UPS required for air pump to avoid permanent damage in case of power failure?

[BillK]

TechDAS is clear that you should never rotate the platter without the air pump engaged as the platter will not be levitated above the glass plate base and may score it, permanently damaging the turntable.

However, if you happen to be playing a record and lose power, the air pump will of course no longer be supplying air as the platter rotates to a halt.

Depending on whether the pressure loss happens faster than it takes for the platter to stop, this could result in the same thing as rotating the platter while the platter is not suspended by the air flow.

Does anyone have thoughts on this? While power outages are not frequent for me, they do occur from time to time for a variety of reasons, and I would hate to have permanent damage to the turntable occur if one did while playing a record.

Thanks in advance!

 

[bryans]

The only way around this would be to have some form of another power source like a UPS. I would reach out to TechDAS and inquire about this scenario. It would be nice if the TechDAS loose power, the TT would come to a nice and easy stop without damaging the base. At this level I would think TechDAS would have explored this.

 

[BillK]

I have but I have not yet heard back.

One would think this consideration has been taken into account, but it’s always possible not every conceivable scenario was foreseen by the engineers.

Still I would hope the belt would help ensure the platter came to a stop before the air pressure suspending the platter could leak off.

 

[BillK]

Update: Bob Graham replied back to my dealer and said the air chambers are sized such that they provide a pressure reserve so the platter can rotate to a stop before the bearing contacts the glass base.

 

[BillK]

Update 2:

Official answer from TechDAS:

The platter is rotating at a very small height from the floating glass (30??) and it is actually not so likely that the platter or the glass would be damaged by a power failure unless it happens often and repeatedly. So we do not suggest using an UPS in particular, but it will be of course good to use an UPS if you want to make double sure.

 

[DonH50]

Nice to know. With that much invested in the TT, I would probably get a cheap UPS as insurance just to give me time to power it off cleanly in the event of a power outage. I have most of my system (all but power amps and subs) on a UPS because we also have fairly frequent power outages and I want time to ride out a short glitch or power things down nicely in the event of a longer outage (we have anywhere from a second or two to hours up to nearly a week a few years ago -- that was painful!) The UPS won't do anything unless power goes out and I would not run it on the UPS, just use it to buy time for a clean shut-down.

 

[BillK]

Yes, in that way it's not unlike connecting a video projector to a UPS to make sure the fan can run to cool the optical block/bulb in case of a power failure.

 

[DonH50]

Yes, in that way it's not unlike connecting a video projector to a UPS to make sure the fan can run to cool the optical block/bulb in case of a power failure.

Exactly! Plus I don't want to think about what the cart and rest of the system is doing when the power glitches...