not very happy at all with my zoo med mvbs.

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moswen

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i wanted to express my sincere displeasure with my 4 zoo med mvbs that i recieved in november/december through online shopping. one was 160w, and 3 were 100w.

first off, one 100w came with the white paint on the inside of the bulb all scratched up, and the coil thing in the middle was bent to the side and the bulb rattled when i shook it like there were pieces loose inside. i understand, everyone makes mistakes; large scale businesses are more prone to make accidents, simply because they are producing a much larger number of their products. factory workers may be daydreaming, not paying attention, bored... anything is possible, and there is a lot of room and many steps for a mistake to be made. no big deal; everybody's human. i'll just return it for a new one. there's no need to be upset. it's all good.

so, i had a new clamp lamp that i bought off craig's, and i paired that with another of my new zoo med mvb's. when i come home from that day, the bulb is out and won't turn back on. when i unscrew it, i notice that the bulb has a small crack on the silver part of the bell close to the neck, and it's brown around that. the brown part is about the size of my pinky finger print and the small crack runs through that. i puzzle for a few moments and finally decide that the clamp lamp must be faulty, maybe it overheated the bulb, and burnt that small brown spot and created the crack that made the bulb stop working. i also decide that the clamp lamp must have been giving it's previous owner the same problem and so he sought to be sneaky and cut his losses while trying to make some money off it and selling it to an unsuspecting buyer like myself. the clamp lamp was stamped in red "660w 120v" so i really do believe that it should have been able to handle a 100w mvb.

so, two brand new mvbs down. one left. i throw away the old faulty clamp lamp buy a brand new one from the store and use it for my last remaining bulb. that bulb, i am happy to say, is still going strong. two whole months later--- wow. i'm so extatic that it's still working. and my 160w that i bought a few weeks before that is still working as well. that's something to celebrate, right? 50% of the bulbs i bought are still working correctly 3 months later? WRONG:

and so, this morning, i go into the turtle room to turn on everyone's lights, and the 160w zoo med mvb that is less than 3 months into being used will not turn on. frustrated, i wiggle some cords and fuss around with the placement of the clamp lamp, unplug it and plug it back in... you know, all that useless sort of stuff that has the good fortune of working 10% of the time so we all for some unforseen reason fall back to those simple yet ineffective forms of "fixing it" as our first step in solving the problem. as you probably know, this must be one of the unfortunate 90% of times, bc it didn't work. so i unscrewed it and put in a little 50w heat light just to see if it's the clamp lamp. the heat light works. i unscrewed a heat light from my spider enclosure and screwed in the 160w zoo med, and it still doesn't work.

i am not very happy at all. i have a t rex mvb that i bought last year when i got my baby sulcatas that still freakin' works! i know the uv spectrum of lights has gone out on it (which is why i replaced it with all the zoo meds) but it still works as a heat source, and the light still turns on! i bought the 3 zoo med 100watts at a different online source than the 160w, so now i am huffing and steaming and very angry at zoo med. i'm not happy with them at all right now. how on earth could i end up with so much faulty material in a span of like between 2 and 4 months? i'm now not even sure the clamp lamp from craig's was faulty, but i threw it away so now i can't test it!

i'm really quite unhappy, and i would like to hear what everyone else has to say about their mvb's bc i'm about to flip out and buy the tube lights. they're way cheaper than the mvbs, and my little 50w heat/light bulbs provide PLENTY of heat for them. this way if my tube lights go faulty at least i won't have wasted $40+. i've always been such a beilever in the mvbs because "they're the all in one package. sure, they're expensive, but they're worth it!." however, i am less inclined to believe they're "worth it" if they only last 3 months and some of them come faulty besides. i suppose i had no problems with the trex mvb but i liked how much smaller the zoo meds were.

so, has anyone else had this long chain of catastrophic events take place at the hands of zoo med? or, maybe some of you swear by zoo med? i'd love to hear your opinions before i go out and throw more money away again. thanks for your time!
 

jeffbens0n

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I have used several zoo med 100watt mvbs, and I have yet to have one blow, only replaced them as necessary. I also have not had any problems with quality as you mentioned in the bulb being scratched or cracked, all of mine have been fine. I do not buy them from one source either, I have bought them from multiple sources online, whichever I can find cheapest at the time.

