Ok, so you are getting aggravated with the frequency of dust blobs you are getting with your digital projector. I have had dust blobs in my Panasonic AE100 and AE200 and in both of my Hitachi TX100's and now with my TX200. In fact, in less than 125 hours, I got dust blobs in my TX200 not less than twice. I cleaned dust blobs from inside the projector once, and then it was dust blob free for at least a month or 20 or 30 hours of dvd viewing and then the dust blobs annoyingly re-appeared. There must be a way to reduce this annoyance. I think the TX100 and TX200 have lousy air filter designs because regardless of the number of air filters (the TX100 had two air filters, one foam and one paper(?) while the TX200 has a single electrostatic air filter), these projectors have loosely fitting air filters that clearly do not block all of the dust that can get inside.
Ok, so there must be something you can do if you get dust blobs often. Here are my suggestions to help minimize or possibly eliminate their occurrence.
1) Get a dust cover for your projector so it is covered when not in use. This prevents dust from settling on the air intake due to regular house ventilation or when dusting/vacuuming which often makes the air a little dustier. Also, although it's not the most likely route for dust, when not in use, there is nothing stopping dust from randomly floating backwards through the exhaust and into the projector to settle where-ever it is most likely to cause annoyingly visible dust blobs. A dust cover greatly reduces this chance by blocking the exhaust. Of course, you must also make sure your dust cover stays clean.
2) Be sure your projectors air filter mechanism is fairly tight and effective. If it's not, think about making it a little better by sealing the edges where the air filter is loose and where you figure dust could get in. Don't do anything to significantly reduce the air flow of your projector. Only make changes that are sensible. You simply want to ensure that ALL the air coming through the air filter port must pass through the air filter before entering the projector. You want to maintain high air flow because the air flow is what cools your projector which is get's quite hot dur to the high heat of the bulb.
3) Make an effort to keep your house clean and home theatre less dusty . Keep your house less dusty and make sure your furnace air filter is clean and/or not clogged. Perhaps this is where the better half will take pleasure in hearing that you must "de-contaminate" the house of potential dust blobs. Try to do the vacuuming and dusting enough in advance of projector viewing that enough of the dust you did disturb but not remove from the air has at least settled out. After you do the vacuuming and dusting around the house and in the home theatre, you can treat the two of you to a dvd and some order in food, or maybe you can cook up a storm
4) Clean projector air filter as often as is practical. You could have two air filters and when you are done with a movie, replace the air filter with the clean one and just make sure to wash the dirty one before the next viewing. I did this for two years with my Panasonic AE100 and 200 and it worked wonders. At the start of each dvd I had a fresh clean air filter. After the movie I swapped air filters and before using the projector again, I washed the other air filter, which took all of 2 minutes and then I let it dry underneath a glass so as not to allow dust to contaminate it. You don't have to do this nearly as often as I did here, but I did this because I was experiencing colour uniformity problems which were possibly due to overheating, so I was trying to maintain max air flow at all times. Set up your own system, but having two air filters means you are more than likely to have a clean air filter in your projector when you need it. Keep the extra filter clean and any time you look at the air filter and see it's dirtier than your'd like, let's say right before you planned to watch a dvd with a bunch of friends, you don't have to clean it, just swap with the clean one. It takes time for the air filters to dry, so having two air filters avoids waiting. Of course, not all air filters are washable, but they are better this way. I had fewer dust blobs when I did this with the Panasonic AE100 and 200.
As far as my own personal dust blob adventure goes, I have taken steps to be dust blob free or nearly dust blob free:
A) I bought a dust cover which sits on my projector when not in use.
B) I finally replaced our lame furnace air filter today with a good decent electrostatic washable unit and lo and behold, when custom cutting it to fit, I had a strip of left over material pretty much exactly the right size to make air filters for my projector
C) Now I am making a couple of air filters to fit the air intake grille of my TX200 and;
D) I am going to try and keep the dust down in the house on a regular basis which makes sense anyhow.
. . . . . . . . .
