I used to run DE bulbs back in the day (doing t5 now) and always found getting them in and out of the fixtures a pain. Have they fixed that yet?
There have always been well designed and poorly designed DE fixtures. I had an 80w DE pendent back in the day that was great. Used it over a seahorse tank with lots of macro algae. Seen some recently that were junk. Heck, I've got a DE sodium light fixture out by the dog run and chicken coop that is a nightmare to put a bulb in, and it's only a year old.
The Hamilton Bimini Sun reflector comes with a solid, easy to use fixture. Getting a bulb in and out is simple, just press the ceramic ends into the fixture, slides right in. Now, I'm using a Hamilton bulb, in a Hamilton reflector... if I were to pick a different brand bulb? Who knows.
The worst part about the Bimini sun is that it comes with a fairly useless set of plastic 'legs', or you can order a hanging kit, and there isn't any other way to mount the thing. I disassembled the housing, drilled 2 holes, used a couple 1/2" lengths of tube as standoffs, and mounted a 1" wide piece of aluminum bar stock to mine. That way I could mount it however I wanted to. Worked out well.
I had 3x 400w mogul base bulbs back in the day, in PFO reflectors, and _they_ were a pain in the but. Actually broke the glass of one bulb trying to unseat it after a year's worth of use.
As for the Hamilton 14,000k DE bulb, bright, crisp blue/white. I like the color.
