What is happening with Source 4WRD?

This is just a heads up regarding the website.  I ran across the following page (see link below) on the ETC website while looking for the Source 4WRD's expected life.  I remember this info was posted a good while ago.  I thought that it might give some people the wrong impression since it is old info.  Here's the link:

http://www.etcconnect.com/About/News/What-is-happening-with-Source-4WRD-.aspx

For what it's worth...

  • Got to say, I don't know what's going on with them, but I've been experiencing some real reliability issues with the 4 we have at my theatre. They've been sent back to fix the Over Temp issue and I've now had two fail again (with the same OT issue). They just aren't living up to my expectations.
  • Hi
    Source4WRD uses a heat pipe that is especially designed for the product. Inside the heat pipe, water moves at supersonic speeds to rapidly cool the LED emitters. Due to some of the processes the heat pipe went through in manufacture and testing, some pipes were degrading the material inside the shell and causing clogs, resulting in overtemp problems.

    This has resulted in bulk failures on some sites.
    We have been working on the problem for 6 - 9 months and our data shows that the heat pipe has been greatly stabilized and failures are reducing rapidly. But there are still some fixtures in the field that may show this problem.

    We do apologize for the troubles you've had. Some units have worked perfectly and some sites had multiple failures. I urge you to let our technical service people know how you are doing and don't be shy about informing us if there are other failures. We take this issue very seriously - but it has been very complicated to resolve. Thanks for your patience.

    David Lincecum
    VP Marketing, ETC
  • Hey David!
    Thanks for your response! I've forwarded the serial number of the affected unit to Supertech (my local ETC dealer, who I actually used to work for), and they'll be getting in touch with tech services promptly. I do appreciate hearing directly from you though, especially that you are aware of the issue and actively addressing it! Once again, nobody beats ETC customer support!
    Joe Gates
    Head Electrician
    Belding Theatre, Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts
Related