pop.

I have seen the others at the lower price points but the build and the LED grouping does not inspire confidence for me at the least. For the Razor Planted version aka 8000K color temp, it comes with 2ft and 3ft only I think.

So here comes a small issue. If you have a 4ft tank you need 2 x 2ft. One can get away with a single 3ft but if the depth and height of the tank is 2ft or 60cm in dimension, I think the 3ft may not have enough coverage. If you have odd dimension like 5ft...then this may be a bit more difficult to solve.

As you can see in the picture I posted above, using just 2 x 2ft and you will see a blank spot in the centre. Its a pity my tank is 50cm in depth, because if its 60cm, I would use 3 x 2ft placed across the tank. It would have provided better coverage, the program interface pointing to the front and the wires to the back.....but than again, tank maintenance would be a chore to remove the light set when it comes to it.

[David]

With regards to the fan, it comes on within 1/2 hour on 100% light intensity....any thing below 70% and the fan more or less does not come on. It gets warmishly hot around the centre where the LEDs are but not as hot as the Driver. the heat sink draws a lot of the heat away. My guess is that the fan is to protect the chipset inside the system rather than to cool down the LEDs.

The strange thing is that according to Maxspect, the heat sink draws heat by upward draft rather than a downward draft....so I am rather curious why the fan is blowing the other way. I am also curious if I can switch the the wires for the fan to blow the other way round....Any avid electrician can commend on this before I start ripping the Maxspect apart from the top....

[BFG]

Hmm, it seems to me you could use the 3ft model. There is an accessory which could connect both light set together or if you want to, you could diy it yourself by cutting a pair of the leg and join the 2 light set together.

[felix_fx2]

David, there are already some folks spotted that took apart your model.
My guess is that the fan is blowing down to cool onboard controllers, like pc motherboard having Northbridge/Southbridge heatsink.

I recall clearly that this model can hang and didn't you use to hang the last set?

@Urban, one of the chaps might be you? hehe...

[tawauboy]

.......

The strange thing is that according to Maxspect, the heat sink draws heat by upward draft rather than a downward draft....so I am rather curious why the fan is blowing the other way. I am also curious if I can switch the the wires for the fan to blow the other way round....Any avid electrician can commend on this before I start ripping the Maxspect apart from the top....

upward draft - passive cooling by convection
doubt you can't switch the wires around to get the fan to blow the other way because most, if not all, fans are brushless. there is electronics inside the fan. so you'll need to turn the fan around and leave the wires alone.

[David]

@ BFG ...the 3 feet coverage at the two ends are rather weak. Better to use the 2 Feet joined.

@ Felix. I tried using the pendant but the sag in the middle is really an eye sore.

@Tawauboy...thanks so it looks like I am stuck with a down blowing fan. It cannot be turned around because of the plastic fitting.

[limz_777]

good review there , does the centre part get enough light coverage ?

[AQMS]

David,i am very sure that you can turn the fan around just like tawauboy suggested.
i see screws at the both sides...

[felix_fx2]

you mean got lobang?

[David]

@limz_777 thanks and yes the coverage is enough as long as no tall plants at the center. If not, it can still be adjusted more towards the center or use the link bars.

@Zero nope there is only the screws at the top side to remove the plating. But then again the plate is removed to mount the ball joint should panning of the lights are required. I double check again.

[David]

Oh guys, I forgot...the driver aka ballast rating is 140 to 160 watts. My electrician happened to be home and I asked him to help me take a reading and it turned out that the real consumption is 146watts. So perhaps the 160watt model should be consuming 180watts or so.

[David]

Sorry sorry ...just one more thing. The timer moves by 1/2 hour block only.

[tawauboy]

Oh guys, I forgot...the driver aka ballast rating is 140 to 160 watts. My electrician happened to be home and I asked him to help me take a reading and it turned out that the real consumption is 146watts. So perhaps the 160watt model should be consuming 180watts or so.

you are getting 91% efficiency, which very good. are you running the lights at maximum?