Yep, I do the same on lowering
intensity and having about 80% as peak even when matching lamp wattage to desired output. That way also you have the
threshold to cross when you need a
bit more light. OK, perhaps it was more 90% in most cases, but still, 90%
intensity is much less heat on the gels than 100%.
From that, up until I got into lights that were 1,000 Watts or more, I never had problems with
gel burning out, or at least non-overly saturated
gel over a long period of time. It lightinging from a high
intensity more than burning up still. That's why I would be concerned about a
Leko say that burns
thru it's
gel. Check your
bench focus before you scratch your head, than if it's still burning up, is it the rated lamp for the
fixture or one over that? Given the abstraction from the designed position of
gel to light focus, light extenders or shields might be required.
In my case however I did come into a situation of head scratching at one
point. Had some 6-cell
cyc units that were left on a good amount of time at I expect full and they would within minutes burn
thru it's
gel. More than that they smoked up a storm at 1,000 Watts per
channel. I eventually figured out someone cleaned the
cyc unit reflectors with something that left a residue on it, and that residue which burned off taking the
reflector with it also deposited itself on the
gel as a type of oil causing it to retain heat. This was what was melting both
gel and spaced
heat shield installed in front of it. Replace the reflectors and it was only a question of 1,000w lamps at the center of the
fixture not having proper ventilation out of the
fixture when the
gel was at the top of the
fixture in having it bun up towards the center of the
fixture first since the center of the
fixture would be hottest.
To correct this problem, believe me, I tried all methods. In the end, it was only a question of either lowering the wattage, or lowering the saturation given full wattage if you could not live with even a heat shielded few minutes of extended life as it ended up being.
Should you have problems with
gel melting and lowering the
dimmer setting, lowering the transmission does not work or will not work for your situation, I would recommend either going with a lower wattage higher
color temperature lamp or adding an extended
heat shield even fan as needed to cool the
gel.
By the way on architectural installs,
dichroic or glass filters are longer lasting and also an option for higher output.