Lamp life experience with PLV-Z1

[George Bellefontaine]

I have owned three projectors that used lamps, and still own two, and like you I only watch movies 2 or 3 times a week and they are usually only 2 hours long. I have yet to have any problems with short lamplife. My first PJ, a Sharp lcd, had a lamp that lasted well over 2000 hours before I replaced it. The Sony, which I still own, had normal lamp lamplife on its first lamp ( 1500 hours) and the replacement lamp currently has approximately 600 hours on it. My NEC dlp PJ is just over a year old and has over 600 hours on it with no problems. So I would say there is definitely something wrong with the Sanyos.
In fact, there is another thread by a fellow who is having problems with his Z2 and Sanyo service is giving him a hard time, so I do wish you luck. Please let us know how you make out.

[Paul]

I agree that frequent on/off cycles can shorten the bulb life. We generally use the projector for movies, whatching about 2 hours at a time. That may have contributed to a somewhat shorter life span than for some, but I doubt such a dramatic shortfall from the expected life. I have also had "memory" problems with this projector. It often loses its custom settings, and forgets that it was left in "economy mode" and reverts to high lamp output mode. It also does not recognize the input "source". I have no idea if these other problems could be related in anyway to the overheating and resulting short life of the bulb (for example if the computer chip is not monitoring the status of the heat/fan properly).

Any advice is welcome. I have to decide whether or not to put a new bulb in the projector and risk it going once more after 300-400 hours, or to replace the proejctor. Any advice on how to deal with Sanyo over this is also welcome!

[JonMarsh]

This sounds out of the norm. One thing which can affect lamp life is how frequently the projector is turned on and off- for example, four 30 minute operating periods are much more wear on the bulb than a single two hour period.

I can't speak for your projector, though; I've usually seen 700+ hours per bulb with metal halide bulbs, but I think your Z1 uses a UHP. That should be good for 2000 hours in the "economy" mode.

Any Z1 owners out there?

[Paul]

After just under two years of owning my PLV-Z1, I have gone through two lamps. The first went after about 350 hours. The second one lasted about 420 hours. Almost all but about 20 hours of each bulb was on the low light setting. The projector is in a well ventillated area, is always shut down properly and allowed to cool, and the filters are clean. After the first bulb went I figured I just had back luck. With the second bulb gone after such a short time I now believe the projector is "burning" out the bulbs somehow. Has anyone experienced a similar experience with the Z1? Is it "normal" to have two bulbs in a row go with such a short life when used properly? Any ideas on how the projector might be the causing the problem?

Thanks,

Paul