Projector bulb life/cost (1 Viewer)

[RobinW]

I'm thinking of investing in a front projector, but I'm concerned about ongoing costs.
What is the lifespan of the bulb in a video projector?
What do they cost?
Do projectors use a standard type of bulb, or are they proprietary?
If the latter, are there cost-effective alternatives to the manufacturer's own bulbs?
Are there any other ongoing costs? (eg, do LCD/DLP panels need replacing after a time?)

Thanks,
Robin

 

[Neil Joseph]

Lifespans, costs, and bulbs vary from each projector brand/model. On average I think you can expect around 2000-3000 hours of bulb usage, around $250-$350 bulb cost.

Not to scare you but my current projector blew 2 bulbs because it was powered off incorrectly by others (did not allow bulb to go through cool-down process and it damaged a board. Lucky for me it was under warranty but the cost would have been around can$1200.)

 

[Dan Rankin]

I had the problem with bulb burn out and board loss in my projector due to occasional power outages until I plugged the projector into a uninteruptible power supply. Now it has enough power to run through the cool down cycle after a brown out or power outage.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Note that these are exceptionally rare cases. We don't want to scare you. Just make sure you don't make the same mistake.