Man, those things are awesome, and very versitile! Love 'em! Used them in 3 different sets, with great effect.
BUT... I don't love their average life expectancy... We have 4 kinds from two vendors- one of which is highly rated and the other- not so much. I have the plate style, the large wand style, the small wand and small tube styles. ALL but the small wand, which got the least use- due to the cheap inverter in my portable power unit taking a dirt-nap, have issues. Namely longevity and electrode wear. Some of the electrodes are G-O-N-E, gone- as in evaporated. Which is to be expected after all- we are talking about a high voltage arc, but I'm a little surprised at just how little time I actually got. I had mixed results with the others and trying to re-adjust the electrode positions- some worked again, some didn't.
The longest lasting were the plates, but they JUST barely made 13 days with modest use imo. I calculated they probably ran an total of 1.5 hours over 13 days with an average use of 5 seconds per group. The small wands came in second at about 50% of that and the large wands last with about 25% of that. These were all actor controlled and I watched them (and could hear them when not watching) pretty closely- making sure of their proper, conservative use.
In the end- I think they can be an awesome asset, but reliability and cost are pretty serious considerations. I'm hoping that improvements can be made so that I can broaden their use!
I may have to explore pneumatic poppers in combination with strobes, but I'd rather not due to larger foot-print, initial costs and still unknown reliability.
BUT... I don't love their average life expectancy... We have 4 kinds from two vendors- one of which is highly rated and the other- not so much. I have the plate style, the large wand style, the small wand and small tube styles. ALL but the small wand, which got the least use- due to the cheap inverter in my portable power unit taking a dirt-nap, have issues. Namely longevity and electrode wear. Some of the electrodes are G-O-N-E, gone- as in evaporated. Which is to be expected after all- we are talking about a high voltage arc, but I'm a little surprised at just how little time I actually got. I had mixed results with the others and trying to re-adjust the electrode positions- some worked again, some didn't.
The longest lasting were the plates, but they JUST barely made 13 days with modest use imo. I calculated they probably ran an total of 1.5 hours over 13 days with an average use of 5 seconds per group. The small wands came in second at about 50% of that and the large wands last with about 25% of that. These were all actor controlled and I watched them (and could hear them when not watching) pretty closely- making sure of their proper, conservative use.
In the end- I think they can be an awesome asset, but reliability and cost are pretty serious considerations. I'm hoping that improvements can be made so that I can broaden their use!
I may have to explore pneumatic poppers in combination with strobes, but I'd rather not due to larger foot-print, initial costs and still unknown reliability.
Comment