why are odyssea lights so cheap?

[kevinly]

Just wondering why are odyssea lights so cheap? I was looking to get some but not sure how others think about them?

[fshfrk]

made in china.

[geoff_tropheus]

Noisy fans, crappy ballasts, overheating ballasts, cheap materials, no repair parts, service people live overseas, etc...basically you get what you paid for kind of stuff and service...

Oh yeah and the people complain about stray voltages and the units in the past have caught fire..

[newb]

I have two 36" T5's from them and they are cheap and the bulbs are cheap, but they get pretty dang hot when they are on for a little while. I also have a 48" 4x65watt PC and I love this light. In my opinion is it better than the Coralife version of this same light. It is way cheaper and runs cooler, neither of them make hardly any noise at all.

[aggrofishkeeper]

Mines bright and doesn't get that hot. 2x12k 54watt bulbs.

[jeebus]

I've had good luck with the 48" dual bulb T5 models. (or are they T6's???...)

[thor]

yeah, i was skeptic of odyssea light at first from reading about ballast getting on fire but decide to buy one anyway..low price was too good to pass up. I have no problem so far!

[kevinly]

I have a 48" 2x54 watt t5 and it doesnt seem to be hot just warm after its been on for awhile. I have had them for over 6 months.

[nacra99]

Because they are absolutely crappy.
I have bought my share of odyssea equipment over the years because they were cheap.
All of them broke or need significant modification to work well.

The worst thing that happened was the legs from my 30" 250W MH + 2x65W CF fixture broke during the night and the entire fixture FELL INTO THE TANK!!!!
Thankfully my circuit breaker caught the short circuit.

That and two (2!!) seperate bak-pak knock offs failing & flooding my office.

I'd stay away from them.... go with the "original" brands and not the knockoffs....
Just my 3.8 Cents

[naps]

Yeah I will NEVER buy odyssea again. I had a hood with a CF 65w x 4 light in it and I had to replace the ballasts 4 times...then the thing started sparking when it would turn on...glad it didn't burn down the house.