Bulb in 650w Arri fresnel just exploded

C

Captshiznit

Member
Hi,

I asked while back about down globing and general consensus was it was ok as long as the wattage was lower not higher, so I set about purchasing variety of bulbs just to find wattage I wanted because i'm shooting in an extremely small room for a music project so I wanted to get the right amount of light.

I have 3 lights 2 arri 650w fresnels and an 800w open face arri.

I stuck a 100w R7 bulb in the 800w, worked fine no problem...
I then stuck a 300w GY9.5 bulb in the arri 650w worked fine no problem.

I then went to stick a 150w GY9.5 in the other arri 650w and it instantly exploded, pretty damned loud as well I crapped myself and I'm annoyed because it cost me about 20 bucks....

So what happened here? anyone shed any light maybe it was just a bad bulb or something? i'm completely confused.

Thanks

Edit: Just to make clear etc no basic errors like touching bulb or putting it in wrong etc etc, nothing like that. But I have funny feeling voltages didnt match or something and that will be case? bulbs I bought didn't exactly have a detailed description
 
Last edited:
David W. Jones said:
Was it a 120v rated lamp rather than the 240v lamp needed?
Click to expand...

He doesn't give a location so we dont know what his local voltage is, and a 120v bulb on 240v will usually burn out quickly and not explode. More likely an air leak where the glass is joined to the ceramic base. Sometimes even a new bulb can be bad, boxes get dropped in shipping etc. If he has a good relationship with the dealer he got the bulb from he might be able to get a replacement or credit.
 
Captshiznit said:
Hi,

I asked while back about down globing and general consensus was it was ok as long as the wattage was lower not higher, so I set about purchasing variety of bulbs just to find wattage I wanted because i'm shooting in an extremely small room for a music project so I wanted to get the right amount of light.

I have 3 lights 2 arri 650w fresnels and an 800w open face arri.

I stuck a 100w R7 bulb in the 800w, worked fine no problem...
I then stuck a 300w GY9.5 bulb in the arri 650w worked fine no problem.

I then went to stick a 150w GY9.5 in the other arri 650w and it instantly exploded, pretty damned loud as well I crapped myself and I'm annoyed because it cost me about 20 bucks....

So what happened here? anyone shed any light maybe it was just a bad bulb or something? i'm completely confused.

Thanks

Edit: Just to make clear etc no basic errors like touching bulb or putting it in wrong etc etc, nothing like that. But I have funny feeling voltages didnt match or something and that will be case? bulbs I bought didn't exactly have a detailed description
Click to expand...

There almost had to have been some contamination on the glass itself for this to happen or the lamp base was defective and shorted. If the glass was clean, normally only the filament will blow.
 
I carry a crazy assortment of globes in a case that used to hold a cordless drill setup, lots of foam slots and plenty of wattages for all my tungsten stuff.

Never had a problem under-lamping. I have a lot of 1k open-faced fixtures and I put 100, 300, 650, etc in them. Beats dimmers in most cases. Same with my fresnels, 300, 500, 650 & 1k, all work fine.

(I do keep white cotton gloves in my globe case though, and alcohol wipes...)
 
Michael Carter said:
I carry a crazy assortment of globes in a case that used to hold a cordless drill setup, lots of foam slots and plenty of wattages for all my tungsten stuff.

Never had a problem under-lamping. I have a lot of 1k open-faced fixtures and I put 100, 300, 650, etc in them. Beats dimmers in most cases. Same with my fresnels, 300, 500, 650 & 1k, all work fine.

(I do keep white cotton gloves in my globe case though, and alcohol wipes...)
Click to expand...

This is good practice.

I keep a couple of inexpensive cases from Harbor Freight filled with replacements and for down-lamping.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top