Tube Shelf Life

Getter material doesnt' need to be hot to do its' job.

Old tubes can work a long time. In my main rig, the preamp is using tubes from the 1920s, and the ones in the amps are from the late 20s through 1940s.

-Ed

Ed_sawyer...A military equipment that I was involved with had a vidicon tube, and to maintain its life we had a requirement to turn on and operate spare units for 30 minutes every 90 days. This was to get the getter hot. I guess there may be different kinds of getter.

Early vintage TV tubes (CRTs) definitely had problems if stored for a year or more without operation. Of course, a CRT has a lot of glass area for leakage to occur.

As always, much appreciation to all those that provided insight !