Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After one dud 100 watt flood and on maybe good 160 watt flood (went off this morning after 20 minutes, I let it cool and turned it back on..o.k. so far) I read the info sheet all the way through, this is the first and only product that I have ever seen that has a pro-rated value schedule for returns listed right in the box. They must fail at an alarming rate, it states on the instructions that when it fails you will be charged $6.00 per month for each month that you had it prior to falure. You only qualify for this bizarre pro-rated warranty during the first 6 months. Anyone out there in the lighting industry? Does this sound par for the course for specialty lights? It sounds to me like Big Apple got stuck with a good quantity of lemon special order bulbs and this is the compromise to keep selling them until they break even.
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for us at a fast rate, they fade in and out a lot also.

The other companies warranty are much better.

They are for a year, T-Rex will replace based on you original sales receipt up to a year. If you pay say $60 and 3 months later is fails, they will exchange it for a pro-rated base. This one would be $15 (60 divide by 12= $5 x 3 months = $15) and your new bulb will have a year warrranty from the replacement date.

PowerSun has a fairly good one too. They will replace free of charge up to 1 year, but the blub they replace it with will only have the time left on the guarantee of the first one. So at mimimun you will have one for a year from the original cost.

Of probably 2 dozen we have purchased over 3 years, 1 dozen we have used, all have failed in the first 6 months but one of the original Active UV Heat ones prior to Zoo Med buying them out. Capture the Sun did not last but a few days to 3 months.

At least one is going back and will be replaced with the equivalent in another brand.
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I've tried just about every brand available, and have had the best luck, and less hassles with the Zoomed Powersuns. Capture The Suns always blew before 4 months for me. I do have one odd ball Capture The Sun that has been working for 6 months now. One other thing Big Apple seems to kill me on shipping and I'm close to New York. Zoomed has been very nice in replacing blown bulbs as fast as possible. I send them to Colin Purcell at zoo med laboratories and it is always taken care of. Just so you know some of the new powersuns are coming with a warrenty card inside the box. What you got to do is fill out the warrenty and send it back (postage is already paid)and save the reciept from the store you bought from. With the Capture The Suns I've noticed not only did they blow faster, but some got loose at the base. Also the blinking you described I've had happen too. It was flickering like something was loose inside the bulb I would shake it a bit and it would flash. I've also noticed that the spot type bulbs have lasted longer for me then the flood type, and I've used and went through many of these bulbs. Not sure why this is, but it kinda bugs me because the flood is what i need for most of my set ups.
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Mystical Dragons

I will be returning both on monday, the 160 as of this morning will only stay on for about an hour and then shut off, I need to turn it off for fifteen minutes and then turn it on again. I am not going to exchange them and I definetely am not paying any additional shipping for the return. I think I will stick to the 2 flourescent 8.0 bulbs with the halogen for now until the uvb mv bulbs are manufactured better. I would be willing to use a more expensive balast and fixture for a more reliable light. I have a nice pendant Metal Halide fixture that I may use. I have read a site that claims to have compared output from halide but I really doubt they used any of the specialty bulbs used in the auarium setups. Oh well I gave it shot.
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I was wondering on your study, you mentioned that ESU and SolarBrite got a 1-3. What was Repti-Sun like? Was it actually lower or higher than these numbers?

From the post below about the light tests:

Repti-Sun 5.0 - The Tubes were okay when first on, but dropped dramatically and at 3 months, to the point I do not feel they were very effective at all for bearded dragons, but good for an animal that needs less UVB or is supplemented regularly with Calcium with D3, so we give 'em to the water dragon

This was at 6 inches, I did not want to put the numbers as we wanted to see what the other person testing found with their test and not taint it.

Our test was mainly to see what degree of constant UVB was hitting the basking areas and cooler areas. Mostly to check the theory that too much UVB was going at the dragons. Even the one with the most output of them all which was the Active UV Heat 100 watt Spotlight @ the recommend minimum distance of 18 inches, it had about 3 times as much UVB DIRECTLY on the basking area with a diameter reading of about 6 inches, and fading to no UVB reading at 12 inches from it. This was equal to Florida sun UVB output in the shade or on an overcast day............. NOT MUCH UVB and we felt certainly not too much UVB.

The floods cast a broader range of UVB output and it extended to still having a decent UVB reading @ 18-24 inches diameter. In a 65 gallon tank, -0- UVB is reaching the far end, so we might as well shut off the UVB when they are on that end brumating, it is not reaching them and they do not need it anyway.

Our conclusion was Mercury Vapor are not too much UVB for reptiles that come from an area that has one of the highest UVB outputs on earth... in fact, even the strongest bulb at the newest point was 4 times less that, in the "HOT" spot. Also we feel since they decrease as you move further away in diameter, they pose no health risk to humans who use them on reptiles as directed.

As for the argument that, "but reptiles are not always in the sun in their native habitat" :

No, they are not, they move to shade or out of the light. In an enclosure, as long as you have 24 inches for them in length to move away, they are not either.

I wish we could have taken all the blubs longer, but the tubes were as low in UVB output at 3-4 months as ESU coil and Solar-Brite 160 watt Globe MV were to start with. I would not keep beardies under them at that point and the other MV lights were fading or going out permanently(except one)..... their UVB output was good...... but they stopped lighting!

It could have been our area and power surges that effected them going out, or they may just not last as they are advertized. We still use PowerSuns and Active UV Heat, we have not had problems having them replaced by the companies, just a lot of shipping back and forth..... I save their shipping boxes now and repack and send them back in it when needed.

One other thing we did learn, no NOT touch the blubs with your hands or fingers, oil on them create a hot spot on the blub and they will affect the functioning of them and use a larger dome, not a small one.

Great!

Thanks for all the info.