Reptisun T5 HO

[deadhd5]

Hello fellow chameleonistas (tm)!

Now that the Reptisun T5HO bulbs have been out for some time, I am wondering if anyone has any direct experience to share about their durability and longevity?

One of my Arcadia T5 bulbs just went out and the replacement I ordered came to me broken. I noticed the Reptisun bulbs available through Amazon are half the price of Arcadia, so I just ordered one for a trial run.

I have nothing but good things to say about Todd from lightyourreptiles, but the cost of the replacement bulbs is hard to stomach.

 

[MelissaB]

I'm wondering about that, too. I need to buy a meter so I can test how fast/slow they degrade. I haven't found any info on longevity, either. I have 2 reptisun T5, one on each enclosure.

 

[kdc5019]

I understand your frustration, however when you think about the duration that a bulb last, you must replace the Reptisun bulbs every 6months, whereas the arcadia bulbs are once a year. So while its more upfront for the cost of a bulb it lasts much longer.

So yea reptisuns are cheaper than arcadia by about half, but you need to buy two of them for one arcadia...

I have nothing against reptisun, im just an arcadia fan and know they are top notch.

 

[deadhd5]

I understand your frustration, however when you think about the duration that a bulb last, you must replace the Reptisun bulbs every 6months, whereas the arcadia bulbs are once a year. So while its more upfront for the cost of a bulb it lasts much longer.

So yea reptisuns are cheaper than arcadia by about half, but you need to buy two of them for one arcadia...

I have nothing against reptisun, im just an arcadia fan and know they are top notch.

We are talking T5HO lighting here, not T8's.

Is your statement about T5's, which came out about a year ago, or the T8's which people have been using for a decade?

I believe T5HO in general has a longer life, but I was asking if anyone has first hand experience testing this hypothesis.

 

[MelissaB]

I understand your frustration, however when you think about the duration that a bulb last, you must replace the Reptisun bulbs every 6months, whereas the arcadia bulbs are once a year. So while its more upfront for the cost of a bulb it lasts much longer.

So yea reptisuns are cheaper than arcadia by about half, but you need to buy two of them for one arcadia...

I have nothing against reptisun, im just an arcadia fan and know they are top notch.

I understand what you're saying, but I do wonder if the new T5 reptisuns have to be changed that often. I wish someone with a meter had some more test results on them. The only test results I've seen were by Frances Baines, and it was results from a new bulb. I read about it on a bearded dragon forum. The results were almost identical to Arcadia's, which is why I'm curious about how fast they degrade.

 

[kdc5019]

We are talking T5HO lighting here, not T8's.

Is your statement about T5's, which came out about a year ago, or the T8's which people have been using for a decade?

I believe T5HO in general has a longer life, but I was asking if anyone has first hand experience testing this hypothesis.

My apologies you are correct, I was assuming they were referring to T8s and not T5s. I do not know the life of the Reptisun T5s

 

[NorCalAnthony]

I have been using the 22" T5HO for a while now on my 24x24x48 cage for my male Nosy Be with no problems.

I had fixtures and Arcadia bulbs from Todd at lightyourreptiles on my previous cages and love them but a few months ago I came across my little Nosy Be female and I couldn't pass her up so I had to do some shuffling around at the last last minute to get a cage set up for her. I upgraded my male Nosy Be to a bigger cage to free up some room for her and the local reptile store had just got the T5 HO Reptisun fixtures with a free bulb that was cheaper than having to buy a new T8 fixture and bulb so I jumped on it. Back in November I rotated in a new set of UV bulbs for all of the cages at the same time so that I could eventually test how the Arcadia 6% and 12% T5's that I was using compared to the new Reptisun T5 (which I replaced with a 10.0 T5) after 6 months of use and beyond. Problem is I still haven't gotten my hands on a UV meter so I haven't been able to get a good comparison done yet... Once I get my hands on a UV meter I'd be happy to post the results if anyone is interested.

So far the Reptisun T5 has worked out just fine. It doesn't seem as bright as the Arcadia bulbs but that's not entirely a fair assessment since the Arcadias are in a double and quad fixture with plant lights adding to the brightness. The fixture that the came with the Reptisun is well made and is also nice and compact at about half the thickness of the traditional T8 fixtures and obviously much smaller than the fixtures from lightyourreptiles which are double and quad bulb fixtures.

 

[Dannowar]

Just set mine up in a dual t5 HO fixture with a grow light that I had when I used to...errr... Grow stuff. Working really well for my baby chameleon enclosure at 16x16x20. Don't think it'll be a problem when I upgrade either. I'm sure the ficus is happy with the grow bulb as well

 

[bradley]

I personally haven't seen anywhere that says how long they last which I personally think is bad for a product which is centred around how long it lasts.

I'm not sure Why they were not tested to see how long they last really.