ROP-HI and ROP-LO bulb life!

[WildChild]

I just built a ROP with a 2D maglite and 6AA Eneloop and a spare set of 6AA Duracell Pre-Charged, using Fivemega holders. What bulb life I can expect from the ROP-HI bulb and the ROP-LO bulb?

Thanks

 

[Valolammas]

I built my first ROP about a year ago and I'm still using the same set of bulbs. I use it a couple of seconds here and a few minutes there, so it's very hard to keep track of the total runtime, and I have no idea how many hours I've used them for (but I use the LO more than HI). And they could blow on the next power-up, so my answer is: probably a few hours, and it depends on how lucky you are.

 

[jugg2]

LuxLuthor's tests give approximate bulb life specs. http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=179748

 

[leukos]

Actually, those are two charts where Luxluthor did not estimate bulb life. I remember someone posting a while back that he was consistently getting about 20hrs on his ROP Lo, he had gone through several. I have yet to burn one out, though I probably have about 30 hours on my ROP Lo and the glass has darkened a little.

 

[LumenHound]

I just built a ROP with a 2D maglite and 6AA Eneloop and a spare set of 6AA Duracell Pre-Charged, using Fivemega holders. What bulb life I can expect from the ROP-HI bulb and the ROP-LO bulb?

Thanks

Both bulbs will last dozens of hours on 6 Eneloop or Duracells provided your runs aren't all short 1 or 2 minute bursts. You need to have some runs of 5 minutes or longer to allow the bulbs to complete the halogen cycle. If all of your runs are short then the bulb filament will thin out prematurely because the tungsten isn't being redeposited.

The ROP bulbs can be pushed quite a bit harder than your set-up is doing on 6 of either of those cells. Try a HI bulb comparison between 7 rested AA Eneloops and 6 of those AA Duracells sometime.

If you were to use the 6 Duracells exclusively on the HI bulb you might just find yourself replacing the cells before the lamp. ROP bulbs are tough.

Halogen Cycle info.

 

[jugg2]

Actually, those are two charts where Luxluthor did not estimate bulb life. I remember someone posting a while back that he was consistently getting about 20hrs on his ROP Lo, he had gone through several. I have yet to burn one out, though I probably have about 30 hours on my ROP Lo and the glass has darkened a little.

I took another look at the thread, and you are right. Sorry for posting wrong information, but I thought he had bulb life for the Pelican bulbs in there.

 

[WildChild]

Both bulbs will last dozens of hours on 6 Eneloop or Duracells provided your runs aren't all short 1 or 2 minute bursts. You need to have some runs of 5 minutes or longer to allow the bulbs to complete the halogen cycle. If all of your runs are short then the bulb filament will thin out prematurely because the tungsten isn't being redeposited.

The ROP bulbs can be pushed quite a bit harder than your set-up is doing on 6 of either of those cells. Try a HI bulb comparison between 7 rested AA Eneloops and 6 of those AA Duracells sometime.

If you were to use the 6 Duracells exclusively on the HI bulb you might just find yourself replacing the cells before the lamp. ROP bulbs are tough.

Halogen Cycle info.

About the Duracell and the Eneloop. I have a 2 packs (1 Duracell and 1 Eneloop). Both seem to give me equal performance and the Duracell Pre-Charged are believed to be rebadged Eneloop! As 6AA give me a performance I like out of the ROP-HI bulb (I did not try the LO bulb yet), I will stay with this setup. Thanks for all your replies.