DS 250 Focus Lens going brown

I have the same problem in two of my design spot 250 I've notice is only 3 screws to remove the lense bracket I wonder if Elation can sell the replacement lense

hello, the part number for the lens is 07K5-TJJT. the lens will sometimes brown after a couple of years of use. please give us a call at 323-213-4593. thank you

Gines Gines
Elation Service manager

I don't want to be viewed as critical or negative, but I have a real interest in why this might be happening.

Is this because of a coating for the lens? Is this because of the usage of a plastic or acrylic lens as opposed to glass?

If I were to buy some of these, my maintenance concerns would be more minimal only because since I am a live sound production company, that would mean nothing of mine is permanently mounted so it wouldn't be so difficult to do maintenance.

As I mentioned in my fax to elation... The browning of this lens occurred after only around 900 hours of use. In a fixture that was as that time 4 months old. Not after several years as you indicated.

I am happy to say that Elation sent me not one but two replacement focus lenses to replace the one that had browned. The change out was simple and the lights were up an running in 15 minutes.

I had an event this previous weekend, I noticed my lights were dim so I spent about $500 in replacement bulbs, when I put them in the fixtures they lights were still dim. I started to look at what It might be, then i figured out it was the lens. I think this is a problem that shouldn't be overlooked. This is ridiculous!

Elation was able to overnight me 7 new focus lenses but they weren't cheap. Also half of them didn't come in the metal bracket! Once i did get the lenses in the lights looked like new but I am still very unhappy this can happen in the first place. how hard is it to find a glue to join these lenses that doesn't brown after a while. Its clear that that is the issue since glass will not brown when being heated.

I was hoping that I would not have to deal with this issue that seems clearly to be a manufacturing problem. But low and behold today during maintenance we discovered two units that have the focus lens glue starting to deteriorate. The units have only totaled ~ 900 hours on the lamp and it seems that the lens life equates to 1/3 of the lamp life? Will all 18 units do this?

hello, you mention 900hrs lamp time what is the total fixture hours?

Well at that time the lamps in those fixtures (Philips 250/2's) were rated for 2000 hours. Since then lamps have been developed that are rated for 3000 hours.

Those fixtures were new when they were installed so they had less 900hrs on them at that time.

Why in the world did Elation opt to discontinue the Vision Scan 250's??
They paired well with the Design Spots.

Ya they really did. But we can't sell the same models forever.... People just stopped buying em. It was a bummer too for me also. I had wanted some very badly.
Sincerely,

Sorry that was not clear the units have never had a lamp replaced and we are averaging ~ 950 hours on the total fixture hours. So the lens are burning out before the lamps. It actually makes me smile to say that the lens are burning out it sounds so absurd.

Without the Vision Scan 250's available... I've had to switched to Martin MX-10's (which unfortunately pairs better with Martin Smart-Macs).

Bump!
Any thoughts on whether all of my units will be turning brown? Can this defect be associated with a group of serial numbers? Weighing my options on if I should bother to fix