Whelen A500 tail strobe life

What's the average life you've been getting out of your Whelen A500 rear strobe/position light? My strobe tube gave up the ghost at less than 160 hours. Of course, you can't (easily) replace the tube itself because it's a potted subassembly. And, Van's doesn't carry a replacement tube. Spruce has the replacement tube, but it's only $11 cheaper than the entire assembly from Vans!

Heinrich Gerhardt
RV-6, 165 hours

About 20 minutes of testing. Turned it on a month later and it didn't work.. Whelen was reluctant to fix it as the manufacture date showed that it was 2 years old but after hearing my story they fixed it under warrantee. Hopefully will last a little longer or at least till I get the plane flying.

19 Minutes

My position light died at 19 minutes testing. The strobe is works.

I have 481 hr on mine. I dropped the wing tip lense twice, but have not replaced any tube yet.

On mine it was the power pack. I have one for each strobe. It was over the warranty and I sent it in to Whelen and they were good enough to fix it at no cost other than shipping. I was using it for maybe a year, don't remember , but had bought it quite some time before while building. Did hear somewhere that shelf life is also a concern on these units.

Ron B. said:

On mine it was the power pack. I have one for each strobe. It was over the warranty and I sent it in to Whelen and they were good enough to fix it at no cost other than shipping. I was using it for maybe a year, don't remember , but had bought it quite some time before while building. Did hear somewhere that shelf life is also a concern on these units.

Click to expand...

Yes, shelf life is an issue with Xenon strobe based lights. There is a flash capacitor in the strobe driver module that needs to be excercised (charged up) on a regular basis. If it sits too long (months) without being charged up the electrolyte relaxes and the capacitor can fail prematurely if it isn't reconditioned properly. Abruptly charging it in normal use after it has sat too long without first reconditioning it (applying a gentle charge-up) can damage them.

Dean_aeroleds said:

Yes, shelf life is an issue with Xenon strobe based lights. There is a flash capacitor in the strobe driver module that needs to be excercised (charged up) on a regular basis. If it sits too long (months) without being charged up the electrolyte relaxes and the capacitor can fail prematurely if it isn't reconditioned properly. Abruptly charging it in normal use after it has sat too long without first reconditioning it (applying a gentle charge-up) can damage them.

Click to expand...

The shelf life after leaving the factory is about 24 months. If left unused for 24 months after active use, the same applies. The official way to recondition for use, the capacitor is as follows:

Hook the strobe power supply up to a variable (User selectable) voltage (output) power supply that is rated (amps) for the current requirements of the strobe power supply. If don't have this available most avionics shops or electronics repair shops will have this capability.

(this is for 12/14 VDC units only) I do not have this same info for 24/28 VDC strobe supplies. With NOTHING attached to the Strobe Power Supply output (no strobes attached) do the following:

Power for 15 minutes 3 VDC input,

15 minutes 6 VDC input,

15 minutes 9 VDC input,

15 minutes 12 VDC input

The unit is now ready for normal installed use with strobe tubes attached.

My Whelen strobe power supply sat unused (during construction) for 19 years, (Yes, it took me that long with a 10 year hiatus in the middle, long story)
Used this "program" from Whelen and the unit has worked perfectly for about 200 hours so far.

As a proactive precaution, I would follow this proceedure with only 1 year of non use, It will not hurt the unit and is a proactive effort to protect your investment.

The tail position light failed after about 200 hours. 400 hrs later all the strobes - tail and wingtip continue to work.

Cannot comment on tail light strobe but can give a data point on the wingtip strobes.

I replaced my wingtip strobe around 1,600 hours. Spoke to Whelen at Oshkosh asking how long they should last. Salesman said the wingtip strobes should last 1,000 hours. Told him how long mine lasted.

I replaced both wingtip strobes at the same time.

Whelen Strobe PS Reconditioning

Yesterday, with regard to my Whelen HDACF strobe power supply, I asked Whelen Tech Support about the reconditioning procedure described by Dan Blumel earlier in this thread. Whelen said that this was no longer necessary on newer strobe power supplies. When asked how I tell if mine is a newer one they said the design changed about 10 years ago (1999).

Thought I'd post this for posterity incase anyone else finds this thread in a search.

I bought my tail strobe from Van's one year ago, I turned on for the first a couple of weeks ago and didn't work. Van's said I should contact whelen directly for warranty so I did, whelen said I have to send the unit to them, cause I live in Chile I haven't send it yet, maybe is going to be easier to buy a new one or try to fix it

I had a similar experience. I did not install and test my lights until about 3 years after purchase. The wing units worked fine but the combination tail light and strobe would not flash. Rather than try for a waranty replacement I decided to just buy a replacement. I was dissapointed to find the cost of a replacement flash bulb was almost the same price as a complete tail light assembly, I think it was within $10. So, I just bought a complete new tail light assembly and now have a replacement 12 volt bulb and lens if I ever need them. My current set of lights and strobes have all been working for over 150 hours with no problems.

High temps

Hi.

Before I finished the plane, I ran all three strobes for 30 mins every 3 months.
The system is Vans #6 bought from them in 2006, consisting of the usual Whelen strobe power supply and the three light assemblies.

During this use, they weren't installed in the wingtips, they just sat on a metal plate.

After the very first time I did this procedure, I was surprised to find how HOT they where after use. Not possible at all to touch!

I let them cool down for 30 minutes and then could put them back into storage.

The high temps during the test made me think about how hot it'd be inside the wingtip lenses during a hot summer day, specially if the plane was on ground.
The temp inside those lenses must be WAY up there...

Maybe these high temps could shorten their life?

After this discovery, I'm not using the strobes on the ground on sunny and hot days and I'm also careful about using them airborne on hot, bright and sunny days too.
During those days, the plane itself is as visible as the strobes so i leave them off.

BTW: the tail strobe quit one day while I was letting them run their "maintenance-run". The total run time of the strobes by that time where about 6 hrs and they where 3 years old. Neither Vans or Whelen would give me a new tail-unit under warranty, so I had to buy a new one.... not good customer care in my book...

1000hrs and 28yrs on my A500 Strobe

Mine just went out this week --- Nav light still working, but it may have been replaced, in the past. The A500 socket has a 1987 production date. The -6A first flew in '93.

Now I have to decide if I want to pay the $170+ price for new unit or upgrade to LEDs and lower my amps.

R.

A500 socket

May I ask where you found one for $170.00.
Thanks,

RONSIM said:

Mine just went out this week --- Nav light still working, but it may have been replaced, in the past. The A500 socket has a 1987 production date. The -6A first flew in '93.

Now I have to decide if I want to pay the $170+ price for new unit or upgrade to LEDs and lower my amps.

R.

Click to expand...

My mistake -- old price

Looks like $200 or better ----- worse yet!

Stories of 'I dont use my light during this operation to increase its useful life' are abound and a significant reason to go LED. With their extremely long life, and low power consumption, you can just leave everything on always, and increase your visibility to others. Anti-collision lights are for both night AND day. With Whelen LED's, leave em on! No good reason not to. I have yet to have a Whelen LED returned for failure. Knock on wood.