Plusrite MH Bulb

[colin779]

Does anyone have experience with these? I'm looking at the 175 watt 20k mogul base bulbs. I haven't been able to find much on them, but the little bit I can find seems to be mostly positive. My XM 20k's I think are about toast, this is my first time with 20k lamps, but these made it about 9 months. That's probably about average i suppose? At 20 per bulb I'm sure they won't last 9 months, but even if they last 6 that's only 80 every 9-12 months versus my current 130.

If anyone has experience with these let me know what you think, thanks a lot! =)

 

[Holygral]

I tried them once and they are very yellow, I replaced them and kept them as a emergency back up.

 

[colin779]

Ok, next question. Were they yellow yellow or just more yellow then a normal 20k?

 

[Holygral]

More yellow than normal, they are cheap but I didnt like the look, mine were de 250 watts. I did save them and used them for a coupleofcweeks till my Ushio,s came in.

 

[colin779]

Ok gotcha. I have been hearing the DE Bulbs seemed to be less blue then the SE bulbs for some reason. Not sure what the cause could be though. I have tried Ushio lamps before, some 14k's. They didnt look much different than my XM 10k's. Are their 20k's better? I like the color of my XM 20k's, they just lost their intensity really fast.

 

[jrgilles]

I tried many types of cheaper MH bulbs and then finally gave up. They were cheaply made, and the metal parts where they made contact with the fixture kept causing issues (not making good conection, so the lights wouldn't work.) Most of them eventually fell apart. Spent a lot of time troubleshooting ballasts, etc. before I figured out that the bulbs were just crap. Poorly constructed. Not sure on these specifically. The ones I was trying were 10k's off ebay.

 

[colin779]

Good to know, I've read a lot of stories like that with some of the cheaper lamps. These ones may be the same, not sure though since they actually produce a lot of other metal halides (and other types of lamps) for industrial use and things like that. I've done a lot of searching and haven't found anyone that has been very disgruntled, the worst ones have just been they aren't blue enough, and those were people that ordered 14k's. I think i may test them out still, I've been warned =)

Lights are the one thing in this hobby that drive me crazy. Its absolutely insane what companies charge for something they mass produce anyways (they just have to change what goes in it). Oh well, anything that is "special" always costs an arm and a leg. Hopefully this will be a solution, if not ill suffer for 6 months and then pony up the 130 again... Haha

 

[jrgilles]

Yea, I just replaces all my bulbs. Almost $300 for 2 X 250W MH and 4X54W CF. Ouch

 

[colin779]

Holy smokes

 

[liverup]

I've tries these bulbs twice both times 20k first ones I would say were about 12k second one closer to 14k. So you never really know what k you may get. But for the price if your not to picky about color they will do, but I prefer 20k xm bulbs true blue color and last me 10 to 11 months but they do take a good 40-80 hours to burn in.

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[colin779]

I have been perfectly happy with my 20k xm bulbs. I love the color, the intensity has dropped off quite a bit by month 9 though. The main thing I'm not happy with is the price... Shoot, just found out yesterday I'm paying $200 more in taxes to my local school district this year... Think its a coincidence they do the levy vote a couple days before they release property taxes??

 

[liverup]

I think that if you don't mind a 14k look you will be OK but if I recall they make a 22k might be worth trying.

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[colin779]

If its a true 14k i would be fine with it. The last 14k lamps i bought were Ushios and I was not impressed. I could not tell the difference side by side with a 1+ yeard old xm 10k

 

[colin779]

So the bulbs showed up today! Ill post a before picture when i get home and a few over the next couple weeks to see how they look =)

 

[tike]

I have used these bulbs and have found that after 3 months the par drops off tremendously....not worth the money at all.

 

[colin779]

So far they look identical to the color of my 20k xm's. Maybe just a little less blue, but they've only been running for a day.

Just out of curiosity did you check them with a par meter or just visual observation? I know my xm's were noticeably less bright after 3 or 4 months also, that's just the way of a 20k bulb. From what I could find on the plusrites, the people that weren't as happy with the light output or color temp were all using the DE variety. The SE crowd seemed much happier, and the pictures I found were pretty impressive. I found a thread a guy had been taki g pictures over a period of six or so months.