Does dust on tubes cause bad performance?

[tvtimeisfun]

Hello does dust on tubes cause bad performance? I heard it does I was always told when I worked In tv shops to clean the ubes give me your honest opinion.... Timothy

[JohnHacker1]

I would think that a clean tube would dissipate heat better.
Looks better, too...

[N2IXK]

Dirt on high voltage tubes causes leakage, and leads to arcing.

[bob91343]

In general, it's cosmetic. If you work on a set and clean the tubes, the curious customer will be happy. But dusty tubes smell nice, I think.

[radio63]

Originally Posted by bob91343

But dusty tubes smell nice, I think.

This is one time I wish VK had a "like" button!

[zeno]

The HV rectifire & regulator should be clean to prevent arcing.
It was common to find a set with an inch or two of dust
in them, they went outside & got blown out. If you clean them
be careful not to rub the markings off. We had a few do that
& had to bring the set in for us to figure out were things went.
Also had a helper that cleaned things. Once he cleaned
" all that black crap" off the CRT ! Man did it shine.
I had to pour the boss a drink to calm him down. Next day we
were all laughing about it.........

73 Zeno

[Charlie]

I've seen radios and TV's with lots of dust around the tube pins, and cleaning the dust out improved performance.

[Reece]

And a radio with a dirty variable tuning capacitor can work noisily and erratically.

[zenith2134]

I was having an noise issue on my tube portacolor which came back to a faulty connection at one of the tuner pins. In fact I make a habit of cleaning the pins and sockets out really well any time I test tubes or change them. Keep in mind also, that the sockets are often faulty or include cracked solder points underneath, even if p-t-p wired.