Radion G5 Rant. $900?

[Bpb]

I thinks it's hilarious when the 'poor me's' cry about they can't afford the latest and greatest.

Maybe a bit of an abrasive comment but you’re not entirely wrong. I don’t necessarily fall in the “can’t afford” category. More like “probably shouldn’t buy it” category. But all the same. Just because a product is out of someone’s budget doesn’t make it unfair by default. And the complaints serve no purpose beyond venting

 

[Silver14SS]

I thinks it's hilarious when the 'poor me's' cry about they can't afford the latest and greatest.

To me, all of the price complaint threads come across as "I want this, but don't want to pay this much for it." There will be plenty of people who find the product value is worth $900 to them.

 

[lmm1967]

*experience=expense ?
Do you know anyone that is actually doing that?


IMO MAP pricing is price fixing, so I won’t do business with them.

More things than we realize are subject to MAP - Ecotech and many others aren't doing MAP (minimum ADVERTISED pricing) - they are doing MSP (minimum SALES pricing).

Both of which have been deemed perfectly fine by SCOTUS unfortunately.

 

[WWIII]

As long as Ecotech doesn’t raise their price by 10% again a year before they come out with G6 I’m fine with it. That’s what really turned me off. The Gen4’s had been out several years, then they raise the price by 10%, then a year later come out with Gen5 and discount gen 4 by 20%. They squeezed as much as they could out of that stock.

 

[siggy]

Hey anybody into skeet or trap shooting? A 12 gauge can range from 300 to 30K Plus! Pick your poison.
I Finally bought a Browning OU , my Very successful friend got the 22k Merkel ;Wideyed
I don't HATE Merkel or those buying them.
If you think you can build a better mouse trap do it! I looked into building a Led light when I first got back in. I Have access to raw materials and components at wholesale pricing. Engineering, Design, and sourcing components bulk takes time $$$
and resources, then skilled assemblers and a facility with tooling to do all this at the level of quality that all you folks DEMAND is impossible. I haven't even touched on apps, soft/firmware, marketing, logistics and Warranty ;Woot
I have a headache

Tariffs on leds/lighting and Aluminum helped to inflate pricing

Logistics Management - Peerless Media

www.peerlessmedia.com

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

You can give 2 guys the same amount of money and each will spend it their own. One guy can go buy a new corvette and the other can build a sick tank. For the most part your not gonna get your money back out but it’s what you enjoy. I have brand new G4’s in the box for my build in process I’ve been selling because I figure I’d lose less money now then if i use them and in a year or 2 I want to upgrade to g5.

 

[greekspec2]

Hey anybody into skeet or trap shooting? A 12 gauge can range from 300 to 30K Plus! Pick your poison.
I Finally bought a Browning OU , my Very successful friend got the 22k Merkel ;Wideyed
I don't HATE Merkel or those buying them.
If you think you can build a better mouse trap do it! I looked into building a Led light when I first got back in. I Have access to raw materials and components at wholesale pricing. Engineering, Design, and sourcing components bulk takes time $$$
and resources, then skilled assemblers and a facility with tooling to do all this at the level of quality that all you folks DEMAND is impossible. I haven't even touched on apps, software, marketing, logistics and Warranty ;Woot
I have a headache

Tarifs on leds/lighting and Aluminum helped to inflate pricing

I own a few Remington High Grades from the Custom Shop I paid $12k for my 700 and $10k for my 1100. I'm currently getting another high grade re-stocked and reblued at the Custom Shop $6800

 

[CoralFragZ]

It really comes down to buying the pizza or making it yourself and what type of ingredients so an TL;DR analogy. But real quick. Yes Ecotech where very smart with releasing the coral lab paper and AB+ schedule to convince. The price point is not a big deal for small tanks but when you get up to a 10 footer or running a bunch of culturing systems it is cost prohibitive. Back to marketing another ingenious thing that they did is identify the top and most social vendors such as wwc, jason fox and I suspect that they were given or acquired the lights at a significant reduced price point. In my experience the first Gen Black boxes worked just fine to grow coral even though the fans sucked and they where not designed and validated for the saltwater environment. One issue I see with the lights is that you don't get the maximum wattage considering the amount of white leds which most ppl keep at 30% or less. For all these reasons I ended up with COBS and T5 at a fraction of the up front cost, but at a slightly higher operation cost. Encourage those with larger systems to look into COBS and making your own lighting system and design it in a way to allow you to adapt the new technology as it is released or invented!

 

[Infidel]

I own a few Remington High Grades from the Custom Shop I paid $12k for my 700 and $10k for my 1100. I'm currently getting another high grade re-stocked and reblued at the Custom Shop $6800

I shoot trap just fine with a long-barreled, Savage M720 (post WWII).

