I hope this is not misconstrued as an advertisement, but I just had to share my experience.
I have a Samsung HLN617W DLP TV. If you're not familiar with this DLP technology, they involve a user-replaceable lamp (I'm not talking about the new LED's). My particular model is expected to last 6000-8000 hours. I have an extended warranty that covers lamps for the duration of the warranty.
Last December, after 6832 hours, my stock lamp died. I called up my extended service company and had the replacement shipped to me. Five days later, the Samsung lamp arrived (the failure happened over a weekend). This is our only TV, so we obviously had 5 days without TV. Sounds tragic, I know, so this is when I decided I should have a spare lamp on hand. I could then replace the lamp immediately and wait for the warranty replacement to arrive in the mail; then swap 'em out when it arrives. (The reason for the swap-out is because the warranty company requires you RMA the burnt-out bulb).
So shopping for "the spare", I found prices around $250-$280+ shipping. This out of pocket cost seemed to defeat the purpose of the extended warranty. So I passed.
I recently found on eBay ( I won't disclose the seller as to avoid any impropriety ), replacement lamps. The lamps are manufactured in the US (Los Angeles, specifically) by Lighting Technologies International (LTI). They have the same specs and warranty of the OEM lamps but cost much less. They don't sell directly (only to distributors), so I feel comfortable mentioning their name.
I received a replacement lamp (model: BP96-00224J) for $177 shipped. I was most impressed and just wanted to share this info with any of you considering purchasing an OEM lamp.
I have a Samsung HLN617W DLP TV. If you're not familiar with this DLP technology, they involve a user-replaceable lamp (I'm not talking about the new LED's). My particular model is expected to last 6000-8000 hours. I have an extended warranty that covers lamps for the duration of the warranty.
Last December, after 6832 hours, my stock lamp died. I called up my extended service company and had the replacement shipped to me. Five days later, the Samsung lamp arrived (the failure happened over a weekend). This is our only TV, so we obviously had 5 days without TV. Sounds tragic, I know, so this is when I decided I should have a spare lamp on hand. I could then replace the lamp immediately and wait for the warranty replacement to arrive in the mail; then swap 'em out when it arrives. (The reason for the swap-out is because the warranty company requires you RMA the burnt-out bulb).
So shopping for "the spare", I found prices around $250-$280+ shipping. This out of pocket cost seemed to defeat the purpose of the extended warranty. So I passed.
I recently found on eBay ( I won't disclose the seller as to avoid any impropriety ), replacement lamps. The lamps are manufactured in the US (Los Angeles, specifically) by Lighting Technologies International (LTI). They have the same specs and warranty of the OEM lamps but cost much less. They don't sell directly (only to distributors), so I feel comfortable mentioning their name.
I received a replacement lamp (model: BP96-00224J) for $177 shipped. I was most impressed and just wanted to share this info with any of you considering purchasing an OEM lamp.
