Projector Clean

[ToyHeartsFan]

I don’t clean the filters as often as I should but I do try and get around a few times a year otherwise they will clog up and the projectors will overheat and cut out.

It depends how dusty the environment is and how much use they get used, most of ours are on all day.

Dragging ladders all around school is a pain and can only be done after school, the worst ones are the ones with the universal mounts that block the filter so to do them properly you have to take them down. On some when you take the filter out the dust drops inside the projector so you can’t win.

I clean them when I need to change the lamp or if the image is poor using an omega VAC (antistatic, the sort of thing printer / copier engineers use) and an electric duster that blows air out rather than a compressor or the cans. You can get most of the dust out this way opening the optical path without taking the lenses out or touching the mirrors / prism.

I’ve just sent a sanyo back that was cutting out and the only way to restart it / clear the warning light was to pull the power cable out (power failure shown in the event log) they couldn’t find anything wrong with it and wanted a small fortune to clean it (we hadn’t done it yet because its still under warranty). They finally agreed to replace the fans but I’m not convinced it will make any difference. We are now starting to use Casio bulb and filter less projectors because I’ve had enough of Sanyo only time will tell how well they last.

We also need to replace our hall projectors 2 of them have failed and it was costing us a grand a year to have the filters cleaned, they are 6 meters high so who ever does it needs scaffolding…

[Blue_Cookeh]

We use Casio XJ-A130s in 4/5 of our classrooms... proven to be very good so far in terms of maintenance... it hasn't really been long enough for us to gauge what state they'll be in later though.

The Mitsubishi projectors we used before lasted a good 5 years without a "deep clean", when it did come to deep cleans, they didn't help so we wrote them all off, it was cheaper to replace a projector than to have them refurbished.

[ToyHeartsFan]

Well our Sanyo projector just came back from warranty repair and the screws that hold the lamp in place hadnt been screwed into place, well done TPMatrix your engineers really fill me with confidence. And you want me to pay £100 to clean our projector which is an hours work? Oh and the new warranty void if opened sticker incase we have it cleaned by someone other than TPMatrix is a real nice addition.

[Marc-Engineer]

Do you mean does any maker make a projector with such a device? i have never heard of one, but that is not the problems a slightly blocked filter works better than a clean one it stops more dust getting in but the down side is it reduces cooling, the dust that causes the problem is in the optical engine NOT on the filters, the answer is deep clean.
And yes some projectors in low dust enviroments will survive when not cleaned but many will not (trust me i see them for repair) dust in classrooms is strange as many classrooms have really bad dust problems needing projectors cleaned every 6 months but some as you describe last for years and dont seem to have the same problem.

I have had many people say to me i will get an LED projector next time............makes no differance as they have the same problem, dust never asks what the bulb is before it gets inside.

Marc
Projector Engineer

[plexer]

Do you mean does any maker make a projector with such a device? i have never heard of one,
Marc
Projector Engineer

@Marc-Engineer what was that in reference too?

Ben

[ToyHeartsFan]

Do you mean does any maker make a projector with such a device? i have never heard of one, but that is not the problems a slightly blocked filter works better than a clean one it stops more dust getting in but the down side is it reduces cooling, the dust that causes the problem is in the optical engine NOT on the filters, the answer is deep clean.
And yes some projectors in low dust enviroments will survive when not cleaned but many will not (trust me i see them for repair) dust in classrooms is strange as many classrooms have really bad dust problems needing projectors cleaned every 6 months but some as you describe last for years and dont seem to have the same problem.

I have had many people say to me i will get an LED projector next time............makes no differance as they have the same problem, dust never asks what the bulb is before it gets inside.

Marc
Projector Engineer

Some high end projectors for halls such as "Sanyo PLC-ZM5000L Professional Projector" have these type of systems built into them "Auto Maintenance Filter System enables the projector to operate for up to 10,000 hours without filter maintenance" I have no idea how good they are or if they really work and I don't think they are available on smaller class room spec projectors.

The reason people are starting to use LED projectors is because the casio ones are filterless thus removing part of the problem. We now have several of them but I've never opened one up and we havent had them long so I don't know how well the optics are sealed, they might well suffer from similar problems with dust build up in the optics over time.

When you take into account the cost of the lamps there was very little difference in price between the sanyos we were using and the casios and we have had problems with a number of Sanyo projectors failing (not because of dust) so it was a no brainer to try something else. Ontop of that you need to bear in mind that not all schools have full time ICT staff and smaller schools will often only have one person looking after the ICT equipment so if they have to use external support it can be costing them £400 a day which is money that can be spent on better things than cleaning filters and changing lamps.

