The UVPhotoMAX Signature Series
The UV Photo Max unit is one of our most favorite UV air cleaning systems. We sold them from 2010 to 2025.
How long do bulbs last?
A common question we get is “How long does the bulb last?” The answer is, “It depends.”
Ultraviolet bulbs are typically replaced every 2-3 years. Ultravation would reference changing every year when we first started selling the product. They did tell us though that it is safe to use for 3 years, although the effectiveness of UV production starts to degrade.
We always operated under the 2 year bulb rule. After 2 years it could continue to work, however you are now going to see a drop in performance versus a new bulb.
If you are concerned about the power of the UV bulb you should replace them yearly. For most situations, however, every two to three years is just fine.
Ultravation did explain to us that when they went to the shorter bulb design they were able to get a longer effective life out of the bulbs, claiming 3 years. However the bulb warranty is still only 1 year.
System is chirping, what do I do?
If your UVPhotoMAX system is audibly beeping, this can be two things:
- The bulb has been on enough hours and it is recommended you replace it. If the bulb is still on while it’s chirping you hit the amount of runtime hours to remind you to replace the bulb.
(You can see usually some white/blue-ish light through cracks in your duct work indicating the light is on in there. Don’t stare too long directly at the light though it’s not good for your eyes.) - If the bulb is not on, and it’s chirping it could be alerting you to a failure. It could have been the bulb failed or the transformer failed. It could also just need a reset. See directly below this on how to reset the unit.
To get the unit to stop beeping and driving you crazy, here is what you do:
- While it is on, look underneath the unit where the power cord comes in. You’ll see another smaller hole. Here is what it looks like on the Signature Series (stainless steel version).
- Press and hold button in WHILE the unit is powered up. Hold it for up to 30 seconds. Yes, sometimes it takes way too long to respond to the button press, so stick with it. This caught us up when we first started servicing these units that it took so long to respond to a reset.
Resetting is the first thing to try any time the unit is having a problem. Whether the bulb is out, or the thing is making a lot of noise. We have had it where the bulb is out and resetting it fixed the unit and had no problems since.
If you did a full reset and the UV light is on but still chirping?
Sounds like the unit may need to be replaced. We recommend booking a tune-up so that we can address this while there for an existing reason, and a tune-up makes the most sense… otherwise there will be a trip charge to come out there. You can also take it off of the duct work and bring the entire unit into our showroom during business hours and we can help you out.
If you did a full reset and the UV light is off but still chirping?
This could be that the bulb has failed, and you can confirm this by opening the unit and pulling out the UV light (do not touch the glass with your skin in case the bulb is still good). We sell replacement bulbs in our showroom, or if you want us to take care of this at your home set up a tune-up visit for your furnace or air conditioner and have us look at this while we are there (that way you don’t get an additional trip charge).
You can also remove the four screws and bring the whole unit into the showroom where we can test it and if need be, do a swap out under warranty for you (if still under warranty).
Warranties on UVPhotoMAX?
If you have a white UVPhotoMAX unit, you get a 10 year part warranty. If you have a stainless steel signature series model (discontinued), it is a lifetime part warranty. If you are experiencing a problem with the equipment, and you wish for us to come out and do warranty work on it, please book it with a tune-up so you get a better value for your visit.
Further questions?
If you are in our service area, please reach out to our support team via email (help@goodguyswi.com) or give us a call at 920-734-1436. We have been working with these units for years and have several hundred of these installed in the valley.