18W Plant Grow Light with Auto Turn On Function, slitinto Dual Head 36 LED 5 Dimmable Levels Grow Lamp Bulbs, 3/6/12H Timer, Spectrum Switching, Adjustable Gooseneck for Indoor Plants [New Converter]

I have a few grow lights that are similar to this one and this one has some notable improvements over them. I’ll address those first with a more general review afterwardsThe big one for me is that the timer function on this light doesn’t only turn off the lights after a certain number of hours but it then turns the light on again for the next 24 hour cycle. This is a great feature since the electronics of these lights prevent you from putting them on an external timer outlet. The UI is a little obscure: there is no way to adjust the turn-on time than when you first enabled the timer. In other words, if I want the light to turn on at 9am every day, then I need to first enable the timer at 9am. If it is currently 10am, there is no way to say the light should turn on at 9am. Additionally, the only indication that the timer is active at all is that the led blinks on the controller; there is no way to know when the light will turn on again. The internal clock also seems to drift a few minutes over several days of use. It is hard to measure exactly how much unless you’re standing around when the light turns on, but I estimate it drifted about 30-60 seconds per day. This can be reset by just disabling and re-enabling the timer. Despite all this, I find the feature useful and it keeps my plants happier than relying on me to turn the lights on every day.The other new feature is that you can choose which spectrum the light should operate in: red, blue, or both. I’ve read that some plants will react better in different stages of their lifecycle (e.g. flowering vs growing) with different lights but I don’t have any experience with this. It is nice to have the option to play with it, though.More generally, this light makes my plants much happier than they would be in my apartment which gets too little light for them. Within days of setting it up they had noticeable new growth and their leaves looked a bit lusher. There are two LED rods at the end of goosenecks that you can angle in different directions but they don’t twist so pointing in some directions is much harder. There is a clamp that should fit over about ½” I estimate. If you have tall plants you might want to attach the lamp to a different surface since it doesn’t have a ton of height.It is powered by USB and comes with a USB outlet adapter so you can plug it either into a wall outlet or a USB power source if that is easier.Overall I’m quite happy with the lamp and would recommend it to friends. I am giving it five stars because I think it is a good value and my primary issue with it–that the UI for the timer is a bit hard to use–would be hard to resolve, in my opinion, at this price point.

EDIT: The company that sells these reached out to me looking for additional information on the problem(s) so that they might be able to better assure it doesn't happen to others in the future, and also offered a replacement or refund. (Thank you, Diana!) The customer service is wonderful with them! I did manage to get my light working finally by taking the advice of other reviewers and using a USB adapter of my own rather than the one that comes with the light. That fixed both issues of the light not staying on AND the auto-on feature not working; both work just fine now! I am upping my review to five stars, because although it was a disappointment to have a problem to begin with and to have to switch out to a USB adapter of my own, the customer service is impeccable and I DID manage to fix the light so that it works as intended. And I love it! Don't let this issue deter you from purchasing: apparently, it was just a problem with a certain batch, and they are working hard to make sure it gets fixed!..............................[ORIGINAL REVIEW]Like other reviewers, I'm having frustrating issues with the light not staying on. I turn it on and it shuts itself right back off. Sometimes I am able to get it stay on if I quickly hit the color changer fast enough after turning it on, but it's chance as to which colors will stay on for me. The auto-on feature also does not work, and that's the one feature I purchased this lamp for!I loved the light while it was working the first couple of times, but it seems to have been a waste of money at this point. I purchased another to replace this one before learning (as another reviewer stated) that I could maybe fix the light shutting off issue by using a usb converter of my own rather than the one that comes with it, but even if that works, the auto-on feature still does not, AND now I have a second lamp that may or may not have the same issues! Would give five stars if it was a working unit, but I'm super disappointed right now. :(

7-31 UPDATE EDIT: The company that sells these reached out to me looking for additional information on the problem(s) so that they might be able to better assure it doesn't happen to others in the future, and also offered a replacement or refund. (Thank you, Diana!) The customer service is wonderful with them! I did manage to get my light working finally by taking the advice of other reviewers and using a USB adapter of my own rather than the one that comes with the light. That fixed both issues of the light not staying on AND the auto-on feature not working; both work just fine now! I am upping my review to five stars, because although it was a disappointment to have a problem to begin with and to have to switch out to a USB adapter of my own, the customer service is impeccable and I DID manage to fix the light so that it works as intended. And I love it! Don't let this issue deter you from purchasing: apparently, it was just a problem with a certain batch, and they are working hard to make sure it gets fixed!