Original, Branded Compatible, and Compatible Lamps
Original, Branded Compatible, and Compatible Lamps
We sell original and APO branded compatible replacement lamps. There are three distinct product categories in the market: Original Lamps, Branded Compatible Lamps and Compatible Lamps.
Original Lamps
These are products produced by the original manufacturer of the projector. They are made to a high standard. We sell original lamps for all major projector manufacturers.
Branded Compatible Lamps
APO is an example of a branded compatible lamp. They are similar to Kingston memory for your PC or ScanDisk memory cards for your digital camera – they are a branded, high quality compatible product you should be able to trust will work flawlessly in your machine. Often slightly cheaper than an original product, however the high quality levels are still maintained.
For example, all APO lamps go through strict quality checks and all the bulbs used are of the highest quality (even some well-known projector manufacturers use these bulbs in their products). The quality checks include: Beam Performance, Ignition, Voltage, Appearance, Connections, and Runtime. All lamps are manufactured to ISO9001 standards. Each APO lamp is bespoke designed to ensure great performance levels and not to infringe on any copyrights.
APO also offers two great warranties on their products:
- A 90 day warranty against lamp failure
- A “Peace of Mind Warranty” that means if an APO lamp proves to damage your projector your customer will receive a brand new projector of equal performance (Terms and Conditions Apply).
Compatible Lamps
Compatible lamps are often supplied in brown boxes with no branding or manufacturer markings. This un-branding can often mean a non-regulated company has produced the goods. Do not expect to see warranties, nor can the quality of the products be guaranteed. Often the products are not manufactured to high standards (such as ISO9001). High risks can be associated with these products (Please see below for a full explanation of risks). We do not endorse the sale of these products.
Our business is a strong supporter of both original and APO branded compatible lamps. We believe our customers should be offered the choice of original and branded compatible lamps.
The risks of compatible lamps that are not verified include:
Health and Safety: Projector lamps are made by a highly complex design and manufacturing process. This process uses hazardous chemicals within the glass which are under immense pressure and can generate substantial amounts of heat. Poorly manufactured projector lamps could pose a safety risk to our customers.
Performance: The quality of a projector lamp directly influences a projector’s ability to accurately replicate colours, brightness and contrast levels. It is important that any projector lamp used is designed specifically for that projector to ensure the highest image quality.
Legality: Some compatible lamp manufacturers will flaunt intellectual property rights of the original manufacturer which is illegal. Making a custom compatible product however is not illegal – examples include printer ink, memory cards, etc.
Warranty: Currently, as soon as a 3rd party lamp is used in a projector that projector’s warranty becomes invalid. Projector manufacturers are only prepared to cover official lamps in their machines.
Identifying a fake/non-verified lamp:
It is not easy to identify an original lamp from a branded lamp or compatible version. APO tries to make it easy to identify their products from non-verified products. For example, APO ensures its products have the logo clearly marked on the boxes and all sales are serial number tracked.
Below are easy ways to identify non-verified compatible lamps:
Price: If the price of a projector lamp looks just too good to be true it probably is! Ask if the lamp is an original and check its warranty.
Module/Housing or Bulb?: Pretty much every original lamp on the market and all APO branded compatible lamps come supplied as a complete module. This means you can slot the lamp into the projector in seconds. If you buy a bulb that needs to be fitted into an old projector lamp housing then you must be prepared to spend time with a screwdriver to swap the lamps over. This can take considerable time and does not ensure the final product is up to the correct quality standard. Please note that Sharp do provide both lamp modules and bulb-only versions on some of their projector lines.
Description: Any product that says, “Compatible with” or that has a generic description such as “120 watt” could mean the product is not an original.
