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Topic: What is the average life of a xenon bulb?
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/1466.jpg)
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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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.
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