I have also used a "Sunforce" once, bought from big apple herp, also 100 watt. It was slightly cheaper so I decided to try it out. Worked fine for 2 months then blew for no reason, bulb never moved, was on a timer 12 hours a day and was never disturbed. I think I will stick with the zoo med powersun for now. For me, nothing but good from them, sorry to hear about your bad experience.:(
 

coreyc

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I am happy with my Power sun it is the only one that is still working had it since August I went through two Megarays one blew in three days the other in six days also had a Eco Terra blow in two weeks Powersun still going:D
 

Seiryu

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Well, you said it yourself. You think the clamp lamp that burned out the 2 bulbs was faulty, and it probably was.

I honestly can't say I know of a clamp lamp that can do it up 660w.

Home Depot/Walmart sell Ceramic (absolutely needed for MVB) 250w clamp lamps for $10-12. You can't use plastic socket ones for MVB.

Was the first clamp lamp a plastic socket? If so, that is exactly what the problem was. If not, it was probably just faulty.

What did you use for the 3rd bulb? The ones at HD/Walmart are the best you need, and they work. Been using mine for over 6 years and all of my bulbs have never burned out before their expected life.

Also, PowerSuns have a 1 year warranty as far as I know. So you should be able to send it back for a replacement. Unless you bought these from an unknown source, which is likely also why you got bad products.

Zoomed Powersuns seem to actually be the best bulb out right now, with T-rex no longer making new ones and MegaRay making terrible ones.
 

Yvonne G

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I bought two Zoo Med Power suns a couple months ago and one of them stopped working a few days ago.

I was totally happy with the T-Rex MVB. I wish they'd start production on them again.

Plus, the Zoo Med is big. Sticks out the end of the 10" bell, where as the T-Rex fit perfectly.
 

Isa

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Since the Trex MVBs are not available, I bought one powersun and it still works perfectly. Sorry you had all those problems :(
 

jeffbens0n

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Yvonne, you think the powersuns are big? The Sunforce that mentioned earlier that I tried was way bigger. For that enclosure I actually had a smaller dome, it hung so it didn't matter that it came below the dome, but it actually took up the whole dome with only about 1/8 of an inch clearance around it. I think this might have contributed to its short life. (Heating up more than usual with the dome so close to it)
 
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Maggie Cummings

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I am using, as a heat source, a Trex that is 2 years old. I recently bought 2, the last, good Trex bulbs and I am very afraid of what I will do in 6 months when these Trex bulbs aren't pushing out the UVB rays anymore. I will start putting my animals out in the sun as soon as we have sun and then I will stop using up my Trex bulbs. I will be able to save them for next winter. I don't use UVB bulbs on all of my animals. Is Trex gonna start making bulbs again, does anyone know?
 

Mao Senpai

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The zoomed I have is still working fine... although out of all the ones I've tried only the Mega Ray one died on me ironically.
 

moswen

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oh i had no idea trex are no longer available. why? i guess it seems as though i just ended up with a bunch of chance flukes...

rob, i only used one bulb on the supposedly faulty clamp lamp, and it was a ceramic socket. the other one got shipped to me already in a bad way all scratched up and bent sideways. also, i use the flukers clamp lamps from petsmart or petco. i was hoping they would have a warranty, but how can i prove that i didn't put too big a bulb in too small a socket? esp. after having it for 3 months. i just kind of assumed this one would be rejected no matter what and i honestly hate to mess with stuff like this. i'd really rather just buy new ones than sit on the phone with customer service for 30 mins... lol.

so no one has experience with the tube lights? i have one in my spider's enclosure and i rather like it, but their habitat is different.
 

jeffbens0n

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I have used the tube lights without ever having a problem, but from what I understand, even the 10.0 tubes don't put out near as much UVB as the MVB's do. I guess it all depends on your preference and the UVB needs of your pet.
 

coreyc

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emysemys said:
I bought two Zoo Med Power suns a couple months ago and one of them stopped working a few days ago.

