Hey guys, I have a quick question. This is for a friend who keeps saltwater tanks. With HQI double ended metal halides by top notch manufacturers like Ushio being discontinued, there are alot of generics floating on eBay. The equivalent may cost say $12 vs $50 for a 14K bulb say. Well Plusrite seems to have been around for a long time and for a similar cheap price. So I was wondering if they are a "more reliable upscale" entry level "non-big brand" type of company vs generic. That's what i'm hoping, that they are like the Amazon Basics (good quality and sometimes better) version of the Ushios not total fly by night crap.

Thanks! -Mike

From what I have heard, Plusrite is pretty bad. But I'm not an expert.

I consider Plusrite to be the[/b] cheap, low quality Chinese manufacturer. Lol. Don't expect any lamps from them to meet, let alone exceed their rated service life.

Hey guys, I have a quick question. This is for a friend who keeps saltwater tanks. With HQI double ended metal halides by top notch manufacturers like Ushio being discontinued, there are alot of generics floating on eBay. The equivalent may cost say $12 vs $50 for a 14K bulb say. Well Plusrite seems to have been around for a long time and for a similar cheap price. So I was wondering if they are a "more reliable upscale" entry level "non-big brand" type of company vs generic. That's what i'm hoping, that they are like the Amazon Basics (good quality and sometimes better) version of the Ushios not total fly by night crap.

Thanks! -Mike

With Chinese lamps you have a lottery. Some are made surprisingly well, and some will get sputtered in just 100 hours. No way around it, even different quality lamps from different eastern factories may appear under the same brand. No more BLV/Ushio/Iwasaki etc, no more predictable quality