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Author Topic: What is the average life of a xenon bulb? Robert D. LaValley Film Handler Posts: 58 From: Florida Registered: Aug 2003 posted 09-28-2003 04:38 PM                     Seriously what is the average life of a xenon bulb? I've gotten surprisingly alot of different answers to this question.. It all depends on the wattage of the bulb, the kind of bulb (oshram .. etc..), whether you rotate the bulb or not, whether your rectifier feels like pushing A/C or D/C today... Those are just some of the things that have been said.. I remember back when I was with regal we changed our bulbs pretty regularly and didn't rotate them.. How long should you run a bulb and should you or shouldn't you rotate them?  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 09-28-2003 05:07 PM                     All of the different answers you were given were all correct.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 09-28-2003 05:16 PM                        You only need to rotate the lamp after 1/2 of its warranted life span if the upper side of the bulb has darkened a bit.  |  IP: Logged Robert D. LaValley Film Handler Posts: 58 From: Florida Registered: Aug 2003 posted 09-28-2003 05:28 PM                     But does the rotation help?? I've heard it really doesn't add that much to the life span to be worth the hassel...  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-28-2003 05:45 PM                     It makes a big difference in the long term Do a search and read the many times this subject has come up  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 09-29-2003 01:08 AM                     There are so many factors involved. Lot of it depends on the manufacturer, lamphouse, power supply, ventilation, current, voltage, wattage of the bulb, how many ignitions and how good a shape the power supply is in. The only time I rotate my bulbs is when they start to darken on the envelope. I can easily get anywhere from 2500 to 4500 hours on a Christie 2500 watt bulb used in a Strong Super Lumex. In my opinion, Christie is the way to go. At one time the Osram was....but the last ones I used just didn't seem to give me the mileage like a Christie.  |  IP: Logged Michael Harlow Expert Film Handler Posts: 170 From: Faversham, Kent, UK Registered: Jul 2002 posted 09-29-2003 05:06 AM                     Dont talk to me about xenon lamps  |  IP: Logged Thomas Hauerslev Master Film Handler Posts: 451 From: Copenhagen, Denmark Registered: Aug 2000 posted 09-29-2003 07:21 AM                        In the 1980s at ABCinema+D and Cinema 1-8 here in Copenhagen, I remember OSRAMs 1600 w were running more than 6000 hours. And the light was still good. True workhorses.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 09-29-2003 12:33 PM                     Thomas, that was the '80's. That was the time I was implying Osram was the best. In those days, I used nothing but Osram. However, this is 2003.  |  IP: Logged Jeff Taylor Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 601 From: Chatham, NJ/East Hampton, NY Registered: Apr 2000 posted 09-29-2003 01:30 PM                     In the first place, "life" is a relative term when it comes to xenons, unless you measure it by a cataclysmic explosion at the end. Personally, I have NEVER replaced one that was totally dead...it's always been a question of how patient I could be in terms of hard striking when they pile up hours. In the end, I ususally change them long before they will absolutely refuse to strike.  |  IP: Logged German Marin Expert Film Handler Posts: 227 From: Verbania (VB), Italy Registered: Jul 2001 posted 09-29-2003 01:41 PM                     I say Xenon lamp's life is like our own life: If I smoke a lot, drink alcohol, don't sleep enough, etc. all these things make your life short  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 09-29-2003 01:54 PM                        This is kicking an injured dog... but I still don't quite understand the value gained by rotating these bulbs... at least as it balances against the increased risk of problems. A 7,000 watt bulb shows almost no discoloration at half-life, and not much more than that by the time you're 10% past warranty. By rights, it probably should be replaced, or at best, rotated to "emergency spare" status. 550 hours isn't a lot, but it gets us most of the way through a Summer drive-in season. I get much the same from the 4kW bulbs I use. 1,500+ hours are common before they start looking like rotating might be a good idea. These things are out of pro-rated warranty by 1,200 hours, so I'm on my own when I keep them in the lamphouse... and I'm a whole lot more interested in keeping my glass X-60 reflector than trying to bleed a bulb until it won't light. Same argument goes for smaller bulbs... 1,500 hours & you're on your own. Over and above all that, I have yet to rotate an otherwise perfectly fine bulb and NOT have it go unstable on me. Trying to wait it out... or jacking up the juice for a while has had inconsistent results. I know this is another of those personal preference issues... but I seem to get the best life out of my bulbs by leaving them the heck alone, other than opening up the housings occasionally for cleaning. Aside from that: Having grown up with carbons, buying xenon bulbs has always been a "cost of business" issue for me. You can't "bleed" a carbon. When you're out, you've got no light until you buy another case. Considering the declining output of a xenon bulb, shooting for hour records just results in declining image quality for the sake of putting off what should be a planned cost of running the booth.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 09-29-2003 03:52 PM                     For what it's worth, I have never had the need to rotate a bulb in a Christie SLC lamphouse and I get ridiculous lifespan out of bulbs used in those units. In all other lamphouses I have used (including older model Christies), the lifespan was never as good and some of them necessitated rotating the bulb due to darkening or arc wandering...but oddly enough not on every bulb. The only exception to that is I never had the need to rotate a bulb in a vertically mounted lamphouse design. The problem was a matter of getting good light out of them.  |  IP: Logged Robert D. LaValley Film Handler Posts: 58 From: Florida Registered: Aug 2003 posted 09-29-2003 06:49 PM                     Hard strike? I run christie lamp house, kni-tron single phase recitifier, and the lamp is a 1k lamp oshram.. Brand new installed in july of 2003. Right now I have slight darking on the underside of the lamp, and I am getting a stobe effect very rarely but it does happen. More often I loose amperage, the lamp strikes a million times, or it just flashes like someone flipping a switch to a regular light bulb. So these problems prompted me to ask the life span question. Since I did do bulb changes at regal pretty regularly I only came across a bad lamp once out of five years.. Could this be my second bad lamp? I also have checked all the conections to make sure everything was tight. I don't know if the ventilation is that great either becuase both of my lamp houses do get awfully hot.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-29-2003 09:38 PM                     From a point of liability you guys all missed it. The life rating of a Xenon lamp is the manufacturers rated hours plus about 15% maximum. Past that you run it at your own risk. Many do . Mark @ CLACO  |  IP: Logged

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