Conventional Fixtures - New, smoking PAR64 fixtures

[tomed101]

My venue has just received a shipment of new lighting gear including 12 PAR 64's. I don't have the brand in my head at the moment but I will try and get it tomorrow, might be something like DTS? Anyway, after running them up for 2min or so they started smoking but I assumed they would stop quickly. Wrong... I ran them for an hour today to burn off any dust or whatever but now I think it's the paint. They are quite literally billowing smoke sometimes and quite effectively hazed the room. Pity about the terrible smell... It actually got to the stage where I thought the fire alarm would go off, good thing the HVAC is very effective when configured to extract... Now the big question, is this normal? I'm assuming not, and should I be requesting to have them replaced?

[Kelite]

Hi tomed101, good questions-

The brand very well may be DTS, as many private labled PAR cans come from this Italian manufacturer. The smoke is more than likely what you think- the burning off of the paint's carrying agent. Inexpensive PAR cans generally get an inexpensive paint job whereas more costly cast aluminum ellipsoidals (ETC S4, Altman Shakespeare, etc) get a powder coat treatment.
Having visited the DTS factory, the quality of the product line and manufacturing environment is very good. Automated machinery turn out the PAR cans while someone tends a cluster or cell to maintain raw material supply.

(Perhaps the painter shot a little extra on the batch you received, or they weren't given the proper time to dry, causing more smoking than normal...)

[David Ashton]

Yes I had a batch of DTS 64's earlier this year and they smoked for about an hour, fortunately an outdoor venue so it wasn't a problem, but indoors would not be fun.After that first hour no problems.

[derekleffew]

This manufacturer? DTS The Lighting Company - Par Cans

Yes, all new fixtures will smoke for a time when first powered. If the smoking does not cease within a short period of time, then worry.

[ship]

Hmm, hadn't heard of this brand before, thanks for the new link. Interesting how much gear they produce yet I had never heard of before.

What lamp do you have in the fixture? Realizing in a quick viewing of the various classic verses pro-cans, they are both seemingly rated for 1Kw, in the past if using 1Kw lamps in a lesser can, the wiring feeding it will melt down. In general to my own standards given SJT type cable sold with PAR cans, this instead of at least 150c heat wire if not 200c heat wire whips, I would be concerned about if part of that smoke was the wire both as lampholder wiring and the fixture whip also smoking in perhaps melting or shorting to the can and or at least becoming brittle in rotting due to the heat.

If using a 1Kw lamp or perhaps even a 500w lamp and it smokes, could be more than just paint smoking - check the wiring. Unless in absolute rush to get a show out the door, normally any can or audience blinder I'll buy un-wired and wire it myself with better lampholders and wiring. Been screwed many times too much by way of what's "standard to the industry" yet not rugged enough to survive a show should a wire touch a can. This much less in standard lampholders that are not as good as quality ones.

[tomed101]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Just a follow up, since my first post I have run them for 3, 1 hour sessions to burn them in and they have stopped smoking but still smell a bit. I did check and the wiring was fine, It just looks like the paint burning. They won't be used in a show for about 2 weeks so hopefully they will stop smelling before then, otherwise we will need to come up with another solution.

Thanks again.