My 2 cents on odyssea Lights

[tang-chaser]

I just recently bought a mh cf lighting system made by odyssea (2-250w mh and 4-65w cf). The lamp is used with new lights in it. Well now to the point. I been reading all about these lamps and how people say that they dont work as great, and could cause fires if they had cheap wiring, That they dont produce as much light as other systems, They over heat, and yada yada yada. Well despite the reviews from other forums I just couldn't pass on a good deal. You can say i was taking a chance, but i do understand that theres alot of missleading information on web forums. So yes i was taking a chance. After purchasing i did notice that the fan was going out (the lamp was used) But easily replaced it with a fan from radio shack 25$ which is keeping the lamp at almost room temp. When i took lamp apart, everything was nice and neat and easy to replace. It was just like my coralife on the inside. The cf balast looked he same as the coralifes ballast on the inside (had to replace the ballast on my old coralife recently). All the parts inside are easy to replace plug and play items, I was completely amazed at how structured and well built this light was inside. I didnt understand that over half of the stories i heard online were not making sense to me now. I do belive that most stories can come from novice reefers that may had done something wrong and blamed it on poor quality but thats just my opinion. After taking apart this light and comparing it to the coralifes i have i belive it is great quality. The cf output is the same as the coralife (tested it with same camera settings and bulbs). All in all my results of this light in comparison to coralife is.

Pros:
1/2 the price of other lights.
1)Easy to replace parts.
2)Has good overall quality, and reliability
3)Has multiple plugs for timers
4)stays cool (with new fan) still inconclusive with factory equipped fan

Cons:
1)Mh Ballast may under power light (inconclusive cause I haven't replaced yet)
But this seems to be main topic about these lights on forum. odyssea sells there 250 watt ballast at 50$ when others are over 100$ this could be were there skipping out on the $.
2)Does not have digital timer on lamp (im not sure if they make one that does now)
3)When changing lamps you must unscrew 2 screws on the side.

This is just my input on this light. I will keep you posted if anything else ever happens. But very amazed how well this light is for the price.

[mnemenoi]

I will certainly agree, I have had no problems with my PC fixture. Mine was purchased with a planted 10 gallon in mind and it has done a spectacular job. Glad to see that mine was not simply an oddball. About the only complaint I had was having to swap a 6500K bulb with the standard actinic it came with.

[marauder_77868]

Some of the original stories which have persisted about these were originally put forth by salesmen for the major pet product distributors. Some of the original Jebo and Odyssea lights had issues...but they quickly resolved with the next generation. The only issue of overheating/fire that I heard recently was a couple of people didn't remove the bubble wrap around the bulbs before starting them up. It melted and cooked the bubble wrap...go figure.

[tang-chaser]

I figured it was dumb people or a p.r. campaign. Most problems are user error, or those stupid underpants gnomes that keep stealing my socks and leaving the lights on.