Faulty Tube, could I have done something wrong.

[Brent Ramsay-Boyd]

Hi all

I have been battling for sometime with my losing power, and after trying every suggestion, it seems that a faulty tube was the culprit. I now have my new tube in, but I am worried about using it and potentially ending up with the same problem. I guess what I am asking is, whether it is most likely that there was a fault with the tube, (it was a 80W Reci with less than 40 hours on it), or if there was something I had done that led to the problem.

I have always run the tube at around 24mA on the ammeter on the machine, less than the 27mA suggested for maximum tube life. There may have been one time where the tube was over this, but it was for about 10 seconds, and I doubt that would have had such an effect.

My water supply to the tube is at about 20 celcius.

Is it advised to have a voltage regulator for the machine. Also, I did not get a ground spike for the machine.

Regards

Brent

[Michael Reilly]

Do you have problems with other equipment failing? A voltage regulator wouldn't hurt anything, but shouldn't be required unless you know your power to fluctuate.

I don't have any experience with glass tubes but my understanding is that they don't last nearly as long as metal/ceramic tubes. I've heard that the industrial ones might last only 6 months. But they are higher power for the cost so in some cases it's a worthy tradeoff.

20C is what the chiller on our new laser is set to. Ours has a pressure switch so it won't fire up unless the chiller is running.

If the manufacturer didn't say anything, it seems unlikely it was something you did. But we'll see if anyone else here has suggestions.

[Rich Harman]

I can tell you that I ran my 80W Reci for three years (many hundreds of hours) with no loss of power. I would run at 24 or 26mA, 19C on the chiller usually and I did install a ground spike. Twice I had run at full power without water flowing. One time for a full six minutes. Stupid pressure switch is not reliable. I have since wired up the alarm function on the CW5000 to the main board to prevent this from happening again. There are no signs of discoloration on the tube, just a bit of gunk in the water passageways.

[Brent Ramsay-Boyd]

Thanks for you feedback, I must have just been the unlucky recipient of a faulty tube. Other than a bit of frustration, it is not too bad, and they are working on sending me a replacement, as it is still under warranty.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Bubble in the end cap most likely, the flow sensor won't see it as there is still flow but with an airlock.

One of the reasons I won't use RECI tubes any more.

cheers

Dave