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HPS bulb melted and fell out of fixture!

dissolute

Member
So this morning I woke up to fire alarms...

I really loved that 4x4 parabolic reflector, covered my 5x5 mother area perfectly, vertical bare bulb, tapped it with my skull a couple times, but never had a problem, until this morning.

Well today the ~3 year old hortilux HPS just kind of melted/burned itself right off of it's mogul base. Now I know, I guess I should have replaced it earlier but I honestly only thought I was losing a few lumens. Luckily I had 2 1020 trays of clones under it to catch it! :yikes: they burned for a while I guess because there isn't much left of one of them, or the plastic containers that were in it, and those poor baby girls. Had an extinguisher mounted 0 steps behind me on the wall when I open the door to the veg room! Best money I ever spent, out in 2 seconds, but, if I hadn't been home? Doubt I'll ever run an open mogul socket again. Really loved that setup over the mothers too, but I'm going to throw up an old horizontal cool tube/reflector for now.

Worth it to cover the area in LED bars now or stick with HID?
 

who dat is

Cave Dweller
Veteran
Holy shit I'm glad nothing worse happened to you! That is a very real fear of mine as well with my setup. You have any pictures? Glad you were able to handle it in no time. :yes:
 

dissolute

Member
Thanks guys, until today I'd only ever though about MH failures as being a safety issue. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures. The bulb separated from the mogul base without breaking, even after landing, but left hanging was a 6" long black glass teardrop, no signs of fire on the hood, the bulb apparently just melted out of place! It was definitely several years old but always vegged more than I needed so I never replaced it, lesson learned!
 

EastCoast710

Active member
So this morning I woke up to fire alarms...

I really loved that 4x4 parabolic reflector, covered my 5x5 mother area perfectly, vertical bare bulb, tapped it with my skull a couple times, but never had a problem, until this morning.

Well today the ~3 year old hortilux HPS just kind of melted/burned itself right off of it's mogul base. Now I know, I guess I should have replaced it earlier but I honestly only thought I was losing a few lumens. Luckily I had 2 1020 trays of clones under it to catch it! :yikes: they burned for a while I guess because there isn't much left of one of them, or the plastic containers that were in it, and those poor baby girls. Had an extinguisher mounted 0 steps behind me on the wall when I open the door to the veg room! Best money I ever spent, out in 2 seconds, but, if I hadn't been home? Doubt I'll ever run an open mogul socket again. Really loved that setup over the mothers too, but I'm going to throw up an old horizontal cool tube/reflector for now.

Worth it to cover the area in LED bars now or stick with HID?

stick with HID.. just use a surge protector for it if its something with your power.. wouldn't of been any safer with an aircooled hood it would of had hot glass hit glass and shattered a bunch of glass all over your room more than likely.
 

URSA LED

Vendor
ursa-ad-11-1.jpg
 

blowingupjake

Active member
Wow. I have installed and retro fit hundreds of HID lights in my years. I've never seen that happen unless there was an impact to the fixture.

Glad you're safe and didn't lose more!!!

Jake
 

Jhhnn

Active member
Veteran
stick with HID.. just use a surge protector for it if its something with your power.. wouldn't of been any safer with an aircooled hood it would of had hot glass hit glass and shattered a bunch of glass all over your room more than likely.

That's not really true. Better enclosed reflectors use borosilicate glass which is extremely tough & resistant to heat shock. It's used in the best aquarium heaters, as well-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gD8KPbJcRw

I really don't like open reflectors for what we do. They're fundamentally less safe, particularly when lamps are within range of contact w/ humans. For illicit growers, setting the house on fire is also ratting yourself out. Even though what I do is perfectly legal here in CO I'm not sure my homeowners insurance would cover that, either.
 
That's terrifying. I'm still at a loss for what failure could have happened to cause that. 1000 watts melting glass in open air requires a very small heating area. Possibly it was actually a ballast problem? Maybe that reflector hold heat better than my oven?
Hortilux would probably be interested in doing an autopsy on the bulb, even if you sent it to them anonymously.
 

Elmer Bud

Genotype Sex Worker AKA strain whore
Veteran
G `day D

Some lamps are not specced for vert use .
Horixontal only. Combine with years of fatigue .

Thanks for sharin

EB .
 

Medfinder

Chemon 91
So this morning I woke up to fire alarms...

I really loved that 4x4 parabolic reflector, covered my 5x5 mother area perfectly, vertical bare bulb, tapped it with my skull a couple times, but never had a problem, until this morning.

Well today the ~3 year old hortilux HPS just kind of melted/burned itself right off of it's mogul base. Now I know, I guess I should have replaced it earlier but I honestly only thought I was losing a few lumens. Luckily I had 2 1020 trays of clones under it to catch it! :yikes: they burned for a while I guess because there isn't much left of one of them, or the plastic containers that were in it, and those poor baby girls. Had an extinguisher mounted 0 steps behind me on the wall when I open the door to the veg room! Best money I ever spent, out in 2 seconds, but, if I hadn't been home? Doubt I'll ever run an open mogul socket again. Really loved that setup over the mothers too, but I'm going to throw up an old horizontal cool tube/reflector for now.

Worth it to cover the area in LED bars now or stick with HID?

glad nobody got hurt! 900 degree glass can do damage and be life threatening


Long ago when most retail warehouses were using HID some used relamping charts that tracked the hours of bulbs.
http://unvlt.com/pdf/literature/troubleshooting/Troubleshooting and Maintenance for HID Lighting.pdf

not sure how many were hurt in the warehouses that did not replace or cover the bottom of these fixtures.
 

Jhhnn

Active member
Veteran
glad nobody got hurt! 900 degree glass can do damage and be life threatening


Long ago when most retail warehouses were using HID some used relamping charts that tracked the hours of bulbs.
http://unvlt.com/pdf/literature/troubleshooting/Troubleshooting and Maintenance for HID Lighting.pdf

not sure how many were hurt in the warehouses that did not replace or cover the bottom of these fixtures.

Nearly all modern indoor HID fixtures are enclosed pulse start MH types. O rated amps are avail for older fixtures & cost considerably more. HPS is often used for outdoor fixtures & are always enclosed for weather protection. They afford better night vision because of the longer light wavelength.
 

yesum

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
It is rare but one of the reasons I use LED. Another disaster averted.
 

Phaeton

Speed of Dark
Veteran
A CMH bulb blew a couple years back. I was in the next room and it sounded like a small caliber pistol going off.
The arc tube had a secondary cylinder around it that contained the blast, the outer envelope was untouched. Being O rated saved my butt.
It did make me think of all those older bulbs I had used in open fixtures, scares me now how foolish I was.
 
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