Replacing a DLP Lamp - Lamp or Lamp+ Housing

I have found that you can purchase either a DLP lamp or a DLP lamp in the original housing. does anyone have experience with installing the lamp only - it i a much more cost effective solution.

That said - any experience with the web retailers Bulb Solutions or Lampsource?

CouchIT

Re: Replacing a DLP Lamp - Lamp or Lamp+ Housing

I replaced just the bulb on my mitsubishi dlp. I bought it from lampsource. It was very easy to do just take care in doing it. Do not touch the face of the bulb etc. It is really worth the savings to not buy the housing.

Re: Replacing a DLP Lamp - Lamp or Lamp+ Housing

The lamp has to match pretty close in it's warmup characteristics to replace just the lamp. If the lamp does not run up in the same way the original does, the detection circuit can be confused. In which case, the set will start, run a few minutes, shut off, wait 30 seconds, start again; and run through that cycle indefinitely. (Sony is pretty strict on it's lamp requirements, others may be looser)

Re: Replacing a DLP Lamp - Lamp or Lamp+ Housing

The answer depends on how careful you are. I can see someone smashing a lamp or getting nasty finger smudges on it, either of which would be a real problem for the lamp.

That said, I saved half the cost of a lamp+module for some projectors here at work. Pretty good when you are on a tight budget...

Re: Replacing a DLP Lamp - Lamp or Lamp+ Housing

It's really not that difficult if you have some mechanical ability. Be sure to use a steady well lit work area. Lay down a few paper towels or something similar to keep screws and parts from rolling about. I also found some surgical type gloves were handy to keep the bulb clean.

For my TV I needed a Phillips Head screwdriver and a small pair of pliers.

I used Bulb Solutions and was happy with the delivery and price.

Re: Replacing a DLP Lamp - Lamp or Lamp+ Housing

Interesting. The last time I priced lamps with vs with-out the housing (granted, this was commercial,) the difference was about US$20. Not terribly significant when dealing with $675 lamps!

But then it was pretty easy; be careful, don't overtighten the nuts, and above all else, be careful.

And it's not like it's a xenon lamp - that's a different animal.

Leo

Hi Leo Kerr i agree with you follow the instruction very carefully or it might be end up really badly. Nobody wants their device to go wrong on their first day. In some lamps the differnce might be of 20 but in my sony projectors the housing different was about 60usd.

For my Samsung, it was $180 vs $105.  But it was a really easy $75 savings -- I replaced the bulb in under 30 minutes.

I view this as a matter of convenience as well as almost 100% certainty that the installation with a new housing will be successful.  For my last such installation (on an HP DLP RPM) the difference between the bulb alone and the bulb in a new housing was something like $20 or $30 dollars so I went for the full $279 (shipped 2nd day air).  It took about 30 seconds to replace the bulb (which is easy on the HP because of front access to the light panel.)  Sure, I could have saved $20-30 but if you factor in the time and the risk involved it just didn't make any sense to me.  True, if there were hundreds of dollars in difference then it would be worth my time and attention to detail but in today's replacement technology I usually opt for a full replacement module. 

I have many, many years of experience in saving money with Do It Yourself projects so I'm not all thumbs.  In fact, I probably built close to 100 Heathkits over the years when I was in a much more stringent economic situation and the difference in price between a finished model and a kit was at least double.  But when it's insignificant then I now pass.  Besides, if you muck it up just once there goes your savings over many generations of light bulbs.  Also, even a $50-75 difference in price between the bulb and the bulb in a housing is not substantial when we are talking about a  multi-thousand dollar investment in the set.  And, of course, I avoided all this with my new Mitsubishi because my 5 year $399 extended warranty includes multiple bulb replacements when needed so I figure that I'll need at least two bulbs (maybe more) during that time so I'm really pre-paying for the bulbs and getting full in-house coverage on all aspects of the set as a bonus.  I usually advise against most extended electronics warranties but in this case it made emminent sense considering everything.

I just finished installing a new bulb for my Samsung DLP.  I had ordered a new bulb with the housing, but only the bulb came.  There was a $35.00 difference without the housing and the seller agreed to refund this to me.  He was apologetic because it was a mistake in packing and they carry both with and without the casing.  It was easy to install.  All the instructions were on the enclosed packing slip, mainly referring me to youtube.com.  A glove was even provided so the bulb would not be touched with fingers.  My original bulb had over 8000 hours on it.  You can find this number by going into the service screen (Google it).  I wanted to reset the bulb hours, which is possible, but there were no instructions, once at the Options>bulb to change the setting to 0.  I tried everything, but to no avail.  I Googled for the information and have gone to forums, but the only information is how to see how many hours you have on the old bulb.  One other side note:  I did not realize in these past few months how dark my picture had gotten, no matter how I tried to equalize the picture quality.  Wow, is it great now!

This thread inspired me to shop around on the web.  For my Samsung HLR5656W, a bulb in enclosure was cheapest at $130.  The cheapest bare bulb was surprisingly found for $86 (+$5 shipping) at Amazon - their partner called RiverValleyElectric.  That's a heck of a difference.

I've had some experience replacing both...

First, you really need to know who you're buying from. If you want to buy just the lamp, it's cheaper for sure. @Dennis, that $91 I'm a bit skeptical that you actually bought an original equipment product. from a bunch of places I've found that the lamp's OEM is Philips Lighting, since they make both lamp and ballast. If you put like an Osram or other third-party or knock-off, they won't last as long. So it is definitely worth it to spend a few more dollars for an OE product in cases like this where life expectancy is an issue.

Second, I think that buying the complete assembly is the best bet. My second go around, I found that buying used cages were bad for my TV! A technician told me that buying an old, recycled cage could work for awhile, but older, recycled cages and housings are really bad because they get warped over time. They also become brittle and break easier. The lamp is supposed to focus the light a certain way and if the housing is warped, it will focus the light beyond tolerance levels, which lead it to take out the color wheel, or another part in a DLP.

So that's what I've learned from this whole mess. I love my DLP, but it's like owning an old BMW and it takes a lot of maintenance. It's worth it for the picture quality, but there's so much you need to know that they didn't tell you at the store! Buy from an authorized dealer, and buy new plastics because older, recycled or reconditioned housing units are just a headache. Take it from me!