Gavita 1700e vs Luxx 645
The Gavita Pro 1700e LED and the Luxx 645 LED Pro were the two grow lights commercial growers cross-shopped hardest when ~645W bar-style LEDs replaced the 1000W double-ended HPS. Both are now off the market: the 1700e has been superseded by Gavita's RS line, and Luxx Lighting was discontinued by Hawthorne in late 2022. If you came here to buy, the modern answer is the Gavita RS 1900e from the Gavita range; here is how the original matchup played out and why.
I spent a lot of time running ~645W-class bars in 4x4 and 5x5 rooms during the HPS-to-LED transition, and I had both of these fixtures in rotation. The short version: the Luxx 645 pushed a slightly higher raw photon count for the money, while the Gavita ran a more balanced full-cycle spectrum and the better-known support network behind it. Neither is worth chasing on the used market today, because the current Gavita units beat both on efficiency. Here is the honest breakdown.
Gavita 1700e vs Luxx 645: Specs at a Glance
Both fixtures landed in the same ~645W, ~1700 to 1800 µmol/s class, which is why they were so often compared. The numbers below reflect the original fixtures as they were sold. Treat them as historical reference points, not current buying specs, since both lines have since been retired.
The pattern most old comparisons fixated on: the Luxx posted a marginally higher PPF and efficiency on paper, while the Gavita leaned on a more deliberate full-cycle spectrum with dedicated deep-red diodes. In real rooms that difference was small. What actually separated them was support and ecosystem, and that gap only widened once Luxx left the market.
Who Won on What?
About Gavita: Is It a Good Brand?
Yes, and it is the more relevant of the two today because it is still here. Gavita is a Dutch horticultural lighting company, now part of Hawthorne Gardening, with deep roots in the commercial double-ended HPS era. That HPS pedigree is why the 1700e was trusted in serious flower rooms: growers already ran Gavita ballasts and controllers, so the LED slotted into existing infrastructure. The brand's calling card is repeatable, room-scale lighting that integrates with a master controller rather than a pile of standalone dimmer knobs.
The 1700e has been replaced by the RS line, which is what you actually buy now. The Gavita RS 1900e delivers 1900 µmol/s at 3.0 µmol/J on a 4x4 footprint, and the step-up Gavita Pro RS 2400e pushes 2400 µmol/s from the same 4x4 frame for higher-intensity flower. Both pair with the Gavita EL3 master controller for sunrise and sunset dimming, the same room-control philosophy that made the original Gavita gear popular. You can see the full range in our lineup of commercial LED grow lights.
About Luxx Lighting: What Happened to the 645?
Luxx Lighting built a loyal following among commercial cannabis growers with the 645 LED Pro, a clean, efficient white-light bar fixture that often topped third-party PAR maps for its wattage. It was a genuinely good light. The problem is not performance, it is availability: Hawthorne Gardening announced it would discontinue the Luxx brand at the end of 2022, so there is no current production, no new-unit warranty pipeline, and a shrinking parts supply.
Spectrum and Full-Cycle Growing
This was the clearest real difference between the two. The Luxx 645 ran a warmer, white-dominant spectrum around 3900K with no separate red channel, which is excellent broad-spectrum light but leans on the white diodes to cover flower. The Gavita 1700e paired a 3000K white base with dedicated 660nm Osram deep-red diodes, putting energy right at the chlorophyll absorption peak that drives flowering. In practice both finished a crop well, but growers chasing the last bit of flower response tended to prefer the Gavita's red-supplemented mix.
The modern Gavita RS fixtures took a different tack again, using a broad white spectrum supplemented with enhanced blue, which Gavita ties to improved terpene and cannabinoid development. If you want to understand why these spectral choices matter more than headline wattage, our explainer on how important PPFD is in indoor growing walks through reading these numbers for your own canopy.
Efficiency and Running Cost
Efficiency is measured in micromoles per joule (µmol/J): higher means more usable light per watt and a lower power bill over a multi-year run. The original fixtures sat around ~2.6 µmol/J for the Gavita 1700e and ~2.8 µmol/J for the Luxx 645, which is why the Luxx looked good on a spec sheet. Both now look dated. The current RS 1900e and RS 2400e both hit 3.0 µmol/J, so on a commercial scale a modern Gavita produces meaningfully more light for the same electricity. Over a room full of fixtures running daily, that efficiency gap is exactly where the operating cost lives. If you are still weighing the bigger picture, our take on the reasons to switch from HPS to LED covers the cost math.
Today's Gavita Match for Your Room
If the original 1700e was on your shortlist, here is where the current Gavita fixtures land. Both are built for a 4x4 footprint and both link to their exact product page below.
For most growers replacing a single ~645W-class fixture over a 4x4, the RS 1900e is the direct heir to the 1700e. If you are pushing CO2-enriched, high-PPFD flower and want more headroom from the same footprint, the RS 2400e is the step up. Both are ETL-listed commercial fixtures designed to scale across a room on one controller.
How They Compared to Other Brands
In the ~645W bar era, the 1700e and the 645 were also cross-shopped against Fluence and iluminar, which competed at the premium commercial tier, and against newer efficiency-focused entrants. Gavita's edge was its established controller ecosystem and HPS-era trust; the modern RS line carries that forward while closing the efficiency gap. For the wider field of what we stock and recommend now, our roundup of the best LED grow lights for indoor growing puts the current options side by side.
The Verdict by Grower Type
- Buying new for a 4x4 today: the Gavita RS 1900e. It is the modern equivalent of the 1700e, more efficient than either original, and still supported.
- High-intensity or CO2-enriched flower: the Gavita Pro RS 2400e for 2400 µmol/s on the same footprint.
- Scaling a multi-fixture room: stay in the Gavita ecosystem so every light runs off one EL3 controller, the original reason commercial growers chose the brand.
- Already own a Luxx 645: keep running it until it fails, then replace with a current Gavita rather than chasing a discontinued unit.