The working characteristics of the hydrogen thyratron and the optimization effect of the potential equalization treatment are investigated experimentally. The experiments show that the heating voltage has great influence on the working characteristics of hydrogen thyratron, on the premise of no self-discharge phenomenon, using higher heating voltage can obtain better conduction performance. The differences of trigger pulses and anode voltages have little effect on the conduction performance of hydrogen thyratron. Using resistors to equalize the voltage of hydrogen thyratron can make the voltage distribution more uniform and alleviate the phenomenon of self-discharge. The research provides reference and guidance for the use of hydrogen thyratron.