overuse?

[tuffy_puppy]

hi all,  i openly admit that i know how to plug in my extended foreplay three and my sex 2.1 with c4s upgrade and nothing about what is under the hood.  shawn at the "friendly island" does those sorts of things for me.  i am not a hobbyist.  i am a listener.  and this stuff (bh) sounds better to me than other stuff i have owned and listened to.  my question follows:  in the morning my stuff gets turned on at 6:00 and stays on till maybe 10:00 p. m.  is this wrong??  for many years i have followed the notion that turning on and off our devices forced them to heat and cool and thus to "wear".  is this improper??  i don't care about the tubes.  they are cheap and readily available.  but am i looking at premature failure throughout the rest of stuff??  it seems to me that turning the stuff on and off a number of times per day just when the "listening bug" arises is just as wearing as just plain leaving the stuff on all day.  am i wrong??  thanks for any viewpoints,  don pettit

[Grainger49]

Turning on a piece of electronics puts a "hit" on the power supply.  It is made for that but is is still a pounding.  You are wearing out your tubes faster than I do but you are keeping your stereo warmed and ready to listen.  That is a good thing.

Others will say you are wasting electricity and are not being green.  I say it is pretty minimal, look at this thread:

http://www.bottlehead.com/smf/index.php/topic,1479.0.html

The FP III and SEX amp probably don't go above 100W.  I don't have either so can't measure them.  I added my Eros now.

[porcupunctis]

Avoiding on/off cycles is a prudent measure with just about any electronics gear.  The exception would be appliances that really draw a lot of power like your oven or hair drier.  You wouldn't leave your oven on all day just because you might want to bake a pie later in the afternoon. 

Think about light bulbs.  They almost always fail when you turn them on and that initial rush of current hits the cold filaments. 

My listening sessions are usually limited to afternoons and evenings but, like you, I turn the gear on and leave it on until I'm done for the day.  I'm concerned about electrical use but if I want to cut my bill and be a bit greener there are a lot of other options with much greater impact.  Your extra run time on your stereo gear probably doesn't add but a dollar or so to your bill.  Things like your air-conditioner, oven, electric heaters, refrigerator, and clothes drier will account for 90% of your bill.

[mchurch]

Hi;

Like the others have mentioned I have found that leaving my units on does not hurt my electrical consumption very much. Also I am firm believer that the less you cycle anything the longer it lasts actually. Yes the tubes will eventually wear out a bit faster but as indicated the cost of replacement is not too extreme. In my case I have some tangible proof; I have an 83 year old mother I am looking after who cannot manipulate remotes etc. so I turn on the TV and amplifier when I go to work at 7:00 AM and it stays on till 11:00 PM every day of the week. Its her only form of entertainment as she cannot see well enough for anything else. Before we started doing this I usually got at least five years on the set before I had to change it. The current set has been with me since 2004 and shows no sign of issues or wear and the amplifier is still going strong. As far as tubes gear is concerned I have a 1950's era AM/FM/SW set which is on in my room pretty much all the time, I still love to listen to SW. When I want to listen to my BH system I just turn this down but never off, I have only ever had to change tubes I upgraded the caps and resistors by choice only about 10 Years ago.

Cycling is the biggest killer of life expectancy for a lot of things, think Cars, Planes, Appliances.


So I would say that as long as you keep your gear properly ventilated leaving it on will probably cause you no issues at all. As a matter of fact I saw some gear recently that had no power switch in the design, it was intended to be plugged in and forgotten about. I believe it had a 5 year initial warranty or more.

Cheers

[Paul Joppa]

I can think of two things that argue for turning the gear off, to balance against the many reasons to leave it on:

1) Heat accelerates the aging of all components, so there is a balance between the turn-on/turn-off wear and the heat wear. At one time, conventional wisdom was that one on/off cycle was equivalent to 30-60 minutes of operation. I imagine that is still true today, with a huge uncertainty as to the actual time interval - it's probably more than a minute and less than a day!

2) We take safety seriously, and our gear is designed with healthy margins. But because Bottlehead gear is not assembled under controlled conditions, there is no way to be certain of its safety. This is the reason it is not, and cannot be, UL rated. I never leave anything running when I am not there, and I advocate that policy for everyone.

[tuffy_puppy]

thanks guys,  about what i had hoped to hear.  and paul SHE hardly ever lets me leave the property.  so, no issue there.  thanks again,  don

[mchurch]

Paul raises a very good point about safety and I have to admit I do not leave my tube gear on with no one around. But having worked for CSA and with the ESA I am comfortable with the safety of my work but you always have to think about those rare chances things don't go as planned.


Cheers

Mike

[tuffy_puppy]

hey again,  shawn on the "friendly island" has done assembly work on my gear.  i have absolute confidence this gear is safely put together. all is well on this score.  thanks again, folks,  don