[Amps] BURNING IN A TUBE

Colin Lamb k7fm at teleport.com
Sat Mar 23 12:23:46 EDT 2013


The article is neither relevant nor useful to a tube.  Any mechanical or electrical device is more likely to fail in the first hours of use.  A car engine or aircraft engine or transmission or light bulb or ball point pen or condom is more likely to fail in the first few hours.  The best way to test it is to turn it on and use it.  

With regard to a vacuum tube, if you just bought the amp with new tubes, the most likely time of failure is when you turn it on, simply because it might have suffered damage during shipment.  And, if it fails, the most likely failure will be a crack causing a vacuum leak.  In that case, you turn the amp on and the tube goes poof and dies.  Notify the manufacturer and get a new one.  If the tube is cracked, nothing you can do will save it.  Otherwise, if the tube is new, it should play and play and play.  

Anytime you turn a switch on, something may fail.  

There has been ongoing discussion about tubes that are not new and have been stored for years or decades.  In that case, how the tube is "conditioned" may affect the remaining life.  

So, the website cited does not change my opinion.  Turn the amp on and use it.

73,  Colin  K7FM


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