My Projector Bulb Just Hit 6000 hours!

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dpowell
dpowell Posts: 3,054
edited January 2012 in The Clubhouse
I bought a replacement lamp for my Mitsubishi projector a couple of years back from Pureland Supply. I was really surprised that a generic replacement lamp hit 3,000 hours. I kept thinking I'd need to replace it and even ordered a spare last summer but this one is still going. I just reset the projector timer as it hit the 3,000 hour timer limit for the second time with this bulb!:biggrin: BTW, this is with the lamp mode set to normal, not saver mode which means it should only have lasted 2000-2500 hours.
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  • Serendipity
    Serendipity Posts: 6,975
    edited January 2012
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    I would not recommend running a projector lamp for 6,000 hours.

    The lamp may still work, but you may be stressing the power supply (especially when the lamp starts flickering). The instant that lamp starts flickering I would change it out.
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  • dpowell
    dpowell Posts: 3,054
    edited January 2012
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    Serendipity wrote: »
    I would not recommend running a projector lamp for 6,000 hours.

    The lamp may still work, but you may be stressing the power supply (especially when the lamp starts flickering). The instant that lamp starts flickering I would change it out.

    Not flickering yet! I think that the manufacturer lamps have a built-in self-destruct to ensure sales of replacement lamps. The lamp I bought is not a manufacturer lamp. Haven't seen signs of any issues but I've been keeping an eye on it just in case.
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  • Serendipity
    Serendipity Posts: 6,975
    edited January 2012
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    Either way, keep an eye out for flickering. If it flickers, change it immediately!

    Otherwise, you may be buying a new lamp... and a projector.
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  • dpowell
    dpowell Posts: 3,054
    edited January 2012
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    Roger that...although it might give me an excuse to upgrade to 1080 vs. the 720p it's running natively at now....
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  • BeefJerky
    BeefJerky Posts: 1,319
    edited January 2012
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    Serendipity wrote: »
    I would not recommend running a projector lamp for 6,000 hours.

    The lamp may still work, but you may be stressing the power supply (especially when the lamp starts flickering). The instant that lamp starts flickering I would change it out.
    This. Also, it is not unheard of for lamps past their prime to suddenly explode without warning. If this happened, you may also end up having to replace the projector.

    Finally, even if it is still working, you are not getting anywhere near the full brightness of a fresh bulb at this point.
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  • Tbone289
    Tbone289 Posts: 661
    edited January 2012
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    dpowell wrote: »
    I think that the manufacturer lamps have a built-in self-destruct to ensure sales of replacement lamps.

    I wouldn't be surprised. Regular incandescent bulbs are designed that way.
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  • dpowell
    dpowell Posts: 3,054
    edited January 2012
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    Wow, some real gloomy guss's here. I'm well aware of potential issues with bulbs after the 3,000 hour mark. What I'm pointing out here for those of you who care to see the beauty of a generic lamp lasting 3 times longer than its officially branded counterpart is that it seems to me that those issues may be built-in to manufacturer lamps. Did I get the one in a million lamp that lasts this long? Maybe. The lamp may not be as bright as the day I installed it but I can tell you that this lamp is still very bright; unlike other lamps that have become extremely dim or have yellowed the picture or even started rounding at the corners.

    Even if this lamp melts my projector at some point, here is the easy math. 6,000 hours at full brightness = 3 non-generic lamps at $300 each. New projector (same brand/model) = $900 retail with new lamp. I've already broken even if that happens.

    I guess I should mention, I'm at 6,002 hours now....Still bright, no flickering. :twisted:
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  • Serendipity
    Serendipity Posts: 6,975
    edited January 2012
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    Those of us with $3-4k projectors would never break even if the lamp decides to take out the projector.
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  • dpowell
    dpowell Posts: 3,054
    edited January 2012
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    John Megadeth wrote: »
    Talk about raining on this guy's parade...

    If the OP had a multi-thousand dollar projector, I'm sure he wouldn't push it like that.

    Absolutely right.
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  • Serendipity
    Serendipity Posts: 6,975
    edited January 2012
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    Geez, we are just looking out for you. Nobody wants to deal with broken gear right?

    Notice I said to "change it out when it starts flickering." That is based on experience.

    A flickering lamp is a BAD thing and like others have stated may explode.
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  • dpowell
    dpowell Posts: 3,054
    edited January 2012
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    Right and understood. When it starts flickering, in goes a new lamp. I guess those of you with multi-thousand dollar projectors probably wouldn't want to try an off-brand lamp but for those of us around here with less expensive projectors, I'm posting my excellent experience with this particular vendor in the hopes it will save others some $$.
    ____________________________________________________________

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  • Serendipity
    Serendipity Posts: 6,975
    edited January 2012
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    Understood. A good analogy would be the following:

    I recommend changing the timing belt in your car every 90,000 to 100,000 miles.

    Yes, some have gone twice that without changing the timing belt, but when it breaks, so does your engine (if it is an interference engine). That's all I'm saying...
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  • kuntasensei
    kuntasensei Posts: 3,263
    edited January 2012
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    The lamp I bought from Pureland Supply for my Sanyo PLV-Z2000 was going strong until I sold it. The stock bulb died around 3,300 hours... and the guy who bought the Sanyo from me said the Pureland bulb popped around 4,000 hours.

