Spider Farmer SF 2000 Review

This is a nice light! The Spider Farmer SF-2000 has great efficiency and produces an excellent spectrum for growing cannabis – including infrared chips. It is sleek and has a few special features that may really appeal to some growers. Notably, it is water resistant – which is great if you foliar feed your plants and inadvertently spray your lights.

The Spider Farmer SF-2000 has top quality components with Samsung LM301B diodes and a Mean Well driver. The chips are mounted on a steel plate which acts as the heatsink. The Mean Well driver is mounted on the top of the steel plate. The current model now features a control module that can dim multiple lights. The model that I tested was not equipped with this feature, but it is dimmable using a screwdriver on the driver.

I would prefer if the driver could be removed from the fixture, but there is not enough cable provided. However, due to its efficiency, heat is not much of an issue with this fixture. After running the fixture for 3 hours, the highest temperature reading that I recorded using an infrared thermometer gun was 57.2C (133F).

I ran this light for two days in my own tent. It took the place of one Mars Hydro TSL 2000. The TSL 2000 draws 85 watts more than the SF-2000. I run the TSL 2000 with the drivers outside the tent. Despite having the driver mounted on the SF-2000 there was no discernible difference in temperatures within my tent. The plants are in Mid-Bloom and seemed to be perfectly content with the SF-2000.

The main selling point for the Spider Farmer SF-2000 is the efficiency. In my PAR test I measured a total Usable PPF of 412.3 and a power draw of 201 watts (@120v) for a Photon Efficiency of 2.05. That is a superior photon efficiency. For a fixture in this price range, it is exceptional.

The main drawback to the SF-2000 is that the distribution of light is less than ideal. As you can see in the PAR map above, in a 60 x 120cm (2’x4’) space, there are regions at each end that receive less than 500 µmol PPFD. On one end this area extends for a full foot. However this is to be expected based on the total amount of Usable PPF that the fixture puts out. At 412.3µmol of Usable PPF, our grow light calculator estimates the coverage area at 6.3 square feet. I am confident that the SF-2000 would produce a much better distribution of light if tested in a 60 x 90cm (2’x3’) space.

Overall, this is a great high efficiency fixture, but it is a little under-powered for the 60 x 120cm (4’x2’) grow space that it is sold to cover. I think that if you want to put only 200 watts into 120 x 60cm (4’x2’) tent then this would be a great light. However, if you want your space to be fully lit, plan for the SF-2000 to cover 90 x 60cm (3’x2’).