Leaving AV equipment ON all the time.

[highfihoney]

i had some krell amps that i was afraid to even leave the room while they were powered up but with most gear i turn it on when i come home & turn it off at bed time.

with solid state gear ive never heard any benifit from leaving it powered up,now tube gear is a different story & sounds like crap when its cold.

 

[Johnd]

You seem to be saying that if you have 2 similar incanecent light bulbs, one that is turned on/off every 100 hours and one that is turned on/off every 10 seconds; that they will have the same total hours of on time. I'm not going to do the test, but I urge you to.

I like your sense of humor corey. When the minutia becomes excruciatingly non-productive, one is best investing his time in more worthwhile adventures. Again, why do something if there is no empirical evidence of an advantage? highfihoney's example of tubes is correct...but most of us do not own 40 year old equipment, or McIntosh. Sweet setup by the way.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

One of the main theories supporting leaving electronics on is that the expansion and contraction from heating and cooling cycles is what causes failure.

Personally, as I said above, I don't worry about it with most of my electronics but I have always left my PC's on 24/7 and I have never had a failure of any kind. I have hard drives that have been running non stop for nearly 10 years and still work fine. Whether it prolongs the life or not, I set my antivirus and defrag programs to run at night when they won't bug me.

Coincidentally, two hard drives that were in a secondary computer that was turned on and off often died within 2 years and the motherboard went bad not long after.

Well contrast that to the only computer I ever had a hard drive fail on was one that I left on all the time. I have neve had a hard drive fail on any computer that I shut off or put to sleep and let the drives spin down. Never.

I do tech support for a large chain of speciltity stores in most US malls and we have hard drives fail on a contsant basis; several a week. They are on all the time. If your going to leave your computer on all the time then put it to sleep and set it so the drives spin down. Spinning drives get hot, heat causes the failures.

 

[Hi Ho]

Spinning drives get hot, heat causes the failures.

With adequate cooling, that should not be a problem. Also, the expansion and contraction from cooling off and heating up causes problems. It's sort of a double edged sword.

The brand/model of the hard drive itself makes a difference as well. All of the major hard drive manufacturers have had good and bad models. The only ones I use are Western Digital, Seagate, and Maxtor. I have never, ever had one fail. Hitatchi/IBM's Deskstar (Deathstar) line was terrible. I had two of those drives and they both failed. I wouldn't by drives from Hitatchi, Samsung, or Fujitsu today. Though my oldest and longest lasting hard drive is a Fujitsu, their newer models are nothing like the older ones.

There have been big debates on this topic at the PCmech Forums. A search will bring up many threads. Opinions are generally split down the middle.

 

[Jedi2016]

It depends on how long I'm not going to be using it.

If I turn my HT on, it usually stays on all day, until I go to bed that night. The only time I'll turn it off before then is if I know I'm going to be out of the house for a number of hours, then I'll turn off the TV, but usually leave the rest of it on. Unless I don't think I'll be turning it back on at all that day, then I'll shut it all down.

The only part of it that stays on constantly is the subwoofer. Everything else is remote-controlled, I just don't feel like turning it on and off every time is all, since I'd actually have to walk over and push the button.

That'll probably have to change once I upgrade my TV, unless I stick with CRT when I go hi-def. If I get a DLP, then I'll probably start turning it off if I won't be using it for any length of time. Mainly because it's got moving parts, and there's the bulb-life issue.

Which raises another question... turning a light bulb on and off can cause it more stress than simply leaving it on. Do DFP bulbs suffer from this as well? Would it actually shorten it's life by turning it on and off several times a day? Would it be better to simply leave it on, turning it off only when I'm asleep or at work?

 

[mtrycrafts]

Which raises another question... turning a light bulb on and off can cause it more stress than simply leaving it on. Do DFP bulbs suffer from this as well? Would it actually shorten it's life by turning it on and off several times a day? Would it be better to simply leave it on, turning it off only when I'm asleep or at work?

Well, I have seen a research on this many years ago.
Bulbs have a lifetime when it is on all the time. That may be how they are rated, not sure. When you turn it on and off, yes, you decrease the hours on it, but, there is a big BUT there.
A 3000hr bulb will run for 125 days. You turn it off and on every 12 hrs. Perhaps the life is reduced to 2800 hrs; however, that will last 233 days instead of 125 days. and it goes on from here. While the life hours are reduced by an X factor, the number of days it will last will increase.
This is not to mention the wasted cost of electricity. And when this is done universally by millions, you are talking a huge load on the system.

 

[Hi Ho]

Which raises another question... turning a light bulb on and off can cause it more stress than simply leaving it on. Do DFP bulbs suffer from this as well? Would it actually shorten it's life by turning it on and off several times a day? Would it be better to simply leave it on, turning it off only when I'm asleep or at work?

Turning the bulbs in front/rear projection TV's on and off multiple times in a relatively short period of time can shorten the bulb life significantly.

The general rule is, if you are going to use it again within 1 hour, leave it on.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Well as much as 400Mhz can do.

~Chuck

No wonder it still works It isn't working that hard to begin with

 

[Jedi2016]

Well, I have seen a research on this many years ago.
Bulbs have a lifetime when it is on all the time. That may be how they are rated, not sure. When you turn it on and off, yes, you decrease the hours on it, but, there is a big BUT there.
A 3000hr bulb will run for 125 days. You turn it off and on every 12 hrs. Perhaps the life is reduced to 2800 hrs; however, that will last 233 days instead of 125 days. and it goes on from here. While the life hours are reduced by an X factor, the number of days it will last will increase.

Very good point, I didn't think of it from that perspective. That by turning it off for two hours, it's actually less "life reductive" overall than leaving it on for those two hours. Thanks for the feedback, good post.

 

[GarrettMaster1]

I have spent quite a few years on computers but only a few in the whole audio wing but I can tell you this: although it may not be moving it could still wear out.

Most every electronic device has an electronic switch insdie it known as an SCR. (silicon-controlled rectifier) It basically acts as an internal switch when a small amount of power passes through it. I have seen these wear out due to constant on and off switching. As mentioned by another user in this thread, the circuit board also experiences the wrath of heating and cooling (the metal joints such as the solder joints etc).

As far as the moving devices here's my spin on that

Take a hard drive for example. The brushings inside the motor experience heavy shock and load when beginning to turn the plates to their respective RPMs. If you own a power drill you can literally see what I am talking about at the field brush section of the motor when turning it on.


However... I still turn my audio amps and speakers off when not in use


-GarrettMaster

 

[Pyrrho]

I've been wondering what people think about this. Do you leave all of you AV equipment ON when not using it? Or do you close it?

Is there advantages or inconvenients for both ?

Thanks

Eric

This again? I shut everything off. Leaving it on wastes power, and provides no advantage. Also, in the event of a problem with the power line, having it on will more likely result in damage to the equipment, though with something severe like a direct lightning strike at your house, you should expect pretty much anything that is plugged in to be destroyed whether it is on or not.