Spectrum King Phoenix 680W Review

Let's take a look at the Phoenix 680W by Spectrum King LED, released in March of 2022. LED Grow Lights Depot named this ‘Best New Light’ in our Best LED Grow Lights of 2022 video. 

The 680W is part of the Phoenix series, which also includes a 340W veg fixture, an 840W full spectrum fixture, and a 1050W full spectrum fixture. The fixtures differ in the number of bars, light output, wattage draw, and spectrum, but have the same dimensions of 47” x 43”. The veg light is best suited for a 4'x4' veg, the 840W is ideal for a 4.5'x4.5' to 5'x5' area, and the 1050W is designed for a 5'x5' to 6'x6' area. These fixtures are designed for vertical racking, grow tents, or open rooms in home or commercial grows.

Build

The Phoenix 680W, and the rest of entire Phoenix line, is extremely light weight. The 680W is only 20 lbs which includes the light and driver.

A Sosen or uPowerTtek driver (Spectrum King uses both) sits on the bars and is removable. These drivers have been shown to have some of the best surge protection on the market. The boards are also protected from a power surge.

The driver includes RJ12 connections for hooking up a 0-10V controller and daisy chaining these fixtures.

A dimmer is typically not included with the light but can be added for a small additional cost. Spectrum King chose not to integrate them into the fixture since they wanted to design the best grow light with no weak points. The dimmer ranges from 100% to 10% and switches to off. 

Specs

The Phoenix 680W draws 680W at the wall at 277V. When I measured it at 112V and received a reading of 683 watts at an amperage of 6.06. The plug type is available as a NEMA 5-15 120V, NEMA 6-15 240V, or L7-15P or L7-20P, which are for 277V applications. The lights are also available in 200-480V by special request.

The total light output of the fixture is reported at 1870 umol/S with an efficacy of 2.75 umol/J. 

The light will flower a 4’x4’ area or a less intense 5’x’5 area. The optimal hanging distance for flower is around 18", with a range of 12-24" in most applications.

Expect a heat output of 2,320 BTU/hour from this fixture. 

The Phoenix 680W is DLC listed,  ETL and CE certified, and IP65 wet-rated. There is a 5-year manufacturer’s warranty included with the purchase of this light.

Diodes and Spectrum

Spectrum King uses custom diodes from Tier 1 manufacturers including Samsung, OSRAM, Seoul, and CREE. Spectrum King claims that these are more powerful than the standard 3030 diodes that are commonly used in other brands.

As you can see above, the Spectrum is well-balanced, providing healthy blue to reduce stretch and maximize terpenes, and red to stimulate growth and boost flower size.

There are not any UV or Far Red diodes in the fixture, but the spectrum provides 2% Far Red, which comes from the white diodes, to help stimulate the Emerson Effect and supercharge photosynthesis.

The LEDs are rated for 62,000 hours at Q90, which is similar to L90, but is a more complete metric since it takes into account more than just the visible light. Q90 means that the LEDs will maintain more than 90% of their luminosity for at least 62,000 hours.

This spectrum can be used for seedling to harvest growth, but really excels in flowering. 

Summary

Overall, this is an excellent fixture. I like how lightweight it is while still maintaining a high-quality feel and build. The components, from the driver all the way down to the diodes, are top-notch.

This fixture provides a lot of light for your money at a high photosynthetic efficiency. In other words. the price point of $729 is excellent, considering the high PPF and PPE. Other lights, like the Gavita 1700e are several hundred dollars more (over $1000) and emit less light at a lower photosynthetic efficiency (2.6 umol/J).

If you need to cover a larger area or really want to maximize the potential of your plants, check out the Phoenix 840W or 1050W. 

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