I was totally happy with the T-Rex MVB. I wish they'd start production on them again.

Plus, the Zoo Med is big. Sticks out the end of the 10" bell, where as the T-Rex fit perfectly.

What watt Powersun do you have ? my 100 watt is my smallest bulb smaller than my Megaray and Solar Glo
 

Seiryu

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moswen said:
so no one has experience with the tube lights? i have one in my spider's enclosure and i rather like it, but their habitat is different.

I have the Tube lights in all of my enclosures. I supplement with d3 once, sometimes twice a week. Knowing that the tubes give off less than the MVB.

And in my 7+ years of keeping reptiles, I have no issues. They all get outside during the spring/summer/fall though.

Go with the 10.0 Repti-suns if you want the tubes. Anything less is not worth it. Some people will tell you they are worthless, but they are not. They can't reverse MBD like some MVBs can, but if your reptiles don't have it to begin with and they get outside during warm months, it's really not an issue.
 

Edna

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I started out with 2 T-Rex active MVBs. The first one popped within 5 minutes of the first time I turned it on, crack in the glass right by the metal. The second one worked for only 2 months. Now I'm using Zoo Meds, but honestly am not holding my breath expecting them to last too long.
 

pdrobber

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my zoo med powersun has been great, fits in the large brooder dome fixture I bought from homedepot online. However, the past few days I've noticed that it will randomly turn off, making a little sound when it does and kind of flickering a little bit before it does that. Then a few minutes later it comes back on and stays on. Hoping it doesn't blow out on me...
 

Floof

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I only have, and have only had, one Powersun (100 watt). I got it last March, from The Bean Farm, and it's still going strong... No problems with it at all, works like a charm even after a cross-country move and being juggled between enclosures several times the first few months I had it.

It also puts off a lot more UVB than either of my ReptiSun 10.0 tubes... Or, it seems to. I've had it over all three of my bearded dragons at different times, and, without fail, whichever one has the Powersun over its habitat at any given time is the healthiest of the bunch. Hopefully your experience with them isn't standard, because there's no way I'm settling for ReptiSuns again. They're the best available tube UVB, sure, but they still just aren't good enough (in my experience/opinion, anyway).
 

jeffbens0n

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pdrobber said:
my zoo med powersun has been great, fits in the large brooder dome fixture I bought from homedepot online. However, the past few days I've noticed that it will randomly turn off, making a little sound when it does and kind of flickering a little bit before it does that. Then a few minutes later it comes back on and stays on. Hoping it doesn't blow out on me...

They do have an auto shut off in them to shut them off if they get to hot, then it waits till it completely cools off before it turns on again. This is why you can't turn one off then right back on again, you have to wait for it to cool. I'm not sure it should be flickering like you mentioned though, that doesn't sound good...
 

Livingstone

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pdrobber said:
my zoo med powersun has been great, fits in the large brooder dome fixture I bought from homedepot online. However, the past few days I've noticed that it will randomly turn off, making a little sound when it does and kind of flickering a little bit before it does that. Then a few minutes later it comes back on and stays on. Hoping it doesn't blow out on me...

Sounds like the ballast is going bad.

Theres a warranty on the bulb. Return it where you bought it if its a physical store. If it was purchased online, then unfortunately you have to invest in a new one whille you wait for the shipping back and forth.
 

Floof

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emysemys said:
I was totally happy with the T-Rex MVB. I wish they'd start production on them again.

Isa said:
Since the Trex MVBs are not available, I bought one powersun and it still works perfectly. Sorry you had all those problems :(

I don't know anything about the T-Rex bulbs being out of production, but I was ordering new MVBs this morning, and came across T-Rex Active UVHeat bulbs on PetMountain: http://www.petmountain.com/product/...19/t-rex-active-uv-heat-flood-spot-lamps.html

They are on "Clearance," so maybe that has something to do with them being out of production? Anyway, thought some of you might be interested in this. I ordered one myself, since it always gets such good reviews. Should be here in 2-5 business days. :)
 
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