So although this sounds like lots of work that should be un-necessary if only the manufacturers would simply provide proper filtering, I think it is reasonable enough that it will work. I would love for projectors to improve their resistance to dust blobs however the manufacturers can, but in the mean time, I am going to make an effort to reduce my dust blob experiences to a minimum. I will clean my projector once more after installing my new air filters, and we'll see how many hours I can go without dust blobs.
If anybody else is annoyed by this and/or has suggestions or ideas, or if you just want to share your experience, good or bad, by all means, go ahead.
Ok, so there must be something you can do if you get dust blobs often. Here are my suggestions to help minimize or possibly eliminate their occurrence.
1) Get a dust cover for your projector so it is covered when not in use. This prevents dust from settling on the air intake due to regular house ventilation or when dusting/vacuuming which often makes the air a little dustier. Also, although it's not the most likely route for dust, when not in use, there is nothing stopping dust from randomly floating backwards through the exhaust and into the projector to settle where-ever it is most likely to cause annoyingly visible dust blobs. A dust cover greatly reduces this chance by blocking the exhaust. Of course, you must also make sure your dust cover stays clean.
2) Be sure your projectors air filter mechanism is fairly tight and effective. If it's not, think about making it a little better by sealing the edges where the air filter is loose and where you figure dust could get in. Don't do anything to significantly reduce the air flow of your projector. Only make changes that are sensible. You simply want to ensure that ALL the air coming through the air filter port must pass through the air filter before entering the projector. You want to maintain high air flow because the air flow is what cools your projector which is get's quite hot dur to the high heat of the bulb.
3) Make an effort to keep your house clean and home theatre less dusty . Keep your house less dusty and make sure your furnace air filter is clean and/or not clogged. Perhaps this is where the better half will take pleasure in hearing that you must "de-contaminate" the house of potential dust blobs. Try to do the vacuuming and dusting enough in advance of projector viewing that enough of the dust you did disturb but not remove from the air has at least settled out. After you do the vacuuming and dusting around the house and in the home theatre, you can treat the two of you to a dvd and some order in food, or maybe you can cook up a storm
4) Clean projector air filter as often as is practical. You could have two air filters and when you are done with a movie, replace the air filter with the clean one and just make sure to wash the dirty one before the next viewing. I did this for two years with my Panasonic AE100 and 200 and it worked wonders. At the start of each dvd I had a fresh clean air filter. After the movie I swapped air filters and before using the projector again, I washed the other air filter, which took all of 2 minutes and then I let it dry underneath a glass so as not to allow dust to contaminate it. You don't have to do this nearly as often as I did here, but I did this because I was experiencing colour uniformity problems which were possibly due to overheating, so I was trying to maintain max air flow at all times. Set up your own system, but having two air filters means you are more than likely to have a clean air filter in your projector when you need it. Keep the extra filter clean and any time you look at the air filter and see it's dirtier than your'd like, let's say right before you planned to watch a dvd with a bunch of friends, you don't have to clean it, just swap with the clean one. It takes time for the air filters to dry, so having two air filters avoids waiting. Of course, not all air filters are washable, but they are better this way. I had fewer dust blobs when I did this with the Panasonic AE100 and 200.
As far as my own personal dust blob adventure goes, I have taken steps to be dust blob free or nearly dust blob free:
A) I bought a dust cover which sits on my projector when not in use.
B) I finally replaced our lame furnace air filter today with a good decent electrostatic washable unit and lo and behold, when custom cutting it to fit, I had a strip of left over material pretty much exactly the right size to make air filters for my projector
C) Now I am making a couple of air filters to fit the air intake grille of my TX200 and;
D) I am going to try and keep the dust down in the house on a regular basis which makes sense anyhow.
. . . . . . . . .
So although this sounds like lots of work that should be un-necessary if only the manufacturers would simply provide proper filtering, I think it is reasonable enough that it will work. I would love for projectors to improve their resistance to dust blobs however the manufacturers can, but in the mean time, I am going to make an effort to reduce my dust blob experiences to a minimum. I will clean my projector once more after installing my new air filters, and we'll see how many hours I can go without dust blobs.
If anybody else is annoyed by this and/or has suggestions or ideas, or if you just want to share your experience, good or bad, by all means, go ahead.
