At this site I recall reading a comment in regard to grid leakage not possible with a rectifier tube. I just tested a 35W4 which registered grid leakage.
The emmisions and short test registered good.
Is the tube good and the grid leakage reading should be ignored?
Or, should the tube be replaced?
Thank you for any guidance on this issue.
Greg

35W4 has no grid. it is a rectifier.

What tester are you using? There should be a section in the instructions about testing rectifiers. You can have H-K (heater to cathode) leakage in this tube.

Sencore TC162

Does the tube work in an actual radio? (This test trumps most tube testers)

To understand how a tester might give a reading like that, we'd need to study the schematic and do some reverse engineering. Probably easier to ignore it.....

Yes, the 35W4 does work in the radio.
However, because I am not sure as to the overall quality of the tube I pulled it and replaced it with a new 35W4. I will keep the 35W4 with the Grid Leakage until I can determine why it registered grid leakage.
Thanks for the responses.

The 35W4 has no grid, hence grid leakage is impossible.

Chances are you are getting a reading from the heater tap in the tube. The chart in the tube tester might say somewhere that such indications are to be ignored.

Try testing the new tube. If it shows the same "grid leakage" when tested the same way, it's probably just the heater tap. On the other hand, if the new tube has no leakage when tested the same way, there may be some kind of crud between the pins of the "faulty" tube, internally or externally, that is causing the reading.

The new 35W4 tube that I tested did not show grid leakage.

This seems like a very likely explanation......

Sencore testers are notorious for having a sensitive leakage test. I will typically "wash" the base of tubes that indicate leakage with alcohol, acetone, or even a shot of automotive brake cleaner (outside!). I do not use soap. Soaps can act as a surfactant and cause leakage.
Hint: I especially try to avoid getting soap residue on CRT tubes and high voltage circuits.

I don't think so, I think it's the H-K leakage it is showing. Take a 100K resistor and place one end in the pin 7 (cathode) socket and probe the other to the heater pins 4,6 or 3. Of course you set up the tester for 35W4 with no tube inserted. You will see the leakage show up. You can try higher value resistors to see how sensitive the leakage test is on this tester. Does it use a neon light, eye tube or meter to indicate the leakage?

You may be right, but it does not say much for the tester if H-K leakage shows up as grid leakage!

I checked the small but thick book that came with the testor and there was no mention about rectifier tubes.

The book didn't mention it because you shouldn't be running the grid leakage test on that type of tube, just shorts and emission. You might have a very slight H-K leakage, too small to register on the shorts test. I think your tubes are fine.

Dave Wise

I don't have access to the manual but what Dave says makes sense. No grid in the tube means there would be no grid leakage test to perform. I would study the manual further.

Thanks everyone for the input to my issue.
Greg