Quick question - There is GOO in my HPS bulb!

Quick question, guys. Got my HPS lamp finally, and it has goo on the inside of the bulb. Maybe this is a newbie question, but is this normal.

I dont remember, out of the "hundreds, if not thousands of posts I've read", anyone talking about this. I HAVE read about the fact that the company sometimes "test-fires" the bulb and that it might be brown or something on the inside when you receive it, but never heard about GOO. Any input would be great. Thanks.

Check out my grow please. I need input.

Be cool.

TGF

Ok, here is pic.

hmmmm. as far as i can tell that looks to me like a defect. something must have happened when it was assembled, a resin, adhesive, or an oil dripped on glass. it might heat up and crack bulb, or simply do nothing at all. man i'm high i basicly told you nothing

All I can say is mine doesn't look like that. Doesn't look normal to me. For the price of those bulbs you should be able to get one that doesn't have anything weird in it. I'd take it back.

NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE???????????????????????????????????????????? ????

that looks like shit to me mate get it sent back asap :mad:
have you turned it on ? :confused:
i thought these bulbs exploded with a greasy thumb print on them :eek:
take care
love buddy

and if you payed more than 10.00 for the bulb ill set you up with a new place

Hey, guys. Well, the bulb came together with a cooltube kit. Ballast, cooltube, reflector, and bulb. I know it looks horrible. I was worried about burning it too. BUT, being that our timeline is rather crammed and we were waiting a long time for the light, AND that it IS in a Cooltube (enclosed), we decided to take the risk of having it explode (crap it sounds horrible when I actually type it out). Fortunately, it's been several weeks and it has not exploded. :dance:

I will be recommending to the cohort to replace it at once. And, yea, I guess the bulb isnt that expensive to change.

You think that is weird. You should see the weird goo that leaked out of the light when I turned it on!!!! :eek: ... LOL

No but seriously, it's not funny. I recommend that anyone who reads this does NOT do what we did and use the bulb in that condition. For safety's sake, you should replace it and be on the safe side. Funny, this is the ONLY instance where we didn't take the UTMOST precaution. (I dunno if I used that term correctly.)

"Chu keep using that word. I dont think it means what chu think it means." - Inigo Montoya

Anyway, so after we kicked the light on...a little while later, there is this smell. Burning plastic? Hmmm. It was the same time we built our rubbermaid cab with the CFLs so we suspected that at first. Then, upon further inspection, we found MORE GOO! :eek: This time it was different tho.

Come to find out... there was a protective film on the inside of the cooltube on the metal reflective part, that we didnt see, EVEN when we were spending 20 minutes wiring the bulb! Weird. So that film was melting and running down the fixture. There was NOTHING in the instructions on how to wire the bulb, and defiintely nothing about a protective film that you need to remove or cause a horrible smell and a plastic stuck to the inside of your cooltube that is a BITCH to get off. Hmm. Live and learn. Alcohol helped get most of the plastic off. The light is up and running now with the gooey bulb in it, and it seems fine....so far.

TGF

Heh, I remember that protective film on the reflector in my cooltube too. You guys musta been stoned to have missed that! Where'd you get your kit, bghydro? That's where mine came from, looks similar, and it didn't have any docs on how to wire it either. Not like it was hard, but sheesh, a little sheet with info would have been nice!

The goo, I dunno, pretty freaky, I'd be scared of it. But with a cooltube, I probably also would have done what you did and used it anyway.

Well, were we stoned?? Very likely. But that shouldnt prevent us from seeing the film. It must have been really pressed on there.

Wiring the bulb wasn't too hard, but I still rechecked my wiring info and sources before I did it.

See that mess running down the sides? That is melted plastic. Let it cool down, scraped it off. Comes off easy and clean off the glass part wiht a razor blade. The metal was not so easy. i got about 90 % of it off and the rest seems to be ok there. Again, I used alcohol, and lots of rubbing. Dissolves the plastic.

As for the goo, yea, the only reason we risked it was because it was enclosed in the tube. It has been ok so far.

TGF

i believe the GOO is flux from the soldering process of manufacture,
this can raise to the same heat as the lamp no probs so shouldnt be a prob, however it is a defect and the munfacturer should send you another if you supply them with photographic evidence, they know you aint gonna want to send it back, try them out , ya might end up with two buklbs for the price of one!

Thanks, MistyGanjaTree. I will do that. I called them when I had the plastic-melting problem and they told me about the protective film thing. They seemed very helpful and nice. I will call them and email them a picture. Maybe they'll be cool.

Damn, I really love how my beautiful pepper plants look. I can't wait til they give my delicious, green peppers to eat. MMMMMmmm

:D:D:D:D

TGF