I understand most of them are matsushitas on the inside. Are they generally reliable or junk? I found one in my grandparent's old barn (literally a barn) back over the summer. Once I clean out my garage, im tempted to bring it back to my house and see if she will work. (Note: I have no knowledge of why it was stored in the barn for ~30 years and I lack tv equipment such as CRT testers and the like). Is it worth my time?


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As I recall, they were decent sets.

I recall them often being better than the typical lower level jap sets like sanyo, sampo and soyo? Probably not up with sony , jvc or panasonic?
I think any older set is worth repairing. Especially 70s or older.

I understand most of them are matsushitas on the inside. Are they generally reliable or junk? I found one in my grandparent's old barn (literally a barn) back over the summer. Once I clean out my garage, im tempted to bring it back to my house and see if she will work. (Note: I have no knowledge of why it was stored in the barn for ~30 years and I lack tv equipment such as CRT testers and the like). Is it worth my time?


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Sears TV's built in the 70's were made by Toshiba, Sanyo and Warwick. Sanyo bought out Warwick sometime in the mid-70's, so Warwicks became Sanyos, a good move.
I doubt, Matsushita built much for Sears, as they were too cut-throat, always re-negotiating prices. :thumbsdn:

Barn storage can be really hard on old electronics. I would pop