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A decent kit with full spectrum indoor plant grow light that simulates natural sunlight. Very useful for indoor gardeners or places with long winters.
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Editors Rating
4.7/5
4.7 stars
What we like
What we don’t like
Bottom Line
The MetryGrow Plant Grow Light is a powerful and capable unit. Its 48W full-spectrum LED lights can illuminate a decent area of 2 ft × 2 ft.Mounting the lights is versatile i.e., you can use the provided stand (which is height adjustable from 4-inches to 72-inches)or mount it from the ceiling (using the hook and lanyards). The wired controller can do the basic stuff (on/off, adjust two levels of brightness, and set the lighting mode). The smartphone appoffers much more fine-grained controls.

Imagine someone living in a high-rise apartment in a densely populated city. This person loves gardening but has no access to a backyard or outdoor space. Due to limited natural sunlight coming through small windows, growing plants indoors becomes challenging. In this situation, grow lights become an essential tool for such urban gardeners.

Grow Lights provide the necessary light intensity and spectrum that plants require for photosynthesiseven in the absence of sunlight. By installing these grow lights, you can cultivate plants like tomatoes, lettuce, or even flowers inside the apartment.This allows people living in urban environments or from northern states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minesota, etc.) where there is scarcity of sunlight to enjoy gardening and benefit from fresh homegrown produce.

The market is flooded with many such grow lights and newer models are popping up left and right.

Kicking off this review with a quick unboxing, when we first received the package, we were surprised by its weight and thought “why would a simple LED Grow Light unit be that heavy”? and soon realized that it comes with a sturdy stand. Opening the box, we first get the user manual that has the assembly instructions and basic controller operations. Then we have all the stuff that goes into the stand. This includes the base plate, threetubes (two of them are identical), and the folding stand mechanism.

MetryGrow 48W LED Grow Light Contents

After this, we have the power and control related parts (a wired controller, AC/DC Adapter, and an AC Power Cable). The package also has some lanyards and hooks for ceiling mounting. Last but not least, we get the main LED Grow Light Unit. We will take a closer look at the design and components of this unit in the next section.

The main Grow Light unit is a rectangular box with dimensions 13.6-inches× 7.7-inches.On the front, the unit has 8 groups of LED and overall, it has 60 White LEDs, 32 Red LEDs, and 8 Blue LEDs. There is a flower-like design in the center. We thought there was a cooling fan behind it, but no. It is purely an aesthetic element.

MetryGrow 48W LED Grow Light Design Front

If you turn your attention to the back of the unit, there is a lot going on. First of all, there are two large aluminum heatsinks of the back that help in dissipating the heat from the LEDs. In the middle, it has two ports; one for connecting the controller and the other for plugging in the power supply. There is a large fixture that in the center that helps in mounting the unit to the stand.

As mentioned before, you can mount the MetryGrow LED Grow Light unit either on a stand or from the ceiling. For the latter part, the back of the unit has four ring-like structures near the corners. You can connect the hooks from the metal lanyards here and hang the unit from a ceiling.

MetryGrow 48W LED Grow Light Design Back

While the stand and controller are black, the LED panel is in white. This might trigger OCD in some and we thought MetryGrow should offer the panel in black to sync with the rest of the parts.

Coming to the stand, you need to assemble it and it takes less than 10-minutes. The base plate of the stand is made from steel and weighs about 1.5kg(or about 3.3-pounds). There is a sponge layer on the backside of this plate that helps in protecting the floor from scratches as well as prevents the stand from sliding.

Depending on your setup and requirements, you can connect one, two, or three tube to the base plate. Whether you connect the two identical tubes or not, you have to use the tube that has the slot to insert the folding stand. Speaking of which, the folding stand goes into the top end of the tube where you have to tighten the knob to secure it. The advantage of this system is that while the rest of the stand stays in its position, you can loosen the knob, adjust the folding stand in any angle you want (full 360° rotation), and tighten the knob to lock that position.

If you look at the end of the folding stand, there is a steel ball. This ball goes into the back of the lightunit (the fixture part that we mentioned before).While the MetryGrow48WLEDGrowLight supports ceiling mount as well, we opted for the stand mount installation during our testing.

As the name suggests, the MetryGrowLEDGrowLightcomes with afull-spectrum lightLED array that produces 3000K Warm White, 660nm Red Light, 520nm Blue Light, and 730nm Far-Red Light (just below infrared wavelength).It does all this with a power rating of 48Watts. While this may not seem impressive, the PPFDof the light is very high, which makes the 48W LEDs as bright as a 300-WattHigh Pressure Sodium (HPS) grow light.

Things are about to go slightly technical for a bit.We (humans and animals) see light by its color and brightness. Plants on the other hand, see light in a completely different waywhere instead of color and brightness, they see a spectrum of light that supports photosynthesis. This light is known as Photosythetic Active Radiation (PAR). PAR light consists of a bunch of wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum (400 to 700 nanometers) that drive photosynthesis. Instead of brightness or Lumens, we have to measure the PPFD or Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density that indicates the amount of PAR light that actually arrives at the plant. PPFD ismeasured in micromoles per square meter per second (μmol/m2/s) and dependent on the height of the light source.

