# Heathkit Tube Tester



## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

I've been offered an old Heathkit tube tester unit from the 50's. It still works, I imagine it is pretty basic though as far as tube testers go. Is this something that would be good for a hobbyist level amp guy to have? Is it a worthwhile acquisition? It will test for shorts and it has a poor/fair/good scale on it for how well the tube is functioning.


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## dcole (Oct 8, 2008)

How much is the other party asking? Do you know which model it is?

These can be fun to play around with and see how things were done many years ago.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

It's better than no tube tester :smile-new:. Just remember a tube tester can only tell you for certain that a tube is bad, tubes that test as good can still be bad in circuit.
But if nothing else, you can use it for comparisons and rough matching of tubes of same type.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

dcole said:


> How much is the other party asking? Do you know which model it is?
> 
> These can be fun to play around with and see how things were done many years ago.


I don't know what model it is, probably the TC-1 or TC-2. A friend of mine is cleaning out his uncles house, noticed it and asked me if I was interested at all. I told him I'd walk barefoot on broken glass for tube tester, so we'll see what becomes of that. It will be a no-money kinda deal. I've got nothing to lose. I'm only risking getting yet another, "wtf now?" look from the missus. 
Fingers crossed.

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jb welder said:


> It's better than no tube tester :smile-new:. Just remember a tube tester can only tell you for certain that a tube is bad, tubes that test as good can still be bad in circuit.
> But if nothing else, you can use it for comparisons and rough matching of tubes of same type.


Better than no tube tester for sure!


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## Alex (Feb 11, 2006)

My father had one in the '70's when he would repair TV's in his spare time. It was a fairly large unit - please take pics.

on a side note, the Orange company (makers of amps) has a tube tester that provides a lot of info including matching tubes. However, it is not free!


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

I bought one of those Heathkit Tube testers. It's like a small suitcase. It's a thermionic tester I believe. You can test uf tubes are good or bad but you can't get actual number ratings for them. You can check dissipation I believe with a gauge. No number readout tho. I use it. It's cool and fun.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

keithb7 said:


> I bought one of those Heathkit Tube testers. It's like a small suitcase. It's a thermionic tester I believe. You can test uf tubes are good or bad but you can't get actual number ratings for them. You can check dissipation I believe with a gauge. No number readout tho. I use it. It's cool and fun.


Yeah, so no good for tube matching but sounds like it will work for basic troubleshooting.

Nothing yet, playing the waiting game


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