How often do Studio lights need to be fired to prolong their life?

lostsoulal2 · 27 Aug 2012

I believe I saw a note on the Lencarta website that to prolong the life of their Studio flash heads, it recommended that they should be fired every few months.

Presumably there is a technical reason for this and assume it will apply to all makes of Studio flash heads and wondered what would happen if you did not use a set of Studio lights for a period of time?

paul williams · 27 Aug 2012

lostsoulal2 said:
I believe I saw a note on the Lencarta website that to prolong the life of their Studio flash heads, it recommended that they should be fired every few months.

Presumably there is a technical reason for this and assume it will apply to all makes of Studio flash heads and wondered what would happen if you did not use a set of Studio lights for a period of time?

It's usually more a case of ensuring the capacitors (the bit that 'stores' the high voltage charge to 'flash' the tube) are kept in good condition, which is just a case of leaving them plugged in for an hour or two if you haven't used them for an extended period (no need for the modeling light to be on and I generally just fire the head once at switch off). Personally, I tend to plug all my units in for an hour every other week as I have a couple of lights that rarely get used and up until a few months ago I had some heads which were nearly 30 years old and still functioned perfectly. Of course this isn't an issue at all if the heads are being used regularly.

Paul

lostsoulal2 · 27 Aug 2012

paul williams said:
It's usually more a case of ensuring the capacitors (the bit that 'stores' the high voltage charge to 'flash' the tube) are kept in good condition, which is just a case of leaving them plugged in for an hour or two if you haven't used them for an extended period (no need for the modeling light to be on and I generally just fire the head once at switch off). Personally, I tend to plug all my units in for an hour every other week as I have a couple of lights that rarely get used and up until a few months ago I had some heads which were nearly 30 years old and still functioned perfectly. Of course this isn't an issue at all if the heads are being used regularly.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the explanation, and that this 'regular use' practice has meant your flash heads have continued to work for over 30 years - I guess if they are not used on a regular basis that it could shorten the working life of the flash heads?

Good tip to switch the heads on for an hour or two if they have not been used for a while.

Thanks

Roy

paul williams · 27 Aug 2012

lostsoulal2 said:
Hi Paul,

Thanks for the explanation, and that this 'regular use' practice has meant your flash heads have continued to work for over 30 years - I guess if they are not used on a regular basis that it could shorten the working life of the flash heads?

Good tip to switch the heads on for an hour or two if they have not been used for a while.

Thanks

Roy

Some of my units didn't get used for years and were kept only as emergency 'back-ups' but as I don't do this for a living I decided they should go. As for my main units, most are now fairly new, but I did want something with a bit more power recently so ended up getting a 20 year old unit. As it was cheap I decided to buy it, no idea how it has been treated in the past, it's at least third hand but seems to work perfectly & I hope it continues to do so for many years. I've always found the 'better' brands to have good longterm reliability, especially Multiblitz, which is the only brand I've ever owned (though used many others) over the years. The flashes I recently sold were from the early 80's and it was only when one had a flash-tube failure a few years ago that I decided to 'update' as I felt the cost of a new tube (still available off the shelf) was more than the head was worth. I hope I get as long service out of my current units as those older ones.

Paul

Garry Edwards · 27 Aug 2012

It's probably safe to switch them on and flash them every 6 months, the idea is simply to keep the capacitors in good order. There is no actual need to do it any more frequently than this.

lostsoulal2 · 28 Aug 2012

Garry Edwards said:
It's probably safe to switch them on and flash them every 6 months, the idea is simply to keep the capacitors in good order. There is no actual need to do it any more frequently than this.

For photographers who only use their gear infrequently for whatever reason [injuries for me] - 6 months could easily pass and I will be making a diary note to remind me.

Thanks

williams359 · 28 Aug 2012

I was on a shoot once at a school when a little girl tapped me on the shoulder and said " sorry to disturb you but one of your light is on fire"

domino1999 · 28 Aug 2012

Garry Edwards said:
It's probably safe to switch them on and flash them every 6 months, the idea is simply to keep the capacitors in good order. There is no actual need to do it any more frequently than this.

Thanks Garry, I didn't know this

Darren

paul williams · 28 Aug 2012

I tend to go with the manufacturers recommendations - my oldest unit states every 4 weeks when not in use and the newest ones every 3 months. However, I find just plugging them all in for an hour every other week means I never have to really worry about the timings/frequency that much. Then again Multiblitz have always provided capacitor forming instructions & for new units, an explicit warning not to 'fire' the unit until this has been done when first powering-up.

Paul

EOS_JD · 29 Aug 2012

williams359 said:
I was on a shoot once at a school when a little girl tapped me on the shoulder and said " sorry to disturb you but one of your light is on fire"

I got that on my last nursery shoot 0 One of the kids started crying and pointing behind me which I initially ignored at first in my efforts to try to get him smiling lol. Eventually I turned around to see a plume of smoke appearing from the studio light and it made a pretty bad smell. I was very grateful to the wee guy lol.

Off to the Flash Centre for a service

Capacitor bit the dust!

rbrown74 · 3 Sep 2012

I ddint use my Lencartas too often at first and had a gap of 2-3 months between shoots on occasion. One of my lights now beeps constantly if I'm shoot a lot in an evening. Takes about 30-40 minutes for it to reset itself and work again. Never heard this mentioned before until I went to try and find out what was wrong with my light.