Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This one, a warrantee replacement, just went dead after less than two months. I won't get into brand assassination here but feel free to pm me if you'd like my experience in detail.

Any info. on best brands would be much appreciated. I really like the convenience and performance of the MVB so don't want to change to tubes, but if there's not alternative to constantly shipping burned out bulbs back maybe that's the way to go.

I as well got fed up with the MVB last season, and switched all my enclosures back over to dual fixtures holding Repti-sun 5.0 and now 10.0 tubes. I got tired of the burnouts, and waiting for replacements.. As soon as I got all my cages switched back over to fluorescent the Mega Ray MVB became readily available, and affordable.. As far as MVB go these have out lasted them all, and the amount of UVB these provide is unmatched by the other brands available. Always something new and better LOL.. I still use fluorescent in most of my enclosures, but now use the Mega Ray MVB in quite a few set ups.

Places where you can buy this brand
www.reptileuv.com
www.reptiledirect.com
-----

Mystical-Dragons Web Site
Webshots photos

if they are zm brand I have to agree. I had to replace 2x in a year, wait for replacement. They upgraded me to a 160w from 100w and so far so good - had it since early January. The guy at the company more or less said that there were less returns with the 160w, but you'd think they could get it right!
-----
Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled - Luna
1.0 Beardie - For now his name is Kinky Boy
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula (no name yet)
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha

quite a bit and I'm hoping to avoid that. I'm surprised a highter wattage bulb would have a longer lifespan because it would be under more stress, but maybe they overkill on the filaments or something.

Yeah, you'd think they'd get it figured out. In my case a 1 out of 4 acceptable life span doesn't exactly generate a lot of customer satisfaction. Frankly I don't know how they can afford to continue to sell them unless the markup covers the cost of the replacements, which is really a cheesy way to do business.

yeah, the 160 is HOT. As for the bulbs blowing I did everything "right" - never at an incline, off on with a timer, coorect socket and plug, etc.

there is a small discussion about the compact fluorescent bulbs going on in another forum - have you ever used them?
-----
0.1 Veiled - Luna
1.0 Beardie - For now his name is Kinky Boy
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula (no name yet)
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
Chameleon Help & Resource Info

I haven't used them....which forum? I should check it out. I haven't looked at those bulbs past the point of saying to myself "They're too cheap, they can't be any good."

well, I will stop you right there. The person is referring to a different bulb (just found out, did not know this when last posted) and I had some ?? for them. it is on the cham forum, here's a link to the thread go down to the section where zenexotics and I start to "chat"
lighting thread

-----
0.1 Veiled - Luna
1.0 Beardie - For now his name is Kinky Boy
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula (no name yet)
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
Chameleon Help & Resource Info

is that out of the 4 that I've tried, only ONE has actually lasted. It had been in for about 10 months, so I decided to replace it and keep it around as a spare. Both the original replacement AND it's warrantee replacement have now given up on me.

Funny thing is, when I put the spare back in, Kiana immediately (as in, about 2 minutes later) became more active, and I had been wondering lately if she was OK because she's been kind of lazy (fecals came back fine). I think there was something wrong with that last one out of the box, and that makes me wonder if they don't just put out of spec. but "working" bulbs into the warrantee replacement pool so they don't have to scrap them.

I have the 100 watt Mega Ray, and can't say enough good about it. I tried brand x and got less than two months out of it, and lived in fear of bumping it cause it would go off. The Mega works perfect, and does not feel like it could break at any second. I use it as my UVB and heat light, excellent product.
-----
0.1 Western Hognose
1.0 Bearded Dragon
0.1 Common Corn