Is my combined heat/uv lamp faulty?

[Chris1400]

Hi. I have a 100w t-rex combined heat and uv flood bulb on my tortoise table. It seems to work fine, but has started flickering and then turning off. It comes back on a bit later. It does this every few hours. My guesses so far are it's faulty, it's a safety device if it gets too hot, it's plugged into a anti surge extension lead or it doesn't like the mechanical timer. The bulb is plugged into a zoo med clamp lamp ceramic holder, which is rated Upto 100w. Any ideas?

Thanks a lot

Chris

[annsimpson1]

you've only just got the wattage in the holder I must admit I always go for a higher one but I don't know whether that would make any difference, its not in an enclosed reflector etc as they do need air to circulate around them i made that mistake and it would switch itself off. Can't you get in touch with wherever you brought it? they might know

[carlyandbabies]

Hi, how weird I have the same and it does that. Normally if I let it cool and take the bulb out, then put it back in. Its ok for a while. I thought it was the holder thats faulty???

[AnythingWithAShell]

If you are using a reflector dome holder, then it needs to be the largest size you can get, to allow max airflow round the bulb. If you're using a wire cage holder, then airflow shouldn't be such a problem. And I believe combined bulbs must be hanging straight down, not clamped on at an angle. This makes the bulbs struggle as well. I don't use combineds yet, but I plan to when I can afford to change everything over!

And obviously you need to have a holder rated for the wattage, but like Ann said, I'd get one rated for a higher wattage than your bulb, to be safe. Try this if it's not what you're using already. It's the biggest size, and is rated for 200W.

Clamp Lamp 10 by: Zoo Med

[Graham]

If you do a search on this subject you'll find that it comes up a lot, almost everyone who uses a MVB experiences it at one time or another for different reasons.

T-Rex MVBs are exactly the same as MegaRays, just marketed under a different brand name, at one time there was a problem with some 100W ones and a higher wattage 120W version was introduced to address this, assuming yours is a 100W one as you say, then you have probably had it a while or else it was old stock.

If it's old stock and you only bought it recently, or only started to use it recently, then the flickering and turning off should stop after a week or two, if it doesn't then get it replaced under the 6 month warranty.

If you've had it and used it for some time then it could be a sign that it's reaching the end of it's life, this is exactly what happened to mine recently after 2 1/2 years of use!

The other possibilities are either that it's overheating due to using a shade/holder that's too small, which doesn't allow enough cooling air to circulate, or that it's mounted at an angle rather than vertically as it's designed to be.