PlatinumLED with their Advanced Platinum Series of LED grow lights is a recent newcomer to the UK market, having come over from the good old US of A. Finally, it's good to see that our choice of decent LED grow lamps in the UK is increasing and we might just be starting to see the level of choice of lights the Americans have been treated to these past few years.
In the US, where some of the best consumer LED grow lights are available, PlatinumLED grow lights are one of the more popular consumer brands on the market and have received a lot of positive reviews. Platinum LED itself is a family-run business using 'Fulfilled-By-Amazon' or FBA, meaning that the LED grow lights are shipped to a UK Amazon warehouse for sale here so even though the seller is based in the US, ordering the grow equipment is as quick and easy as ordering an item from any UK-based seller.
The lights themselves are well designed and the build quality is excellent. But by far the biggest positive with these lights is in their light emission spectrum. Unlike many of the lights in the UK, these Platinum LED lights include UV and Far-Red/IR LED bulbs complementing their array of red and blue LED grow bulbs making up a wide 12-band wavelength custom spectrum optimised for plant growth - and they DON'T contain any white LEDs which is another big positive. In addition, with many LED plant lights, you can never be quite sure of LED bulb quality, but with Platinum LED, you can at least rest assured that these full spectrum LED grow lights use high-quality Bridgelux bulbs (NB: although the bulbs are made in the USA, the grow light itself is manufactured in China).
Another unique feature of these LED grow lamps is their ability to modify the spectral settings between vegetative growth (higher proportion of blue light) and the promotion of the flowering stage of plant growth where they increase the proportion of red light. As with other LED grow lights, PlatinumLED also run their LED bulbs at a lower power output than their maximum-rated wattage of 3W in order to keep the bulbs running at a cooler temperature and therefore preserve their lifespan - but even at this low power level, that is more than sufficient to cover the growth area the grow lights are designed for.
For the more professional indoor grower, PlatinumLED also has bigger LED plant grow lights for sale, most of which are now available in the UK (see table below). On the more negative side, don't expect the fans to be 'whisper-quiet' as the seller has advertised - no decent consumer-grade LED grow lamp can run without cooling fans that are not dissimilar to the ones you find in any desktop computer - in other words, there is always going to be some fan noise. But overall, we would say that PlatinumLED lights are currently one of the best available options for quality LED grow lights in the UK!
The PlatinumLED Grow Lights in the UK
