It’s easy to make the assumption that consoles won’t last as long as they used to. But you’d be wrong. There’s a whole lot of staying power in our consoles, even our smallest one, the Air-1. “It’s a false economy to assume that console manufacturers took the longevity out of the control surface because there’s no audio on the board (it is now in the network), at least from a Wheatstone perspective,” said Brad Harrison, citing that the first generation of Wheatstone consoles is still in existence well over 10 years later.
Which means you’re not off the hook as far as maintenance goes. Fortunately, very little maintenance is required of today’s consoles. Of course, you’ll want to clean the faders occasionally. Here’s a good tutorial for cleaning faders by Penny & Giles distributor and expert Dale Manquen.
We also recommend you keep fans free of dust.
One of the main differences between the old analog consoles of yore and the newer digital consoles is the use of a microprocessor and a fan to cool it and keep the microprocessor from overheating. Fans that sit on top of these microprocessors are very small, and it doesn’t take a lot of dust to clog them up. “Periodically, once every six months or at least once a year, pull the master panel that’s sitting above the processor and if nothing else, inspect the microprocessor and clean the fan,” advised Harrison.
It’s not a bad idea to also proactively replace microprocessor fans every three to four years, which should add years of uninterrupted serviceability to your console(s).