 

[Oberst Oswald]

People, like me, have no place for a bigger tank, can't fit another fish in what I have (65 gallon) and after 3 years corals are growing where they have to be trimmed and removed. There comes a point where I have nothing to spend my fish money on except food, a few snails or a hermit crab. Got the Trident installed and working doing tests. Have 2 G3's (non pro) so it is time for an upgrade to a Pro model. Two G5 Blues will be bought that I don't need. It is sad when I go to the fish store and look at the tanks of fish & corals wanting more but can't. Was involved with fish (freshwater) since I was 8 years old when my father was given a jar of guppies. I'm 67 now. Going on 4 years saltwater now and I want to keep the thrill when I was a marine beginner. You guys setting up a 1st tank or going bigger this is the best time. Once successful and a few years coral growth you will be in the same boat as me and be looking for things to keep the enthusiasm alive. Can't wait to get the lights... just for the Hell of it.

 

[nickkohrn]

I sold my four Radions and went to an ATI SunPower, and I couldn't be happier. T5 bulbs don't change, and I don't feel the need to get the latest and greatest. To go along with the mentions of iPhone in this thread, I already do that with iPhone because I am an iOS developer, so I need the newest devices as well as the oldest, still supported, devices to test apps with.

 

[Dilan Patel]

So I run blackboxes on my tank and they grow coral well. I have 6 of those and some accent t-5 lighting...Yesterday I just picked up 2 Radion G4 xr15 for my sump...I spent more money for a sump light than for my main display lol. But my sump doubles as a frag tank. I probably could have added two more blackboxes underneath and have been fine but I decided since the radions were on sale plus the diffuser I would try them out and really see the difference first hadn between my blackboxes and radions. I got a lot of coral selling to make up for this purchase but im hoping by paying just a little bit more I get a more refined product which has been proving by thousands of people .

 

[Bob Weigant]

Well since I just bought the last gen 4 pro I needed for my tank I’m going to run them for as long as I can. Same way when I upgrade when the new iPhones come out. If my iPhone 8 continues to work fine then there is no reason to upgrade

 

[mrpizzaface]

It seems clear our hobby will support this light and others like it. This thread and threads like it promote a toxic sour grapes mentality.

 

[btmedic04]

I'm happy the new G5s coming out. Of course I'd love for them to be priced lower, but I currently am running 2x gen 4 xr15s on a 40b. I picked up a third at brs with the diffuser and am set on lighting for the next several years unless I decide to upgrade to a 5ft+ tank.

These lights may have iphone pricing, but ecotech isnt slowing them down or bricking them forcing users to upgrade like apple did. Like Ryan said during yesterday's BRS livestream, if your happy with your growth and color, then theres no need to upgrade

 

[atoll]

As long as Ecotech doesn’t raise their price by 10% again a year before they come out with G6 I’m fine with it. That’s what really turned me off. The Gen4’s had been out several years, then they raise the price by 10%, then a year later come out with Gen5 and discount gen 4 by 20%. They squeezed as much as they could out of that stock.

Here in the UK gen4s are the same price as The new G5s. Yet when the new Hydras came out the 26 and 52s dropped considerably and it seemed up to the retailer by how much as prices were all over the place. Some LFSs even kept the prices the same.

 

[Backreefing]

I agree with the original poster who has problems with $900 lights that you probably will need two or more . $1800 wew
I just lately switched to metal halides from BB LEDs . Let’s compare I spent $120 for the halides with ballasts ( used of course) but new will be about $700-$800 new . Yes the heat , $20 for a fan or two yes the electricity..... oh wait how many watts are the new radons 205ish full power ? Not much savings there my Halides are 250 watts . Also metal halides are like photon cannons with extreme power . Radons are strong but they ain’t no cannons .
I did it for $200 with new bulbs , $1800 for radons ? nah not today

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

It’s $900 because that is what someone is willing to pay for this product from Ecotech. Myself included.

Don’t like it and want to pay less? Options abound for that too. Plenty of reports from black box users claiming great growth with $100 unit. There you go. No App, no firmware, no support. Just a box of led and a fan for $100 like you want it

 

[ca1ore]

Not sure why anyone would think these lights would be priced lower than their predecessor. Clearly enough folks are willing to pay the entry fee. Older lights didn’t suddenly stop working, or somehow decline in performance. In fact, I see Gen5 as a wonderful opportunity to buy another Gen4 at a reduced price.

 

[Reef Mania LLC]

That pricing is crazy, its just like apple. I could do much more with that money to my reef tank!