When the fee rate is low https://mempool.space/

Also, when you do deposit Bitcoin into it, make it a decent sized wallet amount ($100 or something) and then swap out with https://fixedfloat.com/ or something if you don't actually want that much in there. This will make sure your channel is a decent size for inbound liquidity.

Don't forget to check out blixt as well if you don't mind fiddling with settings and things.

Is not about WHEN but about HOW...

For Phoenix I would suggest the following scenario:

Phoenix is opening a channel slightly bigger than what are you depositing, I could say with a 10% more. With the new version v0.2.0 that comes with the new LN feature splicing. That means from now on you will not have to deal anymore with lots of new small channels for each payment received.

If there’s not enough inbound liquidity, Phoenix will increase the size of your initial channel, but that will still imply an onchain fee. You can setup that fee anyways in Phoenix settings.

So I suggest to start using Phoenix with a big channel, like 1-3-5M sats. Your commit fees will be insignificant comparing with the size of the channel and will not affect you too much. Also instead of paying 4 times (or whatever many times you deposit small amounts) min 3000 sats fees, you will pay only once.

If you start spending from that channel, do not spend it all, because Phoenix will close it. If you leave some sats in the channel and make another refill from another LN wallet / source, with an amount bigger than you channel capacity, Phoenix will resize the channel and you will pay an extra fee. If you receive less than channel capacity, will be no fees involved.

So try to size your initial channel capacity to your personal needs for spending. Spend and replace in the limits of the channel will not occur anymore fees and the experience using this wallet app will be smooth.

For each payment you are doing, this wallet is using quite high fees, compared with other nodes. Yes, somehow they have to cover their expenses and support the dev team. Nothing is for free in this world.

This wallet also have integrated swaps onchain ←→ LN channels, so you could practically use it as a personal swap, you could pay instantly onchain with your LN funds and vice versa.

It is very good option for newbies, that just started with LN and don’t know too much about a node management, but still could have a self custody of their funds. Even if you lose your mobile device, you can use the seed words and recover your funds in an Electrum wallet or on another mobile device with Phoenix.

Read more about other private LN nodes here: https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/private-lightning-nodes And here a comparison guide about almost all LN wallets: https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/lightning-wallets-comparison