Beware of this money-saving tip: Here’s how you could permanently damage your TV

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Especially in times of inflation, energy crisis or corona pandemic, we are always looking for good tips to save money in the household. But be careful with this tip because it could cost you even more!

Whether saving on heating by preventing drafts or looking at offers in the supermarket, saving has long been a topic, and above all, there are many tricks for saving electricity. But with this tip, especially TV owners should pay attention. Should you leave the TV’s standby mode on or turn it off when it is connected to a power strip?

These devices could be damaged.
As Chip reports, some TVs don’t tolerate this power drain well. These include “expensive OLED TVs,” because “anyone who simply disconnects the OLED TV from the power after a TV session risks permanently damaging the device. Specifically, this means that over time, the picture can burn in.” Why?

These OLED TVs run “refresh programs” at certain intervals to prevent this “burn-in” effect. This program is started “after about four to six hours of operation about 15 minutes after switching off,” as Chip further reports. The online magazine tested how long such a process took and came to the following conclusion:

We tested this in the test lab with two OLED TVs from LG and Philips: The care program lasted 12 to 15 minutes for both models. The TVs drew 36 watts to 47 watts in the process. So it would be best to wait a while before disconnecting an OLED TV from the mains. If you don’t pay attention, you risk damaging the panel over time.
Wait a few minutes
So it’s clear: Before you flip the switch and thus turn off the standby mode, it’s not good for the TV. The chip concludes that it would not always be worthwhile to withdraw power from the TV for cost reasons.

“If you still feel better about it, you should do this with an OLED TV after about an hour at the earliest,” is a tip. “And at most, if operation is paused for a longer period of time, for example because people are going on vacation, it doesn’t hurt to disconnect the TV from the power supply.”