Mercury Vapour Bulbs

[Grond]

Does anyone have any experience with self ballasting mercury vapour bulbs? I've just bought one and had it running for a few days (with a view to potentially moving away from fluorescent tubes).

My problem is that the bulb keeps going off for a minute or two and then it comes back on spontaneously! There is no problem with the electricity supply as the power light for the light fixture its attached to doesn't waver or go off.

I just want to know whether this is normal, or if i've been sold a duff bulb and need to send it back (they're not cheap and I don't want a dodgy one!). I am using the exoterra variety.

Thanks

[trunx]

ive used them for over a year. never had this problem at all. i know when you turn them off you cant turn them on again till they cool down- 10ish minutes. maybe a duff bulb or timer maybe?...........

[Grond]

Could be the timer I suppose. Will try it without the timer and see what happens!

[Athravan]

It is normal with some MVB bulbs, specifically certain makes. If you phone the manufacturer they should tell you that this may continue for a few days and should sort itself out. If it doesn't sort itself out after a few days the manufacturer should replace the bulb for you.

[mEOw]

some of them do this sometimes, never quite figured out why but people usually have one of two answers... 1, send it back, its broken and 2, they sometimes do this for the first few days, they have a thermal cutout inside the bulb and some of them run hotter than usuall for the first few days...
2nd answer seems fishy to me but when i got a bulb that was doing this i told the people at mega ray and they sent me a replacement out. still have the dodgy bulb sat in the cupboard as an emergency spare though, if they fix themselves i might give it a try again sometime..lol

[mEOw]

forgot to mention, out of the 20 or so mvb's ive bought, all sorts of diffrent makes, only one bulb ever did this. have had 6 mega rays that dont, and one that does and was replaced. (hence why i dont really believe they are meant to)
Owen

[Rencey]

what is the best mvb i ask this as been reading up on them and i keep swaying from one to the other. the power sun throws its uva/uvb upto 6ft the mega ray doesn't fade as bad but has a distance of 20" and then you have the sunglo (cheap) and the t rex one.
would i be right in sticking with the power sun

[mEOw]

i stuck with mega rays, powersuns i had all blew within 6 months of buying them. saying that i have heard a lot of very good things about the new sunglo bulbs, and have 2 here that im pleased with at the moment (only had em a month or so though so cant say how good they are in the long term yet)
Owen

[Athravan]

I'm using the Exo Terra Sun Glo at the moment too but like Owen says they are pretty new on the market - I would really love to see some studies on deteroriation and UV output before making my mind up for sure, but so far so good.

[zune_lai]

Ive read that some mvb go off for a while if it overheats