UFO LED Grow Light (Best Lights Reviewed By An Actual Grower)

UFO LED grow lights used to be popular.

These days fewer people want one and fewer manufacturers make them.

Why is that?

To be honest, I’m not sure.

While I would not buy a UFO LED as my primary light, they make great supplemental lighting.

Their unique shape gives them a round coverage area, which is often better suited to a garden of plants than a square area. It generally results in a more even coverage as well.

The problem is that, with so many manufacturers no longer making UFOs, there are very few good ones left on the market.

I’ve done the research and found the best UFO LED grow lights currently on the market for a number of different categories.

You may notice a few categories missing.

Categories that used to be quite popular, like all-blue UFOs. They are missing, because there are no longer any good options left in those categories.

All-blue UFOs, for example, are virtually extinct. I suppose that makes sense. It is much easier to just get a couple of cool white fluorescent bulbs. They do the same thing and actually have a better spectrum.

But while a UFO LED may not make sense as a vegging light, they do make sense as supplemental lighting for flowering or to fill in shadow areas.

If that’s what you need, then here are the best round LED grow lights available today.

 

UFO LED Grow Lights Compared

09/28/2022 05:11 pm GMT

 

Best UFO LED Grow Lights Reviewed

These are the top 5 round LED grow lights currently available. I’ll begin with the best overall, and then follow with the best all-red, the best COB only, the best budget option, and a budget alternative to the best red-spectrum light, because that one is a little pricey.

 

Best UFO LED Overall: Growstar 300 Watt Cree COB Light

The main reasons I recommend this Growstar 300 watt Cree COB light are the central chip-on-board LED from Cree and the ideal color spectrum for plants.

COB LEDs are more powerful than standard LEDs and they penetrate much deeper into the canopy as a result. They also emit a full-spectrum white light that is great for plants. Learn what makes COBs great for plants here.

Cree is the leading manufacturer of COB chips and has a great reputation among growers. Cree COBs are the best in the industry and I love that this budget light has a CREE chip and not a cheap imitation.

The COB provides 3000K warm white light that contains all wavelengths and the surrounding Bridglux/Epileds diodes provide additional red and blue light to really boost growth and yields. UV and IR diodes are also included. They all combine to give you the perfect spectrum for plants.

While the Growstar 300w LED grow light may be able to flower a single plant, I would mainly use it as supplemental lighting for an area of 2.5 by 2.5 feet max. It consumes only 115 watts and gives you an output of 801 umol/m²/s at 12 inches from the plant canopy and 260 umol/m²/s at 24 inches. That makes it very energy efficient.

This same light is also available as a 150 watt led grow light. Everything written here about the 300w version goes for the UFO LED grow light 150w version as well. To see the specifications of the smaller version, click the button below and check it out on Amazon.

Growstar give you a 2-year warranty with your purchase of their 300w round LED grow light and their 150w LED grow light. This light replaces (and is a huge improvement on) the old Blackstar LED plant lights from Lighthouse Hydro, which went out of business a few years ago.

 

Best All-Red UFO: G8LED 90 Watt Flower Booster

The 300 watt G8LED Flower Booster UFO light is not only the best red-spectrum UFO on this list, it is also the highest quality fixture by far. Naturally, it has a high price to match the quality.

If you are looking specifically to add red-spectrum light to your garden, because your primary light is mainly for growing, i.e. heavy on blue and light on red, then this is the best way to do that. If this fixture is outside your budget, check out the last light on this list. It can perform the same function at less than half the price.

However, if your primary light is already good at flowering and you just want to add some power, you’re better off with a light that has a more rounded spectrum. The G8 Flower Booster only has diodes in two colors and both are shades of red: 630 nm and 660 nm.

It generates an output of 770 umol/m²/s dead center at 12 inches from the canopy and 190 umol/m²/s at 24 inches.  It does this with a wattage draw of 80 watts. It covers a 3 by 3 foot area, but only as supplemental lighting, obviously. It is mainly suitable as a flowering booster for plants like cannabis.

The G8LED UFO LED grow light 90w conforms to UL Standard 1598 and comes with a 2 year manufacturer warranty and good customer service. It also has a 90 day money back guarantee offer, which is the longest I’ve seen, even among the highest priced American made lights.

 

Best COB Only UFO: Canagrow 100 Watt COB UFO

I voted this Canagrow 100 watt light as the best COB UFO LED grow light (back when it was still round, before they changed it to a square format), but considered it as the best budget option, too. It costs about the same as the next light on this list. I ended up choosing that one, because it gets a better light spread.