With such high maintenance costs its not surprising that people are looking for alternatives, its possible that in a few years time everyone will be moaning about their casio LED projectors and looking for somthing else but at the moment they are the only alternative to standard projectors.

[Marc-Engineer]

I see your point but unfortunatly i have had several of the casio in to clean so filterless does not mean that the dust does not get in it just means the man on site has no filter to remeber to clean.

Some projectors are better than others at keeping dust out but generaly higher end units and most definatly not the casio, i praise casio for inventivness but its not right yet there are many things on them i would change.

As for lamp price most educational cover now means you can forget the lamp for a number of years and lamp cost now being around £100 for an Epson lamp means it is now not the problem it once was.

As i said before the laser lit units will save most of the problems of doing away with lenses and need for reguler cleaning.

Marc
Projector Engineer

[ToyHeartsFan]

I see your point but unfortunatly i have had several of the casio in to clean so filterless does not mean that the dust does not get in it just means the man on site has no filter to remeber to clean.

Some projectors are better than others at keeping dust out but generaly higher end units and most definatly not the casio, i praise casio for inventivness but its not right yet there are many things on them i would change.

As for lamp price most educational cover now means you can forget the lamp for a number of years and lamp cost now being around £100 for an Epson lamp means it is now not the problem it once was.

As i said before the laser lit units will save most of the problems of doing away with lenses and need for reguler cleaning.

Marc
Projector Engineer

Casio are not the first to offer filterless, LED aren't bright enough yet for large venues and I dont know how well they will stay the distance but hopefully they are a step in the right direction.

I think the last batch of Sanyos we had came with educational warranty on the lamp but it was meaningless when you read the small print which specified a maximum number of hours per week the projector could be used (it was less than a normal school week). Other manufacturers have bundled spare bulbs with projectors at point of sale which is a better idea but you still need someone to fit them.

Lamp prices have improved a lot but take our old Sanyo PLC-SE10, it's not had a lot of use and the image is still good but it only supports 800*600, its well out of warranty and will need a new lamp in a couple of months which will cost closer to £200 than £100. When you need to spend that much on a lamp its a big chunk of money that could go towards a new projector that comes with a 20,000 hour warranty on the LED source.

I'm not trying to champion the casio LED projectors because until we have had them a few years I dont know how well they will cope in a school environment they could turn out to be worse than the Sanyos but for us it made sense to give them a go because I needed something brighter and with lower maintenance costs than what we were using.

Two of our three Sanyo PLC XP51 hall projectors have failed (well out of warranty but not had enough use to require a lamp change)
They were also costing us a grand a year to have the filters cleaned (scaffold job) and the company that was doing it have gone bump and other companies have either said no they are too high or yes but they didnt have their own scaffold so would need an extra £150 per visit.

Of the last 4 normal projectors (sanyo plc xu301 - still under warranty) we had two of them keep cutting out with power failure events and TPMatrix said they couldnt find anything wrong with the one we returned and another generates interferance on the passthrough VGA port if the projector isnt switched on so the teacher has to leave the projector on after the kids have left if she still needs to use the PC.

So when I needed to replace some end of life class room projectors it was time for a change and I gave Sanyo the boot; we now have 4 soon to be 5 Casio XJ-M150-UJ-EDU projectors and I was able to modify the mount to account for the lens position being different saving us a grand on installation.

[Marc-Engineer]

The XU301's i have seen some that the sensor for temp falls from its normal position when mounted feet up and often goes undiagnosed when looking at it on a bench as it is then in its normal position as its back in its correct position, i have seen around 5 like this.
And yes "some" lamp cover is not as good as others always check lamp price and cover before buying.

Marc
Projector Engineer

[Hosker]

We do not use rolling filters but we switched to Clever Touch Duals (Large interactive TV with 4mm glass) and have never looked back.

[ToyHeartsFan]

The XU301's i have seen some that the sensor for temp falls from its normal position when mounted feet up and often goes undiagnosed when looking at it on a bench as it is then in its normal position as its back in its correct position, i have seen around 5 like this.
And yes "some" lamp cover is not as good as others always check lamp price and cover before buying.

Marc
Projector Engineer

Thanks for the tip these projectors have been driving the teachers nuts!