Hi all. I was just wondering if there was one agreed time on how long you should leave the bulb burning the first time you start it, you know just to break it in? Would it hurt it if I turned it on to check alignment and then turned it right back off after only 5 or 10 minutes? I've seen different lengths but I wasn't sure whitch one to go by or if there really was one... Thanks all..

I don't know if there is any accepted first burn duration, but I let mine run for 16 hours continuous. My reasoning is that these bulbs were originally designed for street lamp applications, and those are on for several hours straight each night. Put a little more on for safety - heck, it's only $$ . From what i understand, the first burn will create metal deposits in the arc chamber which can affect the color temp. brightness, and life of the bulb. These desposits were visible in my bulb after the initial burn.

If you just turned it on for a short while, though, I don't think you damaged the bulb. Just do an extended burn-in sometime during the infancy of the bulb. This is, again, my educated opinion only, YMMV

From my perspective any burn in time can't hurt, but I am not sure if one is needed. I have not found a recommended burn in time from any of the MH bulb manufacturers. I would think if it made a difference then someone would have a recommendation somewhere. After all, I see no incentive not to include that information.

Also, from a physics standpoint, once these bulbs have reached their steady state temperature then I don't see any real additional reactions going on inside them. I could be wrong and there might be some slow reactions or morphological changes that occur over an extended time period, but I can't think of anything that would need several hours instead of a few minutes, especially at the temperatures inside the gas packet. In general, the higher the temperature the faster things take to reach their final chemical and morphological state. The temperatures in these gas packets are reeeaaal high.

I could be wrong, though. Like I said, a burn in time can't hurt.

from what i have gathered most people have said about an hour or above, helps get rid if the slight greenish tent.

Yeah, I think the color improved after the first hour or so of testing my lightgate....of course, I was busy making shadow puppets to really be sure...

Thanks all for the help. I wasn't sure if it made a differnce. I had seen in here that some people had left theirs on over night, on post said they had put theres in a barn or something like that and left it on till the next day. Anyway thanks for the answers...