Consistent problem with ReptiSun UVB Hood!

Hey everyone!

I bought a ReptiSun UVB Hood in about May or June of last year. A few months later, it shorted out and wasn't working, so I took advantage of the 1-year warranty and had another one sent to me. This one lasted barely two months before shorting out, and began flickering and making weird crackling noises.

My father is a professional electrician and he took both hoods apart to look at the wiring, and he said it was extremely poor quality and both were wired very incorrectly in the first place. Between the price of the hood and multiple bulbs I've purchased over the months, I've spent a lot of money on a product that doesn't work.

Now I'm concerned about the health of my dragon because she's without UV lights right now while I try to figure out how to move forward, and to be honest, I'm concerned that ReptiSun is a fire hazard and I don't think I even want the company to replace the defective hood. I would understand one hood that is defective, but two in a row is too often for me.

Has anyone else had problems with ReptiSun? What other UV system can I use other than ReptiSun that's actually reliable?

Thanks!
Melissa & Cleo

Update: I called and spoke with someone from ZooMed and they were very quick to send me another replacement hood for no charge. The customer service at ZooMed is always great, I have to say. Regardless, I'm really concerned about this hood being a fire hazad, and I said as much on the phone. Any comments regarding your experiences with ZooMed/ReptiSun would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

I would just buy a regular hood/fixture. A t5/t8 shouldn't be hard to find, as they come in fairly standard sizes. I use a SunBlaster (found here https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AKKULI6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Which you can buy with a reflector for just a couple more bucks. I haven't had any problems with it so far, and it's been almost a year

That's too bad. There have been some reports of quality control problems with ZooMed products in the last year or so. I have the T5 hood and some of their bulbs and haven't run into any problems during my testing but the issues that are reported are fairly sporadic. As mentioned, using a high quality T5 garden fixture is a good alternative way to go.

Thank you both for your input! JessPets, I'm going to look into the SunBlaster and other regular hoods like you suggested.

Thanks again!
Melissa

Update: I called ReptiSun today to check on the status of the warranty fixture they're sending me. They told me it's taking particularly long to ship it because they're having their professional electricians take apart the fixture to critique the quality of the wiring. Can't beat that customer service I suppose. I'm pretty happy with how they handled the problem so I'm going to use this incoming fixture and hope for the best this time.

That's good to hear. Hopefully that will lead to increased quality control and better design in the future.