Advice sought - repair vs replace

[TheFlyingCamera]

I have a Calumet Elite 2400 power pack. I hadn't used it for a while, so I decided it was time to re-form the capacitors. I had plugged it in to let it charge, planning to every so often trigger it on low power, increasing the power and frequency over time. Well... I had it sitting charging overnight, and it tripped the circuit breaker. When I re-set the circuit breaker and turned it back on, I heard a series of loud pops come out of it, and the circuit breaker tripped again. I would assume that, given what happened, that some if not all the capacitors have blown.

Question one - does anyone know of a repair source for this pack? The last time I had one of these go bad, Calumet was still in business, so the source for getting it serviced was obvious. As this model was already out-of-production for several years, they had to send it to Germany to get it repaired. It was around $500 to get it fixed then. I'm not sure if it's worth repairing, given the circumstances, but if it can be done, I'd like to get a quote on repairing it to help me make the decision.

Question two - if the pack cannot be repaired, should I buy another one of the same, or should I look at transitioning away from the system to something else? I can get a used Profoto Acute2 2400 pack and a head for around the same money as I can get some more used Calumet Elite gear. I am concerned that given the two Calumet Elite packs I have, one has been repaired already (seems to be working fine), and now the second one needs repair, so would I be investing money in something that is going to cost me a lot more, potentially quite soon. I would be concerned about doing the same with a pre-owned Profoto pack (with the exception that it should still be easy to get repaired). Or would I be better served by saving my pennies and getting something brand new, like the Godox AD1200 pro pack/head? It isn't as powerful, but it offers modern options of TTL for my digital camera and HSS, among other things. But it's going to cost me twice what I would have to spend on a used setup.

 

[AgX]

The most likely thing is that just the main capacitors have degraded. So likely just exchanging them by flash grade ones of similar capacity, voltage and dimension would be the thing to consider. Any old-school electronics person should be able to do so. In the most ideal case even no readjusting would be needed.
But we got even a former flash service guy here, he might chime in.

But, yes modern studio flashes got a lot of fancy features and especially Godox now got models with surprising low prices (what may make one suspicious...)

Calumet stuff sent to Germany for repair? I am surprised, I rather would have expected the other way.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

The most likely thing is that just the main capacitors have degraded. So likely just exchanging them by flash grade ones of similar capacity, voltage and dimension would be the thing to consider. Any old-school electronics person should be able to do so. In the most ideal case even no readjusting would be needed.
But we got even a former flash service guy here, he might chime in.

But, yes modern studio flashes got a lot of fancy features and especially Godox now got models with surprising low prices (what may make one suspicious...)

Calumet stuff sent to Germany for repair? I am surprised, I rather would have expected the other way.

The unit was made by Bowens in the UK for Calumet. But Calumet didn't have parts at the time, and so they had to ship it to the UK (they may have ordered the capacitors from Germany... I don't remember all the details).

As to Godox, I've used a bunch of their smaller strobe/on-camera flash units and have been positively impressed by them. I have an AD360 (actually a pair of them) that do a terrific job and are more than sufficient for working with anything smaller than 8x10. Where I need the power is when I want to shoot 8x10 and bigger.

 

[mgb74]

IIRC, Bowens is out of business (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). Calumet certainly is. Unless you can find someone to inexpensive replace the capacitors (assuming ones with the right characteristics and form factor are available), I'd say it's time to say goodbye. Used pack style lights seem to be relatively inexpensive now relative to monolights. From the availability of service, you might be better with something from Speedotron as they were so common.

 

[Luis-F-S]

I would suggest Speedotron packs; they're indestructible and still in business. Their packs are readily available at auction, and US made! They'll repair anything they've made and don't have to ship it out to repair it.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

IIRC, Bowens is out of business (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). Calumet certainly is. Unless you can find someone to inexpensive replace the capacitors (assuming ones with the right characteristics and form factor are available), I'd say it's time to say goodbye. Used pack style lights seem to be relatively inexpensive now relative to monolights. From the availability of service, you might be better with something from Speedotron as they were so common.

Yes, Bowens went belly-up maybe 2-3 years ago. Their last products were rather interesting, but I would be very hesitant to try and buy any of them because they were only on the market for maybe a year or two, so even if they're reliable now, they won't be as soon as repairs are needed.