Casio LED Projectors realistic bulb life. Anyone had a bulb go yet?

[rpycroft]

Hi we've started buying Casio LED projectors as I'm told it's worth the extra cost as we'll save it in the long run when it comes to bulb replacements.

 

Anyone had a bulb go on one of these yet?

 

What sort of realistic lamp life can I expect from them? I've filled out the extended warranty that comes with them so I have a minimum of 10,000 hours or 5 years... which is nice!

 

Cheers

Richard

[plexer]

They use a laser light source and led there isn't a bulb or lamp in then.

 

You can probably replace those elements but for their stated lifespan I don't think that is intended.

 

Ben

[zag]

We've been using them for years around the school. Never had one fail so they are pretty much "bulbless" in my eyes.

[localzuk]

We've had 2 fail in the last, what, 4 years. They send out a temp replacement, collect the dead one, and fix it.

[RTFM]

We have around 70 of these now, had a couple of failures but the swap out is good.

 

If you ask Casio will swap the unit and you can keep the swap and they'll transfer the warranty. Saves you taking one down, putting one up, taking it down, putting the original back up.

 

Depends how lazy you are really

[witch]

We have around 70 of these now, had a couple of failures but the swap out is good.

 

If you ask Casio will swap the unit and you can keep the swap and they'll transfer the warranty. Saves you taking one down, putting one up, taking it down, putting the original back up.

 

Depends how lazy you are really

 

Hmm -we've just had one swapped out (bit disappointed as it was 13 months old) - they said we could keep the swap but it was a reconditioned unit and turned out to be about 18 months older than ours so I said no. Mind you, that was a week ago and we havent got ours back yet

[tmcd35]

There appears to be two varients - a thin and a thick case. We've had no end of problems with the thin versions overheating and the electronics freezing (no response to remote/buttons). The thick versions seem to be fine but we've gone back to cheaper bulb projectors here because I can't justify the lifespan based on what we've had so far. Might have another look in a couple of years once we spent some serious money getting the current stock upgraded a bit.

[ICTonto]

I enquired about these from an engineer that carries out installations and he stated that the Casio projector brightness halves at 10,000 hours and as there is no replaceable parts you need to discard them at the end of their life, now taking this with a pinch of salt as the source is biased but I'm not sure its worth the premium over short throw or ultra short throws if all you get is 10,000 hours of decent image quality.

[VeryPC_Colin_F]

Hi rpycroft,

 

 

As it has been mentioned above , they come with a 20,000 hour lamp life (There is no lamp just LED components) so they should last a long time. I have put many of thease into schools and as yet has no issues. But then again i have put LCD projectors into schools that have lasted nearly 10 years without a bulb change. Casio should swap out or fix the issue if you have ever have problems i would of thought...

 

Col

[Alis_Klar]

Remember the Casios don't require filter cleans either so very low maintenance. I am replacing with lampless as old projectors fail.

[bossman]

We are totally Casio here and in all we have had a couple of failures at around 3 years old but these have been repaired by Casio (Very promptly too), most of ours are now at the 5 years old stage and as yet no problems.

 

The model we use are the AJ-145 a little pricier than the base model but worth the extra I feel.

[Max_Power]

A concern with Casio ultra short throws that have no lamps has always been what to do if it fails after 5 years? For arguments sake say 5 years 5 days.

 

If one of our older Hitachi short throws dies at the moment we replace the lamp for about £160 and apart from the odd filter clean / change they continue to work fine. Got some that are approaching 8 years old but never had any lamp changes just cleaning filters and they are still going strong. Budgets restrict me from replacing them on a rolling program.

 

With budgets being tight, I wouldn't be able to replace multiple Casio's at such a high cost if they failed out of warranty.

 

Do you have strategies or budgets in place that make this a non issue?

[GeekyPete]

A concern with Casio ultra short throws that have no lamps has always been what to do if it fails after 5 years? For arguments sake say 5 years 5 days.

 

How you depreciate the projectors? 5 years is reasonable for most items. So after 5 years and 5 days, replace it. It's paid for itself. Any longer and it's a bonus. What would you do if any other major component (PSU, Cuitcuit board etc) failed out side warranty in any make of projector?

[Snuffkins]

We have nearly 50 of the original thinner models. They have a number of issues, with DLP chip failure. In our case we also had a batch where an internal lens would detach (These were classed as DOA, no matter when they failed and were swapped for new). We've recently had another 5 DLP chip failures. We were given multiple options for resolution, but went with refurbished equipment, which has come in like new. The original ones are now 4 years old. The image brightness has diminished over time, which we started noticing around 2-2.5 years after installation.

 

I believe as has been mentioned, that issues like we've had do not tend to be the case with the later chassis. We have no experience of this though.

 

The warranty and support has always been very good though and the lower maintenance requirement is always welcomed. We will probably be looking to a move towards interactive panels at the next refresh.

 

TCO over the life of the led bulbless projectors tends to be lower than regular projectors, when you factor in replacement bulbs, maintenance and energy use, but you would need to do a cost analysis for both to prove that one way or the other.

 

Overall we've been pleased with what we've had over the time we've used it. They're mostly still serviceable projectors after 4 years of heavy use, with another year to go to refresh, which they should see out.

 

Based on a minimum of 8 hours per day, which is below what our projectors tend to experience on average they've done approximately 7,000 hours to date (Mostly due to not being turned off when not required) and as i say are still ok for the most part, personally on this model i wouldn't want to try and push them past 5 years, but i don't think that's much different with any projector.

[Max_Power]

How you depreciate the projectors? 5 years is reasonable for most items. So after 5 years and 5 days, replace it. It's paid for itself. Any longer and it's a bonus. What would you do if any other major component (PSU, Cuitcuit board etc) failed out side warranty in any make of projector?

 

It does depreciate over 5 years but that doesn't mean I have the budget to replace it no matter what strategy or processes are in place.

 

At the moment, they are repaired or replaced depending on age, location and cost to do so but these figures are generally cheaper than the cost of a Casio Ultra short throw.

[Alis_Klar]

I tend to find that quality of image is inversely proportional to longevity and directly proportional to required filter and lamp maintenance.

 

LCD>DLP>LED(DLP)

 

LCD has shortest life and requires frequent filter cleans but is best image quality especially 3LCD variants. Good for halls as they are not on all day so clock up less hours.

 

DLP are lower picture quality but have longer filter clean intervals

 

LED (which use DLP chip also) have longest maintenance interval and no filters to change. I find that picture quality is less important than raw brightness and contrast so kids can see text in an bright room.

 

Also bear in mind that you cannot replace lamps forever other elements of the projector burn out over time. In my experience LCD projectors and some DLP projectors get dimmer over time even with a brand new lamp.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Alis_Klar