I was building a circuit using a Texas Instruments TL074 as a comparator, when I noticed some strange behavior. I isolated the chip and tested it with a couple of potentiometers. Basically, when I put two DC voltages on the inputs of one of the op-amps, everything works as expected except for the case where the non-inverting input is taken below about 0.8 V above Vee. Then the output swings high (when I would expect it to be low). Is this behavior common for op-amps, and is it described somewhere on the data sheet?
I don't have a TL071 to test, but I tried the experiment on a TL072 and found the same behavior. I have Vcc at +5V and Vee at -5V.
I know that I'm not supposed to use op-amps as comparators, but that's what I have on hand today.