Enough technical blabber. In case of the MetryGrowLEDGrowLight, if you take an area of 2-ft × 2-ft focus area, then the average PPFD is 883 μmol/m2/s at a height of 6-inches and 441μmol/m2/s at a height of 12-inches. This is almost double than what the competition is offering. When you combine the full-spectrum light and high PPFD rating, the result is up to 300% faster growth.

Another power-related feature is the heat dissipation. Even though the power rating is only 48W, the LEDs generates a lot of heat, especially when you use them at full brightness. We need to dissipate this heat to improve the longevity of the LEDs. Thankfully, the MetryGrow48WLEDGrowLightcomes with a dual aluminum heat sink for this purpose.

We already mentioned the height-adjustable nature of the stand (set the height between 4 and 72-inches). In addition to this, the foldable mechanism allows you to set the light panel in any angle you want (up to 270°).

MetryGrow 48W LED Grow Light Controller

The controller is quite unique in the sense that it isn’t wireless but uses a cord to connect to the main panel. It has 5 touch-sensitive buttons. Here’s a gist of what each button does:

  • Power: On and Off
  • Lighting Mode: Fruits and Floweror Vegetables and Herbs
  • Timer: 12hrs or 16hrs
  • Brightness: 50% or 100%
  • Wi-Fi: On and Off

This is very minimal and to extend the functions and control, you need to install the app (which we will see in a separate section).

So, how was the performance of theMetryGrow48WLEDGrowLight? If we start from the beginning, it took less than 10-minutes from unboxing the contents of the package to assembling the stand, and attaching the light panel to the stand. You don’t even have to refer to the user manual to set the device. It was that easy.

MetryGrow 48W LED Grow Light Performance

We placed the grow lights in our office where natural light is almost absent.For plants, we used wheatgrass pots, a creeper (couldn’t find out its name)and some mint. The growth of these plants has been very good.

If you use the panel on the stand at its maximum height, there is a good chance that you might tip the stand over with a gentle push. You can put some weight on the base plate or better put a large plant pot (one that doesn’t leak). Apart from the stand, you can also place the panel in a plant cabinet or use it as an aquarium light.

You can set the brightness of the lights at either 50% or 100% using the wired controller. At 100%, the LEDs can get very hot and the aluminum heat sink comes to rescue right away (though it becomes very hot).

As mentioned before, you can switch between two lighting modes. We put the lights in herb mode all the time (no blue light).We first though the wired controller just dangles in the air but it has a magnetic back so that you can stick it to the stand.

To control the MetryGrow48WLEDGrowLight with much more precision that what the wired offers, you have to download the smartphone app by the name “NthGrow” (and we couldn’t find any association between MetryGrow and NthGrow). The disappointing part is you have to register with an email id to use the app.

After registering, you can pair the device to the app by following the on-screen instruction. During our first attempt, the process was stuck at “Updating the firmware” part for a long time. We didn’t want to risk bricking the device during this upgrade process, so we waited for a really, really long time and the deiced to reboot the device with a fresh session of pairing. It worked this time instantly.

MetryGrow 48W LED Grow Light App

There are 5 or 6 useful settings/controls in the app. First is the brightness adjustment. You get to choose between 8 levels of brightness. The second option is the lighting mode (same as the one in the controller). Next is the important scheduling control. You can choose when the light turns on and off every day.

The next option is quite interesting as it allows you to control how the lights turn on or off. There is the normal way where the LEDs turn on and off almost instantly. Then there is the sunrise/sunset way where the LEDs gradually brighten up or down (mimicking the sunrise and sunset lighting).The next option allows you to set the duration of sunset.You can also track the number of days since planting began.

Type
: LED Grow Light
Manufacturer
: MetryGrow
Model
: MGL – 48
Input
: 100-240V 50-60Hz
Output
: 24V2A
Rated Power
: 48W
LED Light
: Full Spectrum LED Lights
Illumination Area
: 2-ft×2f-t
Mounting
: Stand or Ceiling
Adjustable Stand
: Yes, 360° Horizontal and up to 270° Foldable Adjustment
Working Temperature
: -15°C to 55°C (5°F to 131°F)
What's Included
: MetryGrow LED Grow Light Panel, Touch Controller (Wired), AC/DC Adapter, AC Power Cable, Stand Base Plate, Three Stand Tubes (Two are identical), Hooks and Lanyard, User Manual

The selling price of the MetryGrow48WLEDGrowLightkit is $89.99. At the time of reviewing this unitthere is a coupon of $20. We feel thediscounted price is reasonable (albeit it is slightly on the premium end) as you get the light along with the stand in the kit.

Overall, we feel the MetryGrow48WLEDGrowLight is a decent piece of kit for indoor gardening tasks.The mounting options are versatile as you can mount the LED light panel on the stand or drop it from ceiling for a proper downlight. The combination of full-spectrum LEDs and high PPFD performance of the panel means the yield will be better and quicker.

The focus of the light is suitable for a decent coverage of 2ft×2ft area.You can grow fruits, veggies, herbs, or normal indoor plants without any problem.If you are looking for a way to improve your indoor plantation, the MetryGrow LED Grow Light is a worthy product. Whether you are living is a completely closed apartment with very less sunlight or if you have lengthy winters, these grow lights are very useful for indoor gardening.