IceCap MH & Blueline lamps

[Snailman]

On 9/8/00 I purchased three 175 watt 10,000K Blueline lamps.
Within 30 days one of them died and it was replaced it on 10/30/00. The next lamp died on 11/14/00 the third lamp died on 12/22/00 and the replacement lamp of 10/30/00 died on 1/29/01. These lamps run on IceCap ballast for 5 hours a day each. This means that one lamp lasted 30 days(150
hours), one 65 days (325 hours), one 104 days (520 hours), and one 90 days(450 hours). We have AB and Hamilton lamps
that are all well over six months old and they have been pressed back into service as these Blulines died.

Has anyone else had any problems like this?

[ASH]

From IceCap:
I can only hope from Champion Lighting's point of view that they were part of one bad case of bulbs they brought in. I haven't seen or heard of anything like you describe so we'll have to see what others have to say.

What do you mean, they died? Did the replacements share a similar fate? How are the other bulbs holding up?
Andy

[Snailman]

Originally posted by ASH
From IceCap:
What do you mean, they died? Did the replacements share a similar fate? How are the other bulbs holding up?
Andy

Died..will not fire at all.

The only replacement so far is the 10/30/00 lamp and it died after 90 days (450 hours).

We have run Hamilton and AB with great luck. We have never had one die. We tried the 12,000K SunBurst lamps and they were really nice but more often than not refused to fire the first time that they were turned on. I installed a power strip between each of the three LightWave outlets and the ballast so that my wife could "power cycle" the ballast one or more times to fire the lamps. I grounded my reflectors (SpiderLight) and broke the lamps in for 30 days and it got no better so I took them out and installed the Blueline lamps. The only other problem was the one fire Coralife lamps. We installed three Coralife lamps and powered them up and they fired and ran fine until they were powered down and then they never fired again. We retured them to the factory and they sent up three more and they did the same thing. We sent them back too. I never did hear what they found.

Champion Lighting wants the serial numbers and revs off of my three 175 watt MH ballast. I told them they were purchased in 3/99 and that I had returned the warranty cards. I think that they were going to ask you for that information. Do you all have that stuff in a database so that it would be easier than me unmounting them. If it is easy to get to would you mind emailing it to me. It would be nice if that information was on the front of the ballast not the back.
Thanks Jon

[ASH]

Jon,
Why would they want the serial numbers? If the ballasts were at fault they would have done the same to the other bulbs you had. Have them call us to discuss the problem.

What do you want? A replacement, swap for a different bulb or a refund?
Andy

[Snailman]

Andy... I did not ask for anything. I was telling them about the problem that I had and wanted to know what might be causing it because we liked the lamps. here is my email to them.

Back on 9/8/00 I purchased three 175 watt 10,000K Blueline lamps from you. Within 30 days one of them died and you replaced it on 10/30/00 free of charge. The next lamp died on 11/14/00 the third lamp died on 12/22/00 and the replacement lamp of 10/30/00 died on 1/29/01. These lamps run on IceCap ballast for 5 hours a day each. This means that one lamp lasted 30 days(150 hours), one 65 days (325 hours), one 104 days (520 hours), and one 90 days (450 hours). This makes what looked like a well priced lamp become very expensive at this kind of a replacement rate. We have AB and Hamilton lamps that are all well over six months old and they have been pressed back into service as these Blulines died. The date codes on the three original lamps was 0600 and the 10/30 replacement lamp is 0800. Am I alone or are these lamps just good for 90 days or less?

On another note I have been waiting over a month to here back from Donny
about my Solar 1000 problems. Is he back from vacation yet?
Sincerely,
Jon Garner

They responded.

In a message dated 1/30/01 12:04:24 AM, jgarner@anent.com writes:

<< Am I alone or are these
lamps just good for 90 days or less? >>

you are pretty much alone <g> There is no question that we will replace the lamps, but for the life of me I don't understand it. Our failure rate with this lamp is the lowest of any lamp we ever carried, and failures are
virtually always just out of the box. I'm curious if the lamps were flickering/strobing with the icecap? Can you get me serial #'s and revision # if any on the ice cap units. I'll check with donny on the solar situation.
Perry

I responded.

