Bulb Damage Question

I know you can permanently damage a xenon bulb by running your batteries down too low. Does the same apply for krypton and halogen bulbs?

Quasar,

In theory, this might happen with a bulb that has some halogen gas in it. There is a discussion of this here. The bottom line was, I believe, don't worry about it.

Paul

Thanks for the link Paul /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I thought you had to be extra careful with the xenon bulbs. My take now is not to worry so much with any of the bulb types. I still don't feel comfortable with prolonged use on low batteries tho.

On a related topic, does turning the bulb on and off for short periods shorten the life of modern bulbs?

From what I've heard this is supposed to be true of high performance xenon bulbs used in lights such as Surefire. I can report that in three years of heavy use of a SF 8x rechargeable, I am still using the original lamp/bulb. I have often used the light for 1 or 2 second periods, and sometimes had to use the light well past the point where it began dimming out.

On my other SF rechargeable, the lamp blew within the first minute of use. (Surefire replaced it at no charge.) It seems to me that lamp quality is much more of a determining factor in lifespan than usage.

Of course you don't know how good of a bulb you have gotten, until it blows on you. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

That corrrelates with what I've heard George. Seems SF bulbs either go out fairly early or last well.