• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

DC Heater Voltage

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Bengali

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Joined 2006
#1
Hi,

when using DC voltages for heaters, if the tube calls for 6.3V for the heaters, what is the lowest DC voltage you can use?

I've read using a lower voltage helps increasing life of the tube.
I've read some post saying using lower voltages is not good for the tube.

Is there any performance hit by using DC heaters at 5.8-6V?

thanks.
 
#2
On my projects, I try to stay within +/- 5% of the specified heater voltage of the tube. Most tube data specifies 5% variation.

Though, I have read favorable articles about starved heater and also read articles about how bad for the tubes are lower voltage heaters. 🙄
 
#3
You can starve the filament up to a point, but you should reduce cathode current as well since you will not be emitting as many electrons from the cathode. Depleting the space charge can damage the cathode on oxide coated cathodes. How will you know when you've reached the point where you are causing more harm than good?

Radiotron Design Handbook talks about this. It is available online.
 
#4
thanks for your replies.

too bad you can't search the text for that book online.

so I guess the question is how low of a DC voltage can you go before damage occurs.

+/-5% is sound. by going lower, would the damage be drastic or over a long period of time?
 
#7
I've seen a commercial mic pre that had 11.85v across a 12ax7's full heater, DC. Sounded good. I've also run 8v tubes in 6.7v sockets, with the result that they wore out after about 2 years (still pretty good, but the hours weren't that high...now they crackle...probably damaged the cathode...they were $1...oh well).
 
#8
My fisher puts 11V across 12ax7 filaments. Again, the currents in these tubes are very low IIRC, well below the tubes max cathode current.

I think that Broskie's blog post is highly misleading. We have next to no information about the data he posts. Were tubes operated near max cathode current? Has Broskie ever tried it?(He implies that he hasn't in the post.)

There is a magic point where the voltage reduction starts to cause more harm than good. I wouldn't push the envelope with expensive tubes.

I'm using a volt. reg. hence the voltage drop.
Click to expand...

So am I, but correctly spec'd transformers are cheap enough.
 
#9
He says he has been running them at 6VDC for years, never any issues. I'll trust his experience on this one.

I'm working with what parts I have for now. Should I later go all out, then might as well spec it to the correct voltage.

btw, can large filter caps (>6800uF) on the heater supply cause thumps during turn off or that is strictly related to the +B voltage?

Thanks.
 
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