jlehigh
Hermit D Crab
This is a heads up on a poor product that has been marketed to be far better than it is. In the last week two of my 36" Helios 29W T-5 actinic lamps have failed (burn extremely dim).
I unfortunately bought these from a couple different stores in the area who all reported an expected lamp life of 2-3yrs!
Understanding this I emailed the manufacturer Commodity Axis Inc. Here is their reply:
"Most of our actinic lamp on t-5 can only last up to 6 months.
It is because the technology is relatively new to employ actinic in T-5 lamps. We have made 6 time improvement on our T-5 since it was introduce last year at May. These units are build to discards when the lamp is done. There are no ballast to replace for our T-5 units."
I am unsure if the same problem applies to the 10K and Blues as well as my lacky actinics. So far the 10K are still running. My next T-5 setup will be made by Sunlight Supplies retros as they have had allot of much better feedback.
I unfortunately bought these from a couple different stores in the area who all reported an expected lamp life of 2-3yrs!
Understanding this I emailed the manufacturer Commodity Axis Inc. Here is their reply:
"Most of our actinic lamp on t-5 can only last up to 6 months.
It is because the technology is relatively new to employ actinic in T-5 lamps. We have made 6 time improvement on our T-5 since it was introduce last year at May. These units are build to discards when the lamp is done. There are no ballast to replace for our T-5 units."
I am unsure if the same problem applies to the 10K and Blues as well as my lacky actinics. So far the 10K are still running. My next T-5 setup will be made by Sunlight Supplies retros as they have had allot of much better feedback.
