Medic Grow Smart 8 Review

The Medic Grow Smart 8 is a great light at a phenomenal price. It is a foldable LED Grow Light with 8 LED bars. It pulls 760 watts and can light up a 5×5 space or 4×4 space. The Smart 8 is made for home growers, with an onboard display, dimmer, timer, and bloom switch. I ran it through 9 PAR and ePAR tests, and it excelled, with excellent efficiency and distribution.

It has been an extremely popular light. I got one in February, tested it, and started using it in my tent. But they sold out before I could release my video! It is now back in stock, but don’t sit on it! The Medic Grow Smart 8 is among the best deals in horticultural lighting!

Medic Grow is looking to take a share of the Grow Light market so they are putting out high quality fixtures at prices nobody else can match. The Smart 8 is the third fixture I have tested from Medic Grow. They have all performed well and they set new records for cost efficiency.

The Smart 8 is a cool light. It has a nice white finish and looks stylish. The built-in digital display shows the power setting, an estimate of the PPF, and other key information. There are also two dials and a “Bloom” button. One dial controls the dimmer with options for 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%, and external control. The other dial is a built-in timer. You can leave the timer off or select 6H, 12H, 14H, 16H, or 18H. Those settings will run the light for that duration. The fixture will turn off for the remainder of the 24-hour cycle and then repeat.

If you use the built-in timer, it will activate a sunrise and sunset sequence. The sunrise sequence is helpful to ease plants into the full density light. The built in timer now has a memory, so if you briefly lose power, the Smart-8 will not forget the timing of the cycle. You can just plug it into the wall and select the cycle that you want on the timer. Be aware that it starts the “on” cycle when you set the cycle timing dial.

The Bloom button changes the power of the 660nm deep red diodes. When the bloom button is on, the 660nm diodes are at 100% power. When the bloom button is off, the 660nm diodes are reduced to 60% power. The on-board display will show “F1” when bloom is on and “V1” when bloom is off. I tested it both ways and have more to say below.

The build quality is excellent. The Smart-8 has solid aluminum construction and a nice white finish. The components are solid. The drivers are made by Sosen. They are incorporated into the central chassis. The LEDs are from Sanan and Osram. There are 2880 Full Spectrum 4000k Sanan diodes and 80 Deep Red 660nm Osram diodes. With 760 watts of power, that breaks down to 3.9 diodes per watt or 0.26 watts per diode.

I ran a total of 9 PAR and ePAR tests with the Medic Grow Smart 8. I tested it in a 5×5 space with and without the Bloom button activated. It is plenty of light for a 5×5 space but with such a good price I know growers with 4×4 tents will want to know if they can squeeze it in. I ran tests in a 4×4 at full power for growers with supplemental carbon dioxide. Most growers will have to dim the Smart 8 in a 4×4. I tested it at both 60% and 80% and it made impressive density maps perfect for growers without supplemental carbon dioxide.

In the 5×5 space, I set the hanging height based on the Maximum PAR PPFD with the Bloom switch on. The Smart 8 had a maximum PPFD of 1000 µmol/m² at a hanging height of 58cm (23in). The Smart 8 puts out a lot of light and the distribution is great. The lowest PPFD in the corner is 508 µmol/m² in the PAR range (400-700nm). The values are slightly higher in the ePAR range (400-750nm). In the ePAR test, the maximum PPFD ticked up to 1027 µmol/m² and the lowest corner came up to 533 µmol/m².

In the PAR range, the average PPFD is 747.9 µmol/m². That converts to a usable PPF of 1682.8 µmol. I measured a power draw of 750 watts, so the Smart 8 produced 2.24 µmol of PAR light per watt. In the ePAR test, the average went up to 775.3 µmol/m², which converts to a Usable ePPF of 1744.4 µmol. The Usable Photon Efficiency in the ePAR range is an impressive 2.33 µmol/w.

When I switched the Bloom button off, the power draw went down by about 9%, but the PAR and ePAR values only went down by about 7%. The Smart 8 is slightly more efficient with the Bloom button off. It had a Usable Photon Efficiency of 2.27 µmol/w in the PAR range and 2.37 µmol/w in the ePAR range. Remember, when the bloom button is off, the 660nm diodes are dimmed. The change to the spectral output is minor. You can freely use the bloom button during the whole grow. Turning it off will lower the total flux slightly, and improve the efficiency, which is fine during veg.

In a 4×4 space, the Medic Grow Smart 8 can provide ultra-high density for grows with supplemental carbon dioxide. I ran PAR and ePAR tests with it hung at 12” (30.5cm) above the sensor. The Maximum PPFD in the PAR range was 1481 µmol/m², which is safe for grows with carbon dioxide at 1200 PPM. The fixture is a tight squeeze in a 4×4 space, extending nearly wall to wall. Although the hanging height was low, the distribution of light created by the 8 LED bars is excellent.

After the ePAR test at 100% power, I wanted to run a test at 80% for growers without supplemental carbon dioxide. However, at the 12” hanging height, the maximum ePPFD was still close to 1300 µmol/m² at 80% power. I dimmed the Smart 8 to 60% power and the maximum ePPFD was 989 µmol/m², which is close to perfect for growers without supplemental carbon dioxide. The lowest ePPFD is 566 µmol/m², which is also great. With 60% power and a low hanging height, the efficiency was outstanding at 2.56 µmol/w. In a 4×4 space, most growers will have excellent results running the Smart 8 at 60% power 12” from the canopy.

At 80% power, growers without supplemental carbon dioxide will have to raise the Smart 8 considerably. It is possible to keep the maximum PPFD within the 1000 µmol/m² limit, but I had to raise the Smart 8 up to 66cm (26in) to get there. The efficiency is slightly lower in these tests because the hanging height is so high, but the distribution of photon densities is excellent. The lowest PPFD in the PAR range is 833 µmol/m², which is 83% of the maximum.

I am impressed with the performance, build quality, and especially the cost of the Medic Grow Smart 8. The performance stands up with the top fixtures on the market. It provides excellent coverage and superior photon efficiency. It is well made and has useful features for home growers.

The price is unbeatable. With 10% discount code, CCFC, on medicgrow.com your cost will be only about $566 including shipping. With 1744 µmol of usable light, it comes to only than $0.32/µmol!

The Smart 8 is the third fixture I’ve tested from Medic Grow. The Medic Grow Fold 8 and EZ8 also performed well and set records for cost efficiency. When I first tested the Fold-8, I was skeptical of the low cost. But I now know dozens of growers running Medic Grow lights for over a year and I just ran the Smart 8 myself. The feedback and results have been excellent.