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CARELESSNESS

#61
I never said I left my stuff on. Haha These are the kinds of endlessly trivial things I find useless to even think about let alone stress over. As is much of the subject matter discussed here daily. I'm too busy gigging to worry about these things. YMMV
The guy who owns the studio was changing his lightbulbs to LED the other day too, to save on the bill. lol Go figure.
 
#63
About the only way your amp can get damaged from leaving it on is if there happens to be a thunderstorm and lightning hits the power lines near your house. Of course that is powerful enough to fry equipment which is switched off or even burn your house down.

It's a very slim chance, but lightning did hit our house when I was a kid in the 70's. No fire, but it fried our TV and actually welded the channel knob in place.

In case of storms I recommend unplugging anything that you can't easily replace.
 
#64
24 hours. hahahah!

I forgot to turn off my TC electronic 208 combo and left the house for a 4 month vacation.

I checked it last month, the house didnt catch on fire and it still works like brand new. Electricity bill didnt climb up much either.
 
#65
2tonic said:
Damage????
Less than zero, more than none.
I have personally installed power amps in industrial settings (such as machining centers, Mcintosh amps are famous for this) where they operate 24/7 for decades on end.
You have no worries.
None. :)
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I am familiar with a paging rack for a large office building loaded with Lab Gruppen power amps that has been on and operating 24x7 for around 3 decades.

I about 1970, at a great jam session with some local heroes as well as female hangers on, large quantities of blood pollutants were ingested and several of the people "fell asleep" with the gear on. Mainly Showmans, B25B's, V4's and such. All was well the next day. Fortunately I think the youth of today are wiser and more self controlled.
 
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#69
countrybass5 said:
Thank you all for your replies. I didn't write this to be silly, I was really shook. I know it sounded stupid,but I can't replace my Carvin equipment. I was afraid it would have overheated and wrecked something. I have used Carvin equipment exclusively for many years. I'm glad I don't have to worry about this.
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I'm not a tech or an electrical guru, so take this for what its worth. But I've heard that with many electrical items that its not the time "on" that stresses the connections, etc.......its the number of times it cycles from on to off. If such a premise is true, leaving an amp on for the entire weekend would be less damaging than turning it on and off several times in that span.
 
#70
charlie monroe said:
I'm curious. Is this actually true? I didn't think that a solid state amp that wasn't passing any signal would have a dead draw, but now I'm not so sure.
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If the head is warm then that heat came from electricity. How much the draw is will most likely be very small but there will be at least something.

Many power amps in theaters and industrial installations get left on 24/7.
 
#72
I left a solid-state amp on by accident before I went on a 5-day business trip. Came home and the amp was just fine. Only damage was to the electric bill, which was about $5 higher than it usually was for that month.
 
#75
There is ageing associated with the amp operating andvthere is ageing associated with cycling on and off. Both contribute to the overall lifespan of the amp. It's different for every amp (and every component inside the amp).

For example, with a tube amp, if the tubes are designed for 10,000 hours continuous operation, each power up/down cycle might count as 1.5 hours towards that total. The numbers may be different for racy part inside the amp.
 
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#76
I used to play in a rehearsal room where the PA and amps were supplied. The guy who owned it swore that the temperature change when turning an amp on and off would crack the solder in the circuit boards. He left all his PA and amps on ALL THE TIME! :wideyed:

Personally I thought that was a tad ridiculous, but all his gear worked for years.
 
#78
A number of years ago when I had my Peavey Classic 400, I put it into standby mode in order to let the eight 6550WE tubes cool down at the end of a rehearsal. Unfortunately I got distracted and left without turning the amp off. It remained on until I returned a week later. No harm was done and I never had any problems with it after that. Now I always make sure my amp (Class D) is turned off when I've finished using it.

TD
 

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