Would anyone like a tube hour counter for amps that don't have this function ?


I am planning and designing a small,  attractive,  external tube hour counter,  and I would like to get a sense if anyone is interested in this for themselves. If so I may be compelled to make a batch of these at the same time Rather than just one.

 I have an audio research VT100 mkII and and LS25. I really like these amplifiers, but neither of them have a way of tracking tube hours. I know I can just listen to the tubes to determine shortcomings, but I'm also an analytical sort of guy, so having an accurate tube hour count would be useful to me.

my plan is to use a digital, non-resettable, industrial hour counter.  I am planning to recess this into a small aluminum enclosure with professionally machined openings for the  Digital counter as well as the power cable coming out of the back. The plan is to use a  Black anodized aluminum body with natural aluminum face plate and rear plate. A power cable coming  out the back and be terminated to a standard household grounded plug. There will be rubber deer on the bottom. The device will be small: perhaps about 4 inches wide, 2 inches tall, and 4 inches deep.

 I have a six outlet power conditioner with one outlet free. To use this hour counter, I will plug it into my conditioner, I will switch off the power on the conditioner when I'm not using the amplifiers.  When I switch on the Power conditioner and subsequently the amplifiers, The hour counter  Will begin its count. 

 For those of you who plug their power amplifier directly into the wall, I suspect that many of you will still plug your preamplifier or other components into a conditioner or strip of some sort. In that case this tube hour counter will still work for you,  unless you just turn on your power amp from time to time for fun! 

 Since I will be re-tubing my power amp soon,  this is a perfect time for me to add this to my system.  I plan to use my small label making machine (brother p-touch style) to put a label on the bottom of the aluminum enclosure that has notes on the install date, tubes, and hour counter numbers. 

For example,  I may just change the power tubes on my amplifier and not touch the signal or driver tubes in the power amp, or the preamp tubes in the preamplifier at this time. When I go to change those smaller tubes in the future, I will notate that change and log the hour count in a  small note on the Label Maker,  and stick it to the bottom of the enclosure.  The hour counter will be non-resettable to avoid tampering or mistakes.

I'm not yet sure about the price of something like this, I'm doing the research now. Since it has to sit on my audio shelf, I don't want it to look like a piece of junk or a children's science project. Because of that, I will use professionally sourced parts, quality machining, and thoughtful design,  planning,  and careful assembly. 

 I suspect the final selling price may be in the neighborhood of $100 - $200. But that's just a wild guess at this point. If anyone's interested please let me know and I will consider  making several of these instead of just one for me! 

Take care,
Mark
marktomaras
@folkfreak -folk (or freak)-- that's some low hours for a 6H30 to fail. Are these tubes supplied by ARC or a third party?
I use that tube in my line stage and sourced real Reflektor DRs--after several years of moderate use, I send the unit back to be updated and had the tubes checked by the manufacturer, who found them to be fine and "re-matched" them (FWIW). All of these older tubes are expensive now. I did just find some NIB GEC tubes for my vintage Quad II amps--I'm hoping the amp outlasts me. Tracking hours on most NOS isn't really going to help, but I could see it for gear that uses modern tubes. 
They were ARC supplied and installed tubes. Anyway I'm not terribly bothered as replacements are not too costly what bugs me more is the creeping degradation of performance in small signal tubes such that you're never sure if they are performing at their best. I think I'll follow a policy of biannual replacement from now on just to be on the safe side - at least with a power tube you know when it's failed!
i do use herbies dampers so it may be that the extra pressure reduces tube life, or maybe it's as much how many stop starts you have as it is total hours (I tend to have shorter listening sessions)

Indeed, nothing should be in contact with glass during operation of vacuum tube -- NOTHING. Everything else, as noted shortens tube life.

Starts-stops if done at interval, should not reduce life unless there's issues with gear that cannot bring tubes properly to the operating voltages.

All ARC units literally KILL tubes ultra-fast. That's how they're designed to operate -- as hot as possible and it's main contributing factor to short tube life (and maybe some extra ARC supplied tube sales as well so ain't no bad without good rite?).

I just realized my tubes were last changed in 2012, not 2015!  Record keeping is not my forte apparently.  No wonder I am beginning to hear a need for new tubes.  If only I had my tube hour counter already :-)