This one has definite advantages over the Shengsite though. First of all, it is tiny. This makes it easy to place anywhere Second, as a COB light, it gets much deeper canopy penetration.

You may be wondering why the first grow light on this list was not chosen as the best COB light. I considered it, but decided against it, because it has a smaller COB LED than this one (30w vs. 100w) and most of its light comes from the surrounding regular LED diodes. This light is the best pure COB UFO.

This plant light does not emit huge amounts of light, but it only draws around 50 watts and is meant solely as a supplemental light, so the low power is to be expected. Considering the ridiculously low price, you’re actually getting a lot of output for your money.

Even better, since the light only has a single COB LED, it does not generate tons of heat. The unique design is able to deal with all of the heat generated, so there is no need for a fan. This means completely silent operation.

A nice touch: this light is waterproof which is unheard of at this low price. Canagrow give you a 2 year warranty and a 30 day money back guarantee with your purchase of this nifty little light fixture.

 

Best Budget UFO LED: Shengsite 50 Watt

My pick for best budget round LED is the Shengsite 50 watt UFO LED grow light. It beat out the previous light above, which goes for around the same price, due to its larger form factor.

As a larger fixture, with 250 small diodes spread out across that fixture, it achieves a much more even coverage. While the Canagrow light is more powerful dead center, this light gives you more output around the sides of the coverage area.

If you are using the light to fill in shadow areas on a plant, the Canagrow light is probably better. It is easy to place in a variety of positions. If you want to supplement over a larger area, this light is better suited for the task.

Consuming only 50 watts, this light manages to deliver 215 umol/m²/s dead center at 20 inches and 135 umol/m²/s at 40 inches. Depending on how much power you need, this light can cover an area up to 4 by 4 feet or more. I would hang it lower and have it cover 2 by 2 max.

64 of the 250 diodes are blue, with a wavelength of 460 to 470 nm. The remaining 186 diodes are red, with a wavelength of 660 to 670 nm. That is a 3 to 1 ratio of red to blue.

As a supplemental plant light, this is a good ratio, but the complete lack of white light is never ideal. I would only use this if my plants were already getting white light from my primary fixture or from natural sunlight.

Shengsite provides a 1 year warranty, which is a shorter time than the other lights on this page. They do give you a 30 day money back guarantee. The light is rated for 50,000 hours, so it should easily outlast the warranty period.

 

Budget G8LED Alternative: Roleadro LED 600 Watt

Even though the Roleadro 600 watt light seems like the most powerful UFO on this list and costs about the same as the less-powerful top choice, I rated it much lower.

Why is that?

Two reasons. First, the power is nowhere near as large as Roleadro would have you believe (as a company, they engage in even larger exaggeration than most Chinese brands, who already exaggerate A LOT). Second, the spectrum is not as good.

Let’s address the first issue. Roleadro (and Galaxyhydro; they are the same) is one of the worst companies out there in terms of exaggeration. They call this a 600 watt light, but with ninety 3 watt diodes, the maximum possible draw is 270 watts. The actual draw is around 95 watts.

Also note that Roleadro does not provide the actual wattage (other companies that exaggerate will at least hide the actual wattage somewhere in their specs), or any info about the output of their light. That alone tells you everything you need to know about this company.

And the lying just makes no sense.

If you compare this light to similar lights, it does very well. That is why I included it here, after all. I would have even ranked it higher, but I HATE false exaggeration. I’ve accepted that it is simply the way Chinese companies do business, but Roleadro takes the false claims to a whole new level. I cannot excuse that and docked points because of it.

As for the second point, the spectrum, it is not bad, but not as good as the Growstar spectrum. The Roleadro UFO also has a full-spectrum light, but only barely. It consists of mostly red and some blue diodes, plus two each of white, UV and IR.

The two solitary white diodes are not enough. If this plant light had more white diodes, it would have a more rounded spectrum, with plenty of green and yellow to go along with the peaks on red and blue. As it stands, it is essentially just a red/blue light, with some UV and IR.

That still makes it a good supplemental UFO LED grow light, especially for flowering plants. That said, I, personally, would not get this light, simply because I do not like Roleadro’s ridiculously exaggerated claims. You’ll have to decide for yourself how much that bothers you.

 

Best UFO LED Grow Light: Final Thoughts

UFO style lights are no longer as prevalent as they once were. In fact, it is difficult to find truly good UFO fixtures on the market at all. But there are still a few.

They are led by the Growstar UFOs that combine an all-white COB with supplemental diodes and the G8LED all-red UFO that makes for a great supplemental light to add a nice boost to the flowering stage. The other three lights are also good, but perhaps not quite as useful. Of course, this does depend on your needs.