83 safety rules

[Tomatito]

I'm getting a pair of 83 mercury vapour rectifiers by mail next week and was wondering if these safety measurements I found on the forum also apply to the 83:

>Let the tubes stand upright for a week or so before applying filament power.

>And KEEP them upright or start over! <(Oops, no upside down testing ?)

>Run the tubes on filaments only for a couple days before >applying B+ for the first time.

Any thoughts and / or additions would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

Martin

[Colt45]

thats way overkill.. just run them filament only, for maybe half an hour, and give them a tap or two..

considering a lot of tube testers run a #83 in them, sideways, and people never let them heat up long enough before testing, i'd say it's a lot tougher than people give it credit for.

[Tomatito]

Thanks. The firm that I ordered the 83's from send me a 9-page booklet with a lot of skulls and crossbones and dire warnings.
But it still means I won't be able to flip the amps over for testing ?

cheers

Martin

[Duo]

I have a couple of tube testers with 83's in them. The 83 is always horizontally oriented and it works fine.

[SHiFTY]

I was testing a couple of 83s that I had with a dummy load on the bench, they do have a pretty glow! Unfortunately they were worn out I'm going to the world of diodes now

You only have to heat them for a few seconds before applying the voltage. I let them warm up for about 20 minutes the first time, but that was overkill. You see the vapour condensing on the inside of the cold glass pretty quickly, in normal use ~10 seconds would be enough.

I think the dire warnings are probably more applicable to the big MV rctifiers, the 83 only has a tiny amount in it. It looks identical to a 5Z3/5U4 internally BTW.

You should be able to flip that amp for testing as long as everything is warmed up!

Also they don't have any trouble with small cap loads either, you can use up to 10uF apparently.

[EC8010]

I don't have a data sheet for an 83, but the Ediswan 866 is probably pretty similar. It says that on first operation it is essential to run the filament for 15 minutes before applying anode voltage. Thereafter, only 60s is required before applying anode volts.

I would be very nervous about turning it upside down and operating it, unless I went through the 15 minute procedure.