ROP-H bulb explodes

[Josey]

I had the light running for a few minutes -- maybe 4 minutes -- and the bulb exploded. I'm running two of AW's Li-Ion C cells in a 2C Mag with no resistance mods. The cells are fully charged, but had rested for more than one day.

There was a lot of smoke in the reflector. Some of it stained the boro window. The reflector is clouded and full of tiny glass particles. Anyone have any suggestions on how to save the reflector?

Josey

 

[cutlerylover]

Hmm, sorry to hear that, I had a WA1185 bubl explode in my mag85 and it messed up the reflector...tiny scratches on the bottk of it, but it was ok enough to comtinue to use without any problems, but it still annoyes me, I was thinking about using a metal polish to sort of fill in the scratches...That usually works with fine scratches I get on my knives from use...

Sorry I dont have any Answers for ya, just wanted to make you feel better, it happens others too...:hairpull:

 

[defblade]

Rinsed mine out with lots of water to lose the glass bits and then rubbed the haze off gently with a finger. I had 3 bulbs explode in the same smooth reflector, which now has a "light stipple" effect at the bottom end

 

[Alin10123]

You might want to rinse off the reflector a little bit. This way you can get a good idea of how badly it's damaged. Sorry to hear about the mishap.

 

[leeleefocus]

If you use a metal polish on your reflector say goodbye to your reflective coating.

 

[Strauss]

If you use a metal polish on your reflector say goodbye to your reflective coating.

Yes, DO NOT use any kind of polish on your reflector. I would just rinse with warm water, and blow dry the water off so you get rid of any water spots....

 

[Icebreak]

Josey -

Could you photograph the lamp parts only so we can see deposit colors on the envelope and the color of the filament?

For the types of windows (lenses) and reflectors we use for hotwires the following has worked fairly well for me:

You want to create a flowing cycle of very warm water and dish liquid to lift the chemical deposits and glass debris off of the surface. At a sink, adjust the faucet flow to be higher pressure and very warm. Rinse the surfaces off without touching them. Back the pressure down. Squeeze a good amount of Dawn or Joy onto the surfaces. Alternate holding the parts under the flow of water and out of the flow of water. Very, very, very gently swirl your thumb or fingertip in the solution of warm water and dish liquid. You are trying to get the solution to lift the debris up off the surface not wipe the debris off the surface. Repeat 3 or 4 times. As the debris is lifted and flowed away, you can increase the pressure of your thumb or fingertip using your finger print ridges to lightly squeegie the surfaces.

You may want to change over to windex or vinegar as the surfaces begin to clear up. Final rinse with distilled water and dry the surfaces with a hair dryer.

The parts will not be perfect but they should work just fine.

"Squeeze a good amount of Dawn or Joy..." It doesn't have to be Dawn or Joy but I like to give Dawn and Joy a good squeeze every chance I get. They seem to enjoy it.

 

[Josey]

Thanks, Icebreak, I'll give your method a try.

The filament is pretty well gone. There are no colored deposits, although the smoke was white with a yellow tint.

 

[Icebreak]

Whoah! That thing did explode. The yellowish stuff on that shard sticking up out of the potting material has Tungsten Trioxide (WO3) in it. Is it possible that the lamp envelope could have been touching the reflector?

May I capture the photo and put it in the Race To Failure thread?

Please let me know how well your parts cleaned up.

THX

- Jeff

 

[cutlerylover]

Yes, DO NOT use any kind of polish on your reflector. I would just rinse with warm water, and blow dry the water off so you get rid of any water spots....

Ok, thanks guys for the heads up, I was about to try it but read the thread 1st...Thanks for saving me some hassle, and my reflector!

That was a close one...

 

[benighted]

When my first ROP bulb exploded, I had to replace the window and there were a few dings in the reflector but I just washed it VERY gently in warm soapy water then rinsed it.

 

[Josey]

Icebreak:

Yes, it is possible that the bulb was touching the reflector, although I can't know for sure. It's a small-hole reflector, and the low ROP I have in it now comes very, very close.

The reflector did clean up using lots of vegan dish soap and water. There is still a shard of glass embedded in the reflector and a few dings from shrapnel., but it will work fine. The window cleaned up fine.

And, of course, you may use the photo if you like. Thanks for your "race" thread. It's awesome.

Josey

 

[Icebreak]

Cool. Thanks.

 

[Patriot]

That's a fairly impressive let-go! I'll bet you're glad the head was on! :duck:

 

[Josey]

You know, it's funny, when it blew I thought something hit my hand, or maybe a bat had flown into the light. I was concentrating so hard on figuring out what hit me that it took a second or so to realize that my light was dead.

 

[FlashCrazy]

See Josey, you should've been using the Focusing Lenser I modded for you, and this kind of thing wouldn't have happened!

Actually I just started to get into these ROPs. I have a 2C using two AW 18650s running a Pelican Big D Lo...and sometimes the Hi bulb. I've heard about these bulbs exploding, and after seeing yours, I'll make sure I always have the head and reflector on before firing it up!

 

[Patriot]

You know, it's funny, when it blew I thought something hit my hand, or maybe a bat had flown into the light. I was concentrating so hard on figuring out what hit me that it took a second or so to realize that my light was dead.

Can you imagine what the odds would be of your bulb exploding and a bat flying into your hand at the same time....? That is pretty funny isn't it. You may be the only guy in the world who's able to say that.