Projector age and lifespan

[Pete10141748]

We have a couple of NEC projectors which have been up for 3 years, turned on and running for around 7 hours every day (5 days a week) 8O

 

From my own research (and general inclination) it seems that 3 years running in this way is more than enough to kill off a projector. Is this the case? Do you have experience of this; I've not been in the job long enough to know how long these things are supposed to last for 1st hand

 

Our co-ordinator says that 3 years is not a long time at all for a projector to last, even though they are treated this way and were not maintained / cleaned at all for the first 2.5 years of their life. Is he right? :?:

 

Pete

[DevilsAdvocate]

Ours have been going for the 3 years I have been here + whatever before. Granted we have been through some lamps, but the projectors themselves have never failed on me. These are a mixture of NEC, Sony and Epson projectors.

 

Rob.

[buzzard]

I always give projectors a 5 Year lifespan, then I budget for there replacement. but if they're still working at this point leave it until the bulbs go then replace... If it's not broke, don't fix it (as long as its ongoing "maintance" isn't costing you more then its worth! )

[Sylv3r]

Two answers to your question - ideally if we had the money id swap the projectors every 3 years or so, but as buzzard mentioned above if they are still running i just tend to leave them alone.

 

We have some which are 6 years+ and still going on their first bulb - I agree the picture quality is a little faded but they still do the job. With these projectors being slightly larger back in the day they is also cost implications of a new bracket etc with a new smaller projector which needs to be be taking into consideration.

[maniac]

We've just replaced the first lot of projectors in this school, they were sahara ones and were badly made in the first place, so we count ourselves lucky that they survived 4 years. The ones that have been looked after are actually still OK, but they've developed a nasty habit of turning themselves off after 20 minutes no matter how well ventilated they are.

 

In my opinion projectors brought now should last longer, as the technologies are a lot better now than 3 or 4 years ago. We're hoping for a minimum of 5 years from the one's we've just brought.

 

Mike.

[zag]

The NEC ones are great, their service is second to none and they last forever. I especially like the new models they are producing and have not had any die yet.

 

We budget for them every 4 years like everything else, but we do have lots of spare lamps just in case.

[localzuk]

We've had our first 'dead' projector this week - an HP one that was one of the first to go in to our school. It is about 4 1/2 years old. I expect about 4 years from them really, so expect a few of our old ones to die over the next year (we're gonna budget for half a dozen).

 

Not looking forward to 2009, as the largest batch were bought in 2004 - 20 of them!! Who bought 20 projectors in one year?? That's £10,000's worth if you include the bracket and the like too.

[richard.thomas]

We've had ours about 3 years and we're now replacing them with those all-in-one Smart boards (the ones with the projector coming from the wall)

[Quackers]

Coming into year 8 now and we still have 2 Projectors that have been used on Interactive whiteboards since 2000 and thats all day every school day and they are still going strong. Normally go through 1 bulb every year. Not changing them until either they just break or picture quality goes poor from heat damage. They are Sanyo PLC-SU30's . Just had change 2 Sanyo SU20b's bought the same year as the SU30's just a few months before, the image quality was very poor, had been for last year but just lived with it, but went very bad in the last few months.

 

Been buying the Epson's in recently at a very good price and been very impressed with them so far, love the EMP-X52 .

[john]

We've had our first 'dead' projector this week - an HP one that was one of the first to go in to our school. It is about 4 1/2 years old. I expect about 4 years from them really, so expect a few of our old ones to die over the next year (we're gonna budget for half a dozen).

Expect a great many more if they are HP. The bulbs are more than the projectors and they often just fail for no reason, a local school is on the 5th or 6th HP Projector in 2 years now, they just keep dying. I myself have one that used to be in an office, it no longer works when mounted on the ceiling , goes rainbow colours but is fine once shaken and stired and sat on a table, so I though oh well I'll have that for nothing.

[L.E.K]

Here where i work some of the projectors have lasted for over 4 years. But some oif these NEC ones which we have had for over 3 years the bulbs in them are starting to explode :? lol

 

L.E.K

[Marc-Engineer]

Hi everyone, projectors willlast for years if you maintain them, please see my other postings, I am an engineer working on projectors every day i still see somt projectors more than 8 yers old and working as good as ever, as long as you dont exceed the rated hours of the lamp and have them deep cleaned (not to be confused with filter cleaning) when required they will last years and years. The biggest killer of projectors is over running the lamps.

Changing projector can bring its own set of problems with differing focal lengths (you may have to move the mount) if you dont get the correct advice.

Our Company will give advice either by phone or email on all aspects of projector maintaince, repair and replacement, with out obligation.

 

Marc Oglesby

Sen. Eng. IT Services

[email protected]

01472 236221