We have had the Altman Phoenix for over a year now. Trying to use the 750 lamps, HPL with the 115 X. They over heat and blow way to soon. We are not running voltage over 117 so that should not be the problem. Altman says we are the only house with this issue. I don't believe them. We did not have any of this with our previous instruments. Anyone else having this type of issue?
Conventional Fixtures Altman Phoenix over-heating
- Thread starterDavesluck
- Start date
JD
Well-Known Member
Improper bench focus can bottle up the heat in the reflector. By "overheating" I assume you are seeing lamps physically blister or blow as compared to electrically fail. Trick is to find one that is working correctly to compare to. If the failure is electrical, I would look at location and vibration first.
JD
Well-Known Member
Couple of other things to check- Are all the lamps from the same batch? Wouldn't be the first time there was a large batch of defective lamps. 2nd, any chance these fixtures spend a deal of time dimmed below 80% ? The halogen cycle stops below 80% and tungsten can end up deposited on the inside of the lamp causing it to overheat. Now, all lights spend some of there life at lower settings so it would have to usually be an extended period of time at a setting just below 80%, but worth mentioning.
That is interesting as well. This was a buck purchase of instruments, 75 in all. They came lamped and I have been replacing using the "X" to try for more life. That is virtually no different. This batch of lights was a bulk purchase as well. Altman says we are the only place with this problem. I have has no issues until we installed these lights. That's a big qualifier for me at this point. Thanks for your feed back, it is appreciated.
I would believe them. Altman's too reputable a manufacturer to allow a product to release with what I imagine would have to be an obvious design flaw if their units didn't have adequate ventilation of heat.
I'd be inclined to go Occam's Razor here, which is to believe that someone lamping these things up didn't take the appropriate precautions and touched the globes with their oily hands. Lamps heat up, oil residue on the globes helps cook the lamps into their eventual suicide supernova.
Maybe; maybe not.
So 75 fixtures are a year old, and lamp life is not acceptable using standard-life HPL750 s, but 750X don't last any longer than regular? 115 or 120V 750X s? If the units spend a significant time at 100%, measure the voltage at the socket (using a two-fer at the fixture, metering at the empty female). I'd be curious if HPL575 s (regular or long-life) exhibited the same symptoms.
See also ETC Lamp Life.pdf. (The author may be familiar to some here.)