    In contrast, the bulb in my Epson 8500UB died around 2,800 hours I think (used in Eco mode mostly, until it had started to dim). Because of some problems they had with their initial run of lamps, Epson sent me another bulb free of charge. But if this one goes, I'm definitely hitting Pureland Supply first.
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  • Sherardp
    Sherardp Posts: 8,038
    edited January 2012
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    6k hrs on a lamp is cool. Like the others said if your projector takes the hit, then your screwed. I would sell it anyway and upgrade. 1080p is cheap right now. I usually trash my lamps around 1500 -1800 hrs anyway, during that hr mark the image appears dark due to screen size.
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  • rromeo923
    rromeo923 Posts: 1,513
    edited January 2012
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    I have over 4,000 hrs on mine now and this is the best I have gotten yet... 6,000 Holy Crap!
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  • evhudsons
    evhudsons Posts: 1,175
    edited January 2012
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    I've got a sharp xv-z2000 and the stock bulb literally blew up after about 1000 hours. It was simply a pain in the ****, but I got the glass cleaned out pretty well. The replacement bulbs since then last a ton of hours. I let one go to 4000 but didn't want another explosion which quite frankly is a horrible noise and the immediate end of fun, complete buzz kill. I thought I had plenty more hours to go because the picture was fine. The new bulb came, and all the sudden new life to my picture! Over time even though you have a great picture you don't realize that the dimming has such an effect until you put in a new fresh bulb. Now I swap mine out after about 2000 hours but I keep the old ones as spares in case I have one blow right before the super bowl party. That happened once, now I'm prepared.
    I did see that I can either buy a new bulb housing, but even cheaper I can get the lamp and put that in the housing. I haven't tried that yet. At some point I won't be able to get my bulbs, and so I am going to stock pile soon. I still love my projector despite not being 1080p or 3d. I am waiting for technology to improve for 3d before I upgrade, but I am in the research mode nonetheless.

    But I am not raining on your parade, I'm actually amazed you got that many hours. Are you sure your wife didn't sneak one in there for you using your friend to install it? Seriously, Your picture should have faded quite a bit long time ago.

    But if you really got that many hours, great! It's possible you did get one that was made better than others and got your moneys worth. Nice.
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  • TECHNOKID
    TECHNOKID Posts: 4,298
    edited January 2012
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    dpowell wrote: »
    Wow, some real gloomy guss's here. I'm well aware of potential issues with bulbs after the 3,000 hour mark. What I'm pointing out here for those of you who care to see the beauty of a generic lamp lasting 3 times longer than its officially branded counterpart is that it seems to me that those issues may be built-in to manufacturer lamps. Did I get the one in a million lamp that lasts this long? Maybe. The lamp may not be as bright as the day I installed it but I can tell you that this lamp is still very bright; unlike other lamps that have become extremely dim or have yellowed the picture or even started rounding at the corners.

    Even if this lamp melts my projector at some point, here is the easy math. 6,000 hours at full brightness = 3 non-generic lamps at $300 each. New projector (same brand/model) = $900 retail with new lamp. I've already broken even if that happens.

    I guess I should mention, I'm at 6,002 hours now....Still bright, no flickering. :twisted:
    I'm with you, amazing! :cool: I wish mine would also last that long (my projector is only slightly higher cost than yours so having that many hours on a few lamps would put me ahead of the game if figuring out my overall PJ cost ratio).
    Serendipity wrote: »
    Those of us with $3-4k projectors would never break even if the lamp decides to take out the projector.
    Definitely a good point!
    dpowell wrote: »
    Right and understood. When it starts flickering, in goes a new lamp. I guess those of you with multi-thousand dollar projectors probably wouldn't want to try an off-brand lamp but for those of us around here with less expensive projectors, I'm posting my excellent experience with this particular vendor in the hopes it will save others some $$.
    I'm with you on this and I would gadly try your provide option when the time arise. I also have to admit I would probably not take any chances if I owned a 4-5K PJ.

    I also agree with you that most PJs are technologically built to recognise the age of their OEM and will not allow them to run any longer even if still good. We had a failure of one of our NEC at the shop and for troubleshooting purpose we tried we tried a lamp from another known working projector (this is of course after resetting the PJ according to manufacturer instructions). Same brand, same model PJ which of course was using exact same lamp, we did not have any success until a new lamp was inserted. IMHO, your after market lamp will not provide the PJ to recognise the lamp hours rating thus allowing it to still work with the PJ.

    The longer the PJ works the better as my experience with newer Mitsubishi PJs leads me to beileve that they are no longer as viable as they once were (especially in that price range).

    Thanks for the tip!
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  • FestYboy
    FestYboy Posts: 3,861
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    Looks like someone has necrophilia... :*
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  • VR3
    VR3 Posts: 28,020
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    reported for spam
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  • VR3
    VR3 Posts: 28,020
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    VR3 wrote: »
    reported for spam

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