Hi all. Just wondered if anyone had a tube tester and used it often?
Was it worth buying? Or not really, considering the amount of time you really need it (eg. Getting matched pairs, checking nos tubes etc).
I have heard you have to be very careful when using one so as not to waste tubes by turning them on with excess voltage. I have heard they need to be calibrated in some sort of way.
I can imagine they are not the sort of thing any old person could service either.

And then you have to find the right model to test the kinds of tubes you run or might run with...

Any comments or suggestions?
Worth the trouble or risk?

Not sure of going prices, but good tube testers are probably not inexpensive.
Check out the price of AVO (British) model III, IV or 160, 163
Not familiar with the USA brands, Hickok etc, but I'm sure most are good.

Yes, allow some cost for an old tester to be checked, sometimes restored & calibrated ideally - by a valve/tube technician.
Or, look for a fully restored & calibrated one.

Consider how often do you need to install new tubes? Probably not often. Unless you intend to do a lot of tube rolling and/or have a lot of tube devices. Or plan to buy lots of s/h tubes.
OTOH, some tubes can be v costly - if you need popular audiophile types.

Not usually risky testing tubes, providing you follow user manual settings.

And yes, some testers will not test older tube types - eg older 4-pin types like 2A3/300B.

(I have a tester, but it has been in a process of restoration for quite a few years, still not done.)

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Sept 19, 2020 20:11:30 GMT 12 Owen Y said:

Not sure of going prices, but good tube testers are probably not inexpensive.
Check out the price of AVO (British) model III, IV or 160, 163
Not familiar with the USA brands, Hickok etc, but I'm sure most are good.

Yes, allow some cost for an old tester to be checked, sometimes restored & calibrated ideally - by a valve/tube technician.
Or, look for a fully restored & calibrated one.

Consider how often do you need to install new tubes? Probably not often. Unless you intend to do a lot of tube rolling and/or have a lot of tube devices. Or plan to buy lots of s/h tubes.
OTOH, some tubes can be v costly - if you need popular audiophile types.

Not usually risky testing tubes, providing you follow user manual settings.

And yes, some testers will not test older tube types - eg older 4-pin types like 2A3/300B.

(I have a tester, but it has been in a process of restoration for quite a few years, still not done.)

Thanks Owen. Yeah, not that many devices and only a bit of rolling. It might be excessive to own one, but I figured it would be hard to test tubes for matched pairs when running a push pull amp. The skeptic in me wonders whether half the tubes bought are not tested as much as some are sold to be.
I suppose an alternative is to assume they are if new and from a large supplier or manufacturer. Or close enough if from a large nos lot.
It doesn't make a for a lot of financial sense to own one. Have you ever heard a push pull amp that has poorly matching tubes though? I dunno on that one.

'Matching' tubes can mean a few things - eg. matched plate current (ie quiescent or static current), or 'transconductance' (a measure of how the tube reacts dynamically to input voltage.

I can depend on your amp circuit & what the tube is doing in that cct, what parameters may be useful to be close matching.

With a power amp, it may depend on how the power tubes are 'biased' (ie individually or not, if 'automatically' biased...) - whether it is important or not to match either Plate Current or Transconductance. eg. What is you amp?

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

I run an AVO Mk2 & love it. Its an amazing old machine a bit like driving the Tardis to use. I am learning all he time how to get the best out of it. A great way to spend a Saturday morning ;-)

Thanks Owen. Food for thought.

To be honest, I thought it would be fun.
I will have to look at which testers can test the tubes I have in my amps.

Have listened to a couple of YouTube videos so far and will keep doing a bit of research. It might be a pipe dream. If a bit expensive and a waste of resources.

You're still rocking tubes Beeman? I thought you'd given up.

I looked at getting a tube tester a while back but flagged the idea as even old ones are expensive and often in need of work. IIRC they need calibrating as well ? For what I wanted it was an unnecessary expense.

Yep Chilli still have tubes in the system. Valvet Soulshine currently has JJ ECC90 gold pins (the only maker of this tube currently) & Telefunken ECC802s. The Denon Nippon Columbia phonostage uses 12AY7 currently GE blackplates. MingDa headamp has Telefunken EL84 & RCA 7025 in it at the moment. I have a reasonable collection of radio tubes as well if anyone is after anything unusual.