expoding Par lamps (omnilux)

[ronknights]

Hi,

While on a posh wedding gig one of my par 56 cans which was one the edge of the dance floor lighting up the singer suddenly exploded, blowing shattered glass all over the dance floor! If it had been 10 minutes later it would have hit the happy couple on their first dance and I would be reading the small print on my public liability! Fortunately it passed without much notice.

Anyway, it was a cheap omnilux lamp. I usually use GE ones which seem to last for ever, but bought a couple of the omnilux ones recently. They burn significently brighter than GE ones, and on a meter use 320 ish watts as opposed to 280 ish for the GE's.

The par can was an odd one with no gel in and one of the short nose cans that the bulb goes straight in the front, ie not behind the wire mesh you get in long nose and better short nose cans.

So, has anyone else ever heard of such a thing? It's the first time I have ever seen or heard of such dramatic events and made me quite nervous! Have promptly chucked my omnilux bulbs out and replaced the can with a safer one (with the mesh).

Cheers!

[peternewman]

Some previous topics, although different brands and sizes, here and here.

[bruce]

They burn significently brighter than GE ones, and on a meter use 320 ish watts as opposed to 280 ish for the GE's.

 

Doesn't explain the catastrophic failure, but was it a 240 volt bulb or a 230? If your usual ones were 240 and this was 230, that'd explain the brightness and current.... (and short life!)

[Wuddy]

This happened to my colleague several years ago with some Parcans where the lamps were secured by three bolted clips rather than the large spring clip of modern Pars.

 

The fixing clips, done up too tight, did not allow for any expansion of the lamp and all eight exploded within several minutes of being turned on.

 

It made him quite nervous too.

[David A]

I had a batch of GE lamps which 8 of 10 died within 2 hours all cracked open, so it can happen with other brands.

[Jamtastic3]

I've never had a problem with the par 56 Omnilux lamps but with the 64's, I've had one blow the minute it recieved 10% pre heat. It took the fuse out of the dimmer which I didn't have a spare of at the time and so that was annoying!

 

The thing about short nose par 56's is that most of the time (depending if they are bought as the one item) the gel frame will be 'meshed' already and this will be the only safety feature if a lamp was to shatter.

[ryandell]

Hello,

 

Yes I have experienced this, I was moving the tower for the LD who was focusing, shortly after the lantern was turned on for focusing, the Par 64 omnilux lamp exploded, we took the lantern down and discovered that the front of the lamp had been blown off only a few broken bits but it didnt shatter.

 

We checked it out but replaced it with a GE lighting one, we didnt have any troubles with the other omnilux lamps that were in the other lanterns.

 

Thanks

 

Ryan

[misterbassman]

I was on a job once and we were just tweaking things before the guests arrived and there was a massive bang, turned out to be a GE PAR56 lamp that had exploded. No shattering glass tho, the front lens part of the lamp had simply come clean off the back of the lamp, its the one and only time I have seen it happen.

[Nick S]

That's happened to me too, with a GE lamp. The whole front separates from the reflector, although for me it was on a PAR64. We didn't even hear it go, we only noticed it when we went to take the thing down, pull the lamp out, and found the lens still sitting there in the PAR.

[Steve Cavill]

Also had this happen, quite a few times.

 

Thought it was originally a bad batch of lamps, but after 6 lamps in 6 days, it got a little frustrating.

 

Some went with a bang, some made no sound at all. Mainly it was the lens seperating from the body of the lamp, but 2 of them literally blew up and destroyed the cans.

[Stu]

When the GE Superpar lamps came out, the first few boxes I had in stock would regularly separate the lens from the reflector - from what I understand it was an issue with the extra heat outputted from the brighter lamp. Soon got sorted! The way I would know it had happened is when I would go to spin the bubble orientation on the lamps and the lens would sit there doing nothing while you twisted the parsafe!

[eddieg]

We got a set of p64 omnilux lamps, and within half an hour all 8 had either exploded or just died (after filling with smoke). Since then used GE and not had any issues.