I have a blue and white Chinese laser with a RECI W2 (100W CO2) tube in it. When I received the laser I immediately replaced all of the brains of the machine with a Smoothie Board and I am running Lightburn. (I've used these lasers before and know that I hate the native software and control)
Anyway, when I first set things up I didn't have an accurate way to know how much power was going to my tube so I ran everything at a max of "60%" power (controlled on a panel on the front of the machine, not through the software). Eventually I got an ammeter and installed it (and got rid of the old control panel, so now all settings are controlled via software). Now that I was able to see the actual mA I now had a number (current draw) that I could associate with a given power setting. On the RECI website for the W2 it says "The working current: test current is 29mA. Maximum working current is 29mA. The running current must be kept below 27mA. The life span can reach 8,000 hours if the current is kept below 25mA. " My initial tests showed that at "100% power" (set in the software) I was getting around ~20mA. Perfect!

Well that was a couple months ago, this machine does not see constant use but it works about once or twice a week for a handful of hours. I had started ignoring the ammeter because I knew I couldn't "over power" the tube even if I ran at 100% power. Most of the stuff I do I was still running at only 70-80%. But there were some longer cuts on 1/4" plywood that I was using 100% power for. Recently I've started noticing that the ammeter is showing around 14-17mA instead of 20mA when running at 100% power.

I know everyone says don't run a tube at 100% power or you'll reduce the life of the tube... I assumed that "100% of the power" is 27mA as stated on the RECI website, and that running the tube at 20mA is NOT running it at 100% EVEN IF the software says "100%". The number in the software is arbitrary, it could say 100 armadillos, what matters is the mA through the tube... right?

Now I originally did not do the math so technically I was running the tube higher than 80% of it's suggested power BUT I was running it BELOW what RECI suggests. (80% of 27mA is 21.6)

So. My questions is basically "what's going on here?" Do you guys think I've done something wrong? Is there a better way to test the power from a tube?

Before you ask, the mirrors are immaculate and very well aligned. I have excellent exhaust air flow and assist air that keep everything extremely clean (as well as regular inspections by me).

Is this just the way things go? It's only a couple months old. I could probably look at logs and find out how many hours it's run too.

Here's RECI's page for the tube: W2 CO? Glass Tube - Beijing Laser Technology Co., Ltd.

Thank you for your help and feedback!!
-Logan