The SF-2000 is the first Spider Farmer light we ever used, and there were two things that we wished they had done. One was to add an on/off switch and the other was to make the dimmer more accessible. Well, with the 2020 refresh they have fixed both of those problems and added a new twist. First though, lets get this thing out of the box and check it out.
As per usual, the packaging is great. The light came secured in cardboard and foam, along with the usual hanging hardware and the new communication cable. Now, if you watched last weeks video where we reviewed the SF-1000, we mentioned the new ability to chain these lights together. This is something that we will definitely be digging into later in the video. The dimensions of the light are the same at 25.5” by 10.5” and 2.5” tall with no fans. It is still pulling just over 200 watts of power at full brightness, which goes down to 10 watts at the minimum dim setting.
First up let’s look at the SF-2000 by itself. The numbers are fairly similar to the 2019 version, but just a little higher.
At a 12” height, the center of the light is pushing 1151 PAR, fading out as expected around the edges down to a low of 108.
Rising the light up to 18” brings the center levels to 627 with lower levels going out from there down to a low of 121.
At 24” height, the center of the light is showing 422, which drops to a low of 142 on one side.
When we rise it to 36” the center measurement goes to 275, with the lowest reading on the outside being 154.
So those are much the same, but as they also just sent us the new SF-1000 I ran some tests with them linked together in the Spider Farmer 2’x4’ grow tent. When you use the communication cable between the two lights, it allows you to control them both from the first light. In this case adjusting the dimmer on the SF-2000 will change them both, as will using the on/off switch. Lets take a look at the numbers with them combined to see what we get. With this test the SF-2000 is on the right side of the tent, with the SF-1000 sitting on the left side with a space between them.
At 12” the highest measurement is 1212 PAR. However the lowest number is 211 on the left side, with the majority of the numbers being higher overall.
Raising the light up to 18” brings the highest number to 750, with the low number on the left side hitting 267.
At a 24” height, the center is showing 525 with the a low of 230 on the left side.
When we raise it to 36”, the high number is 387 with a low of 147 on the left.
The lights work incredibly well together, and using them both really spreads the light out to the corners of the tent much better than a single light on its own.
With the updated 2020 version of the Spider Farmer SF-2000, they kept everything that we liked about the light in the first place and added in everything that we wished it had. If you want to see how the light works in a grow with a 2’x4’ grow tent, we recently finished a grow with the 2019 version, and you can see how that went. Spoiler alert, it was great!