Good Afternoon.
I am awaiting delivery of my Supernait3 and HiCap DR and was wondering about whether it is advisable to leave the Hi Cap swithced on at all times or whether this shortens the life of the caps by 1000s of hours.
I note the on/off switch on the SN3 is on the rear so if this was on its own the temptaion would be to leave it switched on. The on/off switch on the Hi Cap Dr is on the front so it is easy to operate.
I was just wondering what other owners do?
Thank you.
Roger.
Ideally you’ll want to leave both the SN3 and HiCap powered on most of the time, the exceptions being if you expect to be away for more than a few days or if there’s a thunderstorm in the area.
The caps take a while to reach optimal performance states but usually within about 25-30 minutes it’s where it wants to be.
There is no hard and fast rule in terms of turning the equipment on and off, if you prefer to have them powered down it won’t do them any harm as such but as you have a reasonable surge of current on power up, if you’re doing that daily, over time it will contribute to the wear on the caps and to an extent shorten their potential for optimal performance.
A SN3 and HiCap under normal use and operating conditions should be good for 10-15 years between factory build and a service requirement.
In terms of order for powering on and off, you should always power on the external PSU, the HiCap in your case, first, and power it off last. Try and avoid turning either of them on and off too quickly either. If you have a need to power your system down, wait at least 5-10 minutes before powering it all on again to allow the caps time to discharge and settle to a powered off state.
2 Likes
To emphasise the point Mr M so ably makes above: do not turn off the Hicap without turning off the SN3 first.
1 Like
Thank you both for the information.
So, what’s your conclusion after running three threads in different places? Any wiser? 
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.