So we're watching something on turkey day and POOF! There goes to TV. No problem, I'll just activate my 3 yr/2 bulb warranty!
OH, Wait! It's a 4 day holiday for most folks. Finally got a hold of an electronics store 45 minutes away that has a bulb in stock. Whoo Hoo!! How much? $269.95, the guy says. Not only NO, but #@!! NO. I can wait for the warranty folks to get back on Monday. So in the mean time, I've got no TV and there's a Saints game Monday night... $35 later and I've got a coax cable taped to the floor going to the TV that only runs XBOX for the kiddies.
In the mean time, I've got an extra bulb coming in from a eBay seller (recommended by another thread here for lamps) for $93 delivered. So now I've got a backup until the warranty folks decide to ship one, and it'll be ready when the next bulb blows. And it will.

Scott

That sucks.

Replacement lamps often have a 30-90 day warranty from when you purchase it. I’ve read that if you do purchase one as a standby that you should use it for the 30 days since if it’s bad it likely came to you that way or will go bad quickly.

The one I got has a 6 month warranty. I intended it to be a stop-gap measure until I receive the one that my warranty is supposed to provide - how ever long that process takes - and then to use it only as a backup. I'd hate to use the 6 month bulb for 6 months just to use up its warranty time only to find that it's gonna blow on 6 months + 1 day. I've only got til 2/2010 for the 3 year term anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.

Good advice, Dean. This could apply to other types of purchases, too.

Actually you don’t need to use it for the full warranty period. At least pop each one in as you get them just to make sure they weren’t damaged in shipping. Using it for at least a few days will also help eliminate they likelihood of an early failure do to any defects. It would suck even worse to have a spare that didn’t even work out of the box and not to find it out until you not only needed it but the warranty period had also expired.

That sucks, Scott.

Care to share where you purchased the bulb?

Got a spare when I bought the projector as part of the special offer. At the rate I'm using the original, the spare will likely be obsolete by the time I need it.