Bowens heads blew up! What could be the issue?

[jaketrask12]

So we recently received some Bowens 200 heads at work.

We plugged them in and switched them on like normal to find one blow up and start smoking like crazy!

It was a really thick white smoke which absolutely stunk the place out. Was pretty frightened the fire alarm was going to go off!

Any ideas what it could have been to cause this? The lights haven't been used in about 2 year I believe.

Here's a picture of the smoke which I caught on my phone just after the thick smoke -


View attachment 7268 View attachment 7269

 

[BigJohn]

If not used for a while capacitors can deteriorate and become unstable in some cases . This looks like one of these cases, a loud bang and white smoke been the usual result . Some people tend to run heads through a couple of cycles every month or so if not been used to keep the caps fresh .

 

[Diving Pete]

as he said..

 

[EOS_JD]

Yip, capacitor. And they are not cheap. Think my old Elinchrom head was about £120 to fix!

 

[jaketrask12]

If not used for a while capacitors can deteriorate and become unstable in some cases . This looks like one of these cases, a loud bang and white smoke been the usual result . Some people tend to run heads through a couple of cycles every month or so if not been used to keep the caps fresh .

This is exactly what happened! But from the time it took me to get from the plug socket to the lamp to cycle it, that was the time it blew. Within about 5 seconds of turning it on!

So I know it's definitely in need of a repair, would you recommend sending it straight to Bowens? Or possibly a equipment specialist?

Thanks

 

[madmatt]

it happened to me last year just before a big shoot, luckly i had a spare. Bowens wanted a crazy amount just to look at it so i ended up not bothering :-( my new lencarta kit should be here today lol

 

[Garry Edwards]

Capacitors aren't actually all that expensive, the problem really is when their disintegration damages other components.

Certain companies seem to make a big deal about simple repairs and are probably best avoided. You may want to contact David Lawrence, who posts on here as flashted, he has been repairing lights, mainly Bowens, for over 30 years and a reputation for being very straightforward to deal with.

 

[jaketrask12]

Capacitors aren't actually all that expensive, the problem really is when their disintegration damages other components.

Certain companies seem to make a big deal about simple repairs and are probably best avoided. You may want to contact David Lawrence, who posts on here as flashted, he has been repairing lights, mainly Bowens, for over 30 years and a reputation for being very straightforward to deal with.

Cheers for the recommendation Garry.

I've given David an email. Just awaiting his reply!

Luckily we still have our old strobes here at work to use.