Hey guys wanted to know what happens and damage results if a bulb explodes? I have the Pan 100, also by saying explode does the bulb actually explode or just cracks. Thanks for the help.

Don't know about the Panny but on my BenQ 7200 the bulb literally exploded as in KERPOW!! Scared the ?%# out of me and scattered little pieces of glass all over inside the projector. I just boxed it up and got it replaced under warranty.

It depends on how big of an explosion it is. It can either be a small and a nuisance or large and kill your PJ... I'd avoid overtaxing your lamp to such an extent. :)

I have witnessed 2 bulb blow-ups and know of another. None of the 3 caused projector damage. They can really scare you if you are watching a movie and are rapped up in it. Each time I was worried that there would be color wheel damage, or other fragile elements destroyed. Simple bulb replacements got all three right back up and running. They were all dlp projectors, but I bet lcd and lcos also have occasional lamp explosions.

Ditto. Two lamp explosions that sounded like firecrackers, neither did any damage to the projector (Optoma H30, DLP). Shards of glass needed to be dumped/vacuumed out of the lamp compartment.

The lamp blew in our Optoma H30 after two years of service. The ballast blew, not sure if that was the cause of the lamp blowing or if the lamp blowing damaged the ballast.

Anyone know how much mercury is in these things? Or how long it hangs around after the bulb explodes?

As an extension to the OP's question, is it worth doing a lamp replacement before it goes on it's own? My PLV-Z3 lamp is somewhere around 3500 hours, and I have the replacement on hand. I just wanted to be sure to get the most life out of the lamp.

Is the risk of lamp explosion worth making the swap out early?

As an extension to the OP's question, is it worth doing a lamp replacement before it goes on it's own? My PLV-Z3 lamp is somewhere around 3500 hours, and I have the replacement on hand. I just wanted to be sure to get the most life out of the lamp.

Is the risk of lamp explosion worth making the swap out early?
I have always felt that when you buy a replacement/spare lamp- put it in the projector right away. You only have 90 days warranty on the new one you just bought. If you put it in the projector 6 months later when your initial one blows and it turns out to be DOA- you are SOL.

Having survived one bulb explosion -- and spent hours cleaning glass fragments from the optical path of my PJ -- I have never again operated a bulb longer than the recommended time period. I get 1500 hours using econo mode in an LT150z and yeah, I hate to spend the $400 for a new bulb, but it beats buying a whole new projector. There are reasons they rate these bulbs in hours & one reason is image quality & the other is they do explode! You can really see the difference a new bulb makes when swapping one out on time. And the peace of mind counts for a lot too. I figure I was lucky once and decided not to press my luck beyond that.

below is the result of my Sanyo Z3 bulb going out, the consequences were more than i could bear...

http://vega.soi.city.ac.uk/~abbf806/redpolitix/explosion%2022.JPG

i made the mistake and bought my z3 bulb a year ago, and i never tested it oh well, fingers are crossed when i do swap the bulb out, still going strong on the first bulb at 2700 hrs

I've had bulbs explode at 550 hours, so I don't think you're necessarily in the clear taking them out when they reach rated life.

Ditto- my two explosions were at 440 and 941 hours. The lamp in the projector now is probably nearing 3500 hours and still going strong... weird.

I've seen/heard bulbs explode, sounds like a 12 gauge shotgun going off, better have a good charged Defibrillator handy. :)

What cause the bulb explode? Is it overheat?

Many PJ bulbs are built into a "cage" for lack of a better word. When it does blow it might scare the holy living crap out of you but it rarely causes any damage. A "naked" bulb...that could create a mess.

I have an hc3000 mitsubishi projector, and I am ignoring all the good advice here and running the bulb until death. Does anyone know the likelihood of the bulb simply burning out quietly rather than exploding? Does anyone have any specific experience with this projector bulb?

we too have a mits hc3000 that is about 2300 hours. always been run in low mode.
still VERY bright. How long should we let it go?

The one bulb failure that I have first hand experience with was in a Sony Rear Projector. It failed at startup. Bulb replacement took care of the problem. There was no loud sound or broken glass. It was less than one year old and had maybe 700 hours on it. The replacement bulb has over 1,500 hours on it now. My original Epson TW100 bulb had close to 4,600 hours on it when I replaced it. I still have it as a spare. JIC (just in case) the operating bulb fails in the middle of some scheduled viewing event.

I have a Mitsubishi HC1500. The first bulb failed at about 2,000 hours. It failed at start-up one day. There was no explosion, the machine just would no longer turn on. The current bulb is at 2,251 hours and the message just popped on the screen telling me to replace it soon. Well, no I won't be replacing this bulb before it fails completely. Tonight I reset the "hours" counter back to "zero" hours. This one is gonna run till it whimpers out like the last one. If it explodes, so be it. A bulb has the potential to explode at *any* number of hours, so what?