Hi Perry,
The IceCap ballasts were purchased new in March of 1999. They do not say anything on the front of them about revision and in IceCap's wisdom the serial number is on the back and they are all wired in and screwed down. I am sure that if you contact Andy he will be able to give you the revision that they were making at that time. These are all 175 watt MH ballasts. One of the lamps made a humming noise but they did not strobe or flicker to my knowledge.
Thanks,
Jon Garner

They responded.

In a message dated 1/30/01 1:38:27 AM, jgarner@anent.com writes:

<< March of 1999. They do not say

anything on the front of them about revision and in IceCap's wisdom the

serial number is on the back and they are all wired in and screwed down. >>

I'd really like to know the serial #'s. Did you happen to return the warranty card to Icecap, when you bought them, as that would have the #'s ? If not,can you see your way clear to unscrewing them, and getting them ? .
perry

I responded.

Hi Perry,
I did return the warranty cards to IceCap so they should have the records. That would be a far better apprroach than taking my system apart.
Thanks,
Jon Garner


That is where it stands right now.

This system is on my wife's tank and she is one of those anti-Iwaski lamp bigots. :D I use an 400 watt Iwaski 6500K on my tank and it just keeps on trucking. :) She like the nice "blue/white" light. :) Any help you can be would be appreciated.

[ASH]

Jon,
We'll call Champion on Monday and see what the issue is. I would like to see one of the bulbs that died and would appreciate you sending one to us. We'll give you an honest evaluation of what we find. If it seems ballast related we'll ship you new ballasts.
Andy

[Snailman]

One will be on it's way to you on Monday. Thanks for your always awsome support.

[ASH]

Jon,
I received the 'dead' bulb. Sure enough initial tries by a Model 175-MH were unsuccessful. I then tried our soon to be released Model 150-MH, though less output, great at starting anything. No results. Then I applied a drip of oil on the metal base parts of the bulb with my finger as it was no joy screwing that bulb into the socket and I wasn't sure it was making good contact. First shot it's on. Cooled it down, used a different fixture and a Model 175-MH and same good results. The second running of the lamp smoothed out the arc nicely also. We'll put it in the refrigerator today and then try it and note the watts of output we record. My thoughts are that since you don't use a glass shield on your MH fixtures (tell-tale spray marks on the bulb) the bases on all the BlueLine bulbs seem to have reacted to the moisture more than other bulbs you currently use. No comment on that. Give me another day to play with this. The bulbs looked fine but for a small black spot on the outside edge of the arc tube enclosure, which made no sense at all, and otherwise hardly broken in.
Andy

[Snailman]

Andy... You are the best. Taking time to do this for me shows once again Icecap's super service. Thanks. :)

[ASH]

Jon,
After going to the extreme of freezing your bulb and then trying it without a ground plane it still worked. I would say it was the bulb's base and suggest you try one of the ones you still have on your ballasts. Check your MH socket to see if the tab at the base is sticking out or pushed in. It should have some spring in it to push against the end of the bulb. With power off, you can pull it forward if you need to. Do put a little WD-40 or something similar on the bulb's base to help with the conductivity.

Let me know what you find.

Andy

[ASH]

Jon,
Any update?
Andy

[Snailman]

Andy,
The lamp came today so I will try it this weekend. Thanks for testing it and I will try the WD40 thing.

[Snailman]

Andy...
I put the lamp in and no fire. I took it out and gave it a shot of WD40 and it has been running like a champ for a week. :) You are super and thanks so much for the help. I am going to try the other two "dead" lamps now. :)

[Snailman]

Andy...
A shot of WD40 and the other two "dead" lamps are also alive and well. Thanks for saving us a pile of money for new lamps.

[lark]

I've just decided to go all icecap and have been spending the better part of the morning going back reading old threads on RC in deciding what bulbs to buy. Came across this one. Thought I'd respond just to bump it back to the top of the list.

The reason I went Icecap had to do somewhat with the great quality, but mostly with customer service. I read a post like this and have to ask, is there a better reef related company out there? Now THIS is customer service. They've never failed to return any e-mail from me, usually within hours. Anyway, just another little plug for these guys.