Reci vs. SPT laser tubes: Educate me please!

We always used gold plated copper mirrors and ZnSe lens from Aliexpress. They work just fine.

Last time I orderd the mirrors and lens from CloudRay, but we don’t have any experience yet, because the are not yet in service.

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Today I found out, after placing my order, that LightObject will pay return shipping for defective tubes only during the first 30 days after arrival, which I didn’t see on their site. They won’t ship the tube without me signing an agreement to that. I guess I should delay signing the agreement until the rest of the pieces are coming together so that I will be able to test it more or less right away. :grimacing:

Not that I expect a defective tube, but it would be an expensive mistake in a way I didn’t plan for to be one of the very few to get a defective Reci tube…

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Another option is to order a tube from Thunder Laser USA. They have excellent prices. They stock the tubes in Quitman, Texas, and carry them as replacements for the lasers they sell, but will sell a tube to anyone. Their tubes must put out a minimum of 10% more power than the stated power rating, IE, a 100W tube must actually produce 110W minimum or they reject it at the factory. If I remember correctly they also have a 2 year warranty. I have a 100W tube from them in one of my lasers and I could not be happier. They sell SPT tubes, a 100W is $750 plus shipping. (I paid $75 shipping to Canada on mine.)

Well, the Reci W4 I ordered was $655, but $165 in shipping :scream: Rather more for shipping than I hoped, but then the tube is 1400mm so what do I know? Really very similar net price to the SPT from Thunder Laser.

The SPT C100 is $495 from LightObject and presumably the same $165 in shipping, for $660 total. The SPT tube has a specified triggering voltage of 30KV which is higher than the MYJG-100W I ordered, which has a max voltage of 28KV, so the C100 wouldn’t work with that LPS, AFAICT. So I don’t think the SPT tubes are an option for me with the LPS I selected as a good match for the Reci based on advice here.

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I would not have any concerns to sign that contract. Never heard of a Reci tube to arrive defective. LigthObjects just wants to give you an additional “dead on arrival” protection with their 30 day warranty.

I only visualy inspected our spare tube for cracks and then stored the box in the shelf. I don’t have any concerns that the tube will be bad when we need it.

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I mentioned to lightobject that I’m not sure it’s legal to sell something and then only after the sale present a new agreement as a prerequisite to shipping. I’m not a lawyer of course.

Also, warranty terms I think in the US are required to be available pre-sale.

All that said, I think they are acting in good faith. The document covers max current and minimum cooling capacity needed, and frankly one of the big problems in the hobbyist laser community is lack of precisely that information. If they were to provide warranty replacements for everyone who fails to cool their tube or overdrives their tube it would cost way more!

I didn’t get back to the document (it’s been a hectic day) but they shipped anyway. They didn’t like my idea of waiting another week or so to ship, I think.

So, off to the shop to get back to work on making a home for this tube!

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Tube arrived today. No visible damage. I have substantial work to do before I can test-fire it, but it was well packed in a large box suspended in a substantial amount of foam. My youngest and I very carefully set it in the frame for a test fit.

It just barely will not require a wart. There will be only a few centimeters between the anode and the first mirror.

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