Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: christie DW series Lamp Life

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Posted by Bajsic Bojan (Member # 4928) on 04-26-2011, 03:28 AM:

Hello

We have a Christie DW5k video projector installed. It is fed by 1.0kW Cermax lamps. The thing that i'm shocked by is that so far in the past 3 years of use, we have had really low (by my standards) lamp life:

1. lamp - 1030 hr then stopped responding
2. lamp - 470 hr began to flicker, exploded at 600 hr
3. lamp - fine until 850 hours then exploded
4. lamp - 470 hr now shows "LP" message and "unusual dark levels" messages

The projector is in a fairly clean enviroment with temperatures between 19 and 24* C (66-77 F). It is usually driven at max power. Should this be lowered?

It is really getting annoying as these lamps cost about 3000USD here and getting 500 hours of operation is not something i have in mind when spending that ammount. The fact that they spontaniously combust doesnt help either.

Any comments, experiences or suggestion?

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 05-10-2011, 05:55 PM:

That is very unusual hours for a lamp that small.
I'm not familiar with that projector but I would encourage you to check the ventilation out of the lamphouse and make sure it's moving enough air.
I'd also recommend trying a different brand of lamp.

You stated this is a 1K lamp, in my theaters we tend to get hours roughly like yours with 3K and 4K lamps from LTI/Philips, Ushio, and Osram depending on where they're installed.
3000USD sounds really high for a 1K lamp as well. We would pay less than $1000 for one of those here. Much less. Start there and let us know?

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 05-10-2011, 06:49 PM:

Dominic, those Cermax lamps are built into a pre-focused module and are not in any way interchangable.

Other than cooling issues, I'd check that the lamp modules are being seated fully when installed, that the lamp contact studs aren't damaged or burned, and most inmportantly make sure you NEVER touch the glass parts of those modules! Any fingerprints will cause early failures.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 05-11-2011, 01:33 PM:

Seems like very low hours and they shouldn't regularly explode. The sad fact is that these smaller projectors have proprietary lamps that cost $$$ and don't last very long. The replacement lamp is really a complete lamphouse, so it ain't cheap. But $3K each is totally nuts, street price in the USA is about half that. I guess there's some good reason for not buying them in the USA but it seems like you could have a nice trip to NYC, eat some steaks, and see a few Broadway shows if you got handed $6K and just had to come up with two lamps...

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 05-11-2011, 01:48 PM:

are they original chrisite modules or rebuilt ones many of the rebuilt ones by 3rd party suppliers are iffy at best

Posted by Bajsic Bojan (Member # 4928) on 05-11-2011, 06:02 PM:

yes, they are prealigned module type lamps that are easy to change, yes original christie, yes the price is nuts. we did get offered new ones for 2000$ + shipping from Canada, but with something like 2(!) months (!!) shipping time.

anyways, it will most probably have to be the cooling and the fact that i was told to always run them on 100%power. I'm trying the next one with 800W all the way and see how that goes. Its still very strange i get the 'unusual dark levels - check sensor' messages.

i am also now trying with checking every 300 hours or so the state of the heatsinks on the module, last ones got a little clogged up with dust particles and i believe that was the cause for the last lamp failure. but strange that so much dust would get in that part of the projector :/

thanks for the replies