Mitsubishi HC1500 Color Wheel Issue - My Options?

Where did you buy the lamp and what did you pay? That lamp fit several Mitsubishi projectors of that vintage but do not remember if any are 1080p.
It will fit my HC3000 which is 720. BTW the HC3000 must have a different color wheel than the 1500. My unit has over (jix shields up!) 5500 hours on it and quiet as a mouse. If you have no real need to upgrade, a used hc3000 would be a direct replacement for the 1500 and run about $150-$200.. if you can find one.

Mine started the whine at 1300hrs . I built a hush box for it that includes ventilation tubes with fans. It cut down the whine significantly and I've had that setup for 2 years. The whine still annoys me but at least the setup is usable.

Mitsubishi is one of the more expensive projectors out there for parts replacement costs. My supplier lists the color wheel at about $400. No idea what Mitsubishi would charge you for the repair but it won't be cheap.

I have had the color wheel whine develop on my Hc3000 3 times.. Twice under the 2 year warranty, so it was fixed both times for free. It started whining again last week. I called mitsubishi tech support and told them that they have replaced it twice before and could they give me any deal as it started whining again 6 months after their last fix, even though it is now out of warranty. So far, they have agreed to assume the cost of the part, which they said was about $220 and I am liable for the labor, which might run 100 bucks or so.
You might try giving them a call and ask them to fix it, just to see what happens.

How many total hours on your unit? Mine as about 5500 and no wine.. it was used so maybe the HT store had it repaired but the guy didn't say so.. it was a demo from a store that went belly up and was run 14 hours a day..

My Hc3000 now has bout 3300 hours on the bulb. Besides the whine issue, it has been a great projector.

Mine is also making noise, my bulb has about 2100 hrs and I really don't have any other reason to spend $1200 on a new projector (Epson Home Cinema 8350 if I were to replace mine) so I'm thinking about replacing the color wheel. There is a place advertising on eBay that they can do it for $205. Ebay Color Wheel Replacement Or for a cost of $172 if you want to pull the color wheel out and send it to them.

If you are going to go to the trouble of diving into the colour wheel to replace it, why not just go the extra step and replace the bearings? For the HC1500 they are 2x5x2.5 and 4x8x3 for the small and large bearings, though from experience the larger of the two is usually the problem. I have found for each prices from $5 to $30. Honestly I've had problems with the ceramic bearing (more expensive too) and about to trial the stainless steel version, but it is definitely cheaper than a new colour wheel.

To add to these instructions http:// www avsforum com / avs-vb / showthread.php?p=19541817#post19541817 (sorry, can't make links yet), once the colour wheel is out, all that is required is to remove the protector plate (three screws) and dislodge the snap ring on the shaft by the small bearing. This end also has a small spring inside that loads the bearings axially. Gently pull the wheel over the magnets where hopefully the large bearing comes out on the brass shaft. (If not, reassemble and use the brass end to help dislodge the large bearing from the wheel housing.

Hope that helps.

I've got a Mitsubishi HC1500, too. It's got a bit under 2,000 hours on it, and the color wheel problem started about a month ago -- it's really noisy. It quiets down a little after a few minutes, but it's still very audible, and not just during quiet scenes.

For what it's worth, the color wheel problem seems to have started after not using the projector for a week or two.

The first bulb also went dead after less than 1,000 hours, and I'm on my second bulb now.

If I'd heard about the bearing replacement possibility, I might have given it a shot, but I've already got an HC4000 on order to replace the HC1500. I hope I have better luck with the HC4000!

Other than the bulb and color wheel problems, I've been satisfied with the HC1500. I was really hoping it would last a long time, especially since the replacement bulbs have gotten to be pretty inexpensive now. Oh well.

Just a heads up, I may be selling my Mits HC1500 ( a recent refurb, less than 2000 hrs) soon with a brand new (made in Japan) replacement lamp.

Just adding to an old thread, but the info is relevant. I have a HC3100 projector which has been good to me for some 6 years. I'm on my 5th globe now. As mentioned above the color wheel dilema arose a while back in my projector. I asked Mitsubishi the cost of a replacement - $450 + shipping. A little scary so I bought an OEM part from Ebay for $100. Decided to strip down the projector on the weekend to fit the new wheel. Bit of a task - took around 2 hours. What I found was most interesting. The noise that the wheel is producing is actually a mechanical sound. The wheel was actially hitting the wheel housing. Looks like over time, the wheel has built up enough heat to start skimming the housing, this has led to massive heating and has warped the magnesium housing and severley cracked the housing - all over. So looks as though it's not just the wheel causing the problem. I believe most of the spinning wheel failures mentioned will also require the housing to be replaced as well. I spent the time to modify my housing and then fit the new wheel. System now works like new again. I would expect that if I sent the projector to Mitsub for repair this would have cost in the region of $900 to repair - wheel , housing and labour. Just for interest the old wheel was still working perfectly, just had terrible scratches - which rendered it unuseable.

If the color wheel caused other damage inside your projector then I would think that is a poor design from Mitsubishi.

Possibly - but I reckon the color wheel had clocked up some 12,000 hours. I'll try and upload some pics tonight of the wheel housing showing damage and scratched wheel.

Pictures as promised. One of the housing, still with colour wheel inside. You can see the cracking. But what you can't see is that the whole housing is warped due to the heat. Also all the screwss were welded in due to the heat. The other pic is the HC3100 color wheel showing the scratches.





I'd say a knowledgable electronics shop would take 45 mins to an hour to change out the wheel and housing. If I had to do it again I'd say 60 - 90 mins required.

Looks as though my Hc3000U is having the same problem. I have a new color wheel on the way. If it is the housing. Is there anything special you did to fix it?

Sorry for the delay. Hopefully you've installed with no problems. My old colour wheel had probably done some 15000 hours of spinning prior to the overheating issue. When I removed the wheel the bearings were as good as new, so really the color wheel itself is well manufactured and designed to last a very, very long time. The aluminium chassis was badly warped and couldn't be bent back into its original shape. I had to file away some of the deformations so that the new color wheel did not make contact with the chassis. The projectors been operating fine since replacement, so my minor mods must have worked.