Hours is okay, if it works.
The bigger the database the more complex it will be to implement schema change while keeping track of transactions that happen while your are transitioning. However I see no reason why it shouldn't be feasible given proper amount of preparation. And if short downtime is a goal I don't see why a proper amount of time developing a solution wouldn't make it either.
And on top of that PostgreSQL community is implementing new way to solve problem with each release. I'm not in a huge live-data use case so I might be wrong, but upcoming logical replication look promising for such use cases https://www.depesz.com/2017/02/07/waiting-for-postgresql-10-....