Have Laser projectors been reliable / cost effective for people

[robintech]

Having used our last spare lamp in the main hall projector was thinking about a switch to Laser instead of restocking but wondering how reliable Laser projectors are and what the common failure mode is.

So far only had lamps go in big projectors and they are easy if expensive to swap out.

[PotNoodleTech]

Havent had the big Epson laser long enough to tell you but the image quality on the bulb one is better, better colour balance etc.

 

Have not had to replace bulb on main hall Epson and that's 5 years + old now.

[robintech]

Hadn't thought about image quality just assumed Laser=better, might have to demo some projectors

[Aprice]

Our main school has a pretty decent BenQ large venue laser in, it's a really nice piece of kit.

 

It's always being left on overnight / over weekends, I'm sure if it was lamp based it would be burned out by now.

 

One day I'll get around to programming the RS232 controller to turn it off automatically.

 

Previous job had a load of the Casio lasers in classrooms which were virtually maintenance free, and were getting on a bit. They weren't the easiest to clean.

 

Unless we had a really good reason we wouldn't be putting more projectors in, except from halls.

Edited March 8, 2024 by Aprice

[steveg]

We went from a traditional dual bulb large venue projector to an Epson laser unit. Epson has been so much brighter and better image quality would never install anything else now. It's over a year old and image still looks as good and bright was when we installed it.

[Bumhug360]

Bulb projectors are likely to get harder to find and more expensive as EU are banning them from 2026. While we aren't in the EU any more we do tend to get the EU models

 

EU rings the death knell for bulb projectors - FlatpanelsHD

[robintech]

Bulb projectors are likely to get harder to find and more expensive as EU are banning them from 2026. While we aren't in the EU any more we do tend to get the EU models

 

EU rings the death knell for bulb projectors - FlatpanelsHD

 

Didn't know about that and might make it easier to convince people we need Laser

[SamanthaD]

Been using lasers for around 5 years. We're starting to see failures, mainly due to lack of maintenance on our part (our room usage is at 100% pretty much everywhere giving us zero maintenance opportunities). Clogged filters is the main culprit.

 

But for life they're great, we also have the issue of them being left on overnight / over weekends / over Christmas break and they just keep going!

 

If you go down the laser route though it's worth over-speccing the brightness, then turn the brightness down. This gives a constant level of brightness throughout the life of the projector rather than starting at max and heading down the curve pretty much instantly. I think Epson call it constant brightness in their menu settings?

[BenQ_Chris]

Hi,

 

You may be able to (model dependent) be able to utilise DMS Local to manage your projectors (DMS (benq.com)).

 

If you've got any questions or would like to know more please just drop me a a DM.