How to store vacume tubes

I have some new and old tubes... Been having some fun tube rolling.

So I have an extra quad of new KT88 tubes, Some 12AT7 tubes and 2 different Rect. tubes GZ34 and GZ33...

I have these in a cool corner of my basement in a well padded box... the basement is kept dry.

How do you store your tubes and why? Just curious if I'm missing something

In the freezer right next to my cache of Kodachrome 25 Sounds like you need an extra pair of Mark IIIs to store your KT-88s in. Like any other soldered component I would keep them in a maintained environment to avoid solder reflow, corrosion or temperature cycling. I use a drawer in my music system stand. Neither basement nor u-store-it would be high on my list of preferred locations.

I'd gladly take those MIII's off your hands! I saw your threads on those. Nice work.

I actually was thinking the freezer... I didn't see much on this on the net. Seems like a sound idea but I have not done this.. I thought the spot is dry and the temp constant. I have a chest freezer in the basement with room. I dun know.

Seems like a crazzzy idea for some reason to box em up and freeze em. I have the tubes in the basement and that worked fine for a MN winter... Now with the warming the humidity is not cool....

At the risk of stating the obvious, store tubes in the original packaging and put them in a drawer or something similar.

mantha3 wrote:I'd gladly take those MIII's off your hands! I saw your threads on those. Nice work.

I actually was thinking the freezer... I didn't see much on this on the net. Seems like a sound idea but I have not done this.. I thought the spot is dry and the temp constant. I have a chest freezer in the basement with room. I dun know.

Seems like a crazzzy idea for some reason to box em up and freeze em. I have the tubes in the basement and that worked fine for a MN winter... Now with the warming the humidity is not cool....

Restoring those Mark IIIs was fun and rewarding. I'd actually never heard Mark IIIs before I got mine running. Have you seen that several tube vendors are offering cryogenically treated tubes? Of course you'd need something a bit colder than a chest freezer!

Captain Coconut wrote:

Captain Coconut

on Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:20 pmAt the risk of stating the obvious, store tubes in the original packaging and put them in a drawer or something similar.

Ok, probably a pointless post.. I was just thinking I needed to get my tubes out of the basement (humidity) for the Summer. Box em up and put them in a closet on a shelf or something.

I have seen the cryogenically treated tubes for sale. Prices are unreal! I don't see me buying em. I was wondering if these are just a creative way to dbl the charge for an otherwise expensive NOS tube. I dun know.

Getting them out of a humid environment is probably not a bad idea. I live in a very humid climate and store my tubes in bubble wrap and in the box they came in. I just leave them on an unoccupied part of a shelf next to my LP's. No deleterious effects yet.

As far as cryo'd tubes go, I have always been suspicious of tweaks that reputedly take upwards of 720 hours of burn-in to sound their best. However some swear by cryogenically treating almost anything. "It's my party and I'll cryo if I want to" as the song goes.

Storing tubes in a freezer is not a good idea. Yes, the freezer is a low humidity zone, but what happens when the power goes out and that unused Thanksgiving supermarket freebie turkey decides to melt down onto your KT-88's while you're on vacation? Keep in their original boxes in a solid, crush-proof environment (I use an old trunk) and if your worried about moisture, add silica gel packets or even a chemical dehumidifier tub, available at hardware stores. And I have a quad of Electro-Harmonix EL-34's that were cryo'd that I paid $15 extra for the treatment. I have compared them to identical tubes that were not cryo'd, and there is a difference. The treated tubes have a more focused sound and their midrange and treble response is more liquid and warm. The cryo'd tubes sound more like SED El-34's, and less like EH. I'm very pleased with them and I have many types of power tubes at my disposal. Also, their burn in time was approx 40 hours until I stopped noticing changes in tone. 750 hours is probably at least half the viable life of a modern power tube.

I live in Calgary, Alberta and humidity is definitely not a problem so I keep my tubes in the original boxes (so I can remember what they are, which is a problem) within a computer desk compartment. That is a very good place for me since my wife can't open the drawer and take me to task about how much I've spent on my audio hobby.

Disles1 wrote:I live in Calgary, Alberta and humidity is definitely not a problem so I keep my tubes in the original boxes (so I can remember what they are, which is a problem) within a computer desk compartment. That is a very good place for me since my wife can't open the drawer and take me to task about how much I've spent on my audio hobby.

Humidity is not a problem in Alberta, but putting good hockey teams on the ice seems to be. Ooops, same problem in Ontario. I take that back!

Go Canucks!!!

Nice!

Where do you store you tubes? Some place your wife won't find em!

The 3 Prices we pay:
1 - The price we paid for something
2 - The price you told your wife you paid for something
3 - The price you pay when you wife finds out how much you really paid for something

Go Minn. Wild

That last price is the costliest.