How long do miller engineering signs usually last?
Thanks
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Oldest one I have been running everyday for 4 1/2 years
My first "Stan's Diner" two sided sign arrived in 2010 and is still working!
What a coincidence. While running the trains today, I noticed that my sandpiper lounge sign stopped flashing the red sandpiper name. I thought maybe the button reset, but nope, something blew and the rest of the sign works but not this part. I have 14 Miller signs and this was the first to go. It’s about 4 years old. The rest have performed flawlessly. Aside from this one, I had one other that didn’t work right out of the box (Pabst blue ribbon). I called miller engineering and they shipped me a replacement. Great service and I think a pretty good product, my one out of 14 nothwithstanding.
I have five and they work great. (3 years old?)
The biggest factor IMHO is how often you disconnect the sign from the plug-in female part. I know this by personal experience and by being told that by Chris himself.
Having only a Christmas time layout I obviously have to store everything for the off season. Since most of the signs are not free-standing I had to unplug the sign for storage. In about 4 years time of the 10 signs that I had, 5 had to be replaced, one of then twice so that's kinda like 6 of 10. Chris and I had a good conversation at York and when he learned that I was unplugging them he said that was most likely the reason that the signs were failing.
That was 10 years ago or so.
Since then I have found ways to store every sign WITHOUT unplugging it from its base. I have not had a single failure since then.
- walt
Has anyone tried a carbon conductive pen (about $10) on the tabs to try and restore conductivity ?
According to Chris, besides the plug in part possibly getting scratched or the material wearing away, a very common reason for failures is that the microscopic wires, or whatever they are, leading from the tab up to the sign can get broken by bending the tab inserting it. I don't know if Chris' shop can even discern which happened.
Like I said above, it's been a long time since Chris and I spoke so my memory on the topic is somewhat faded in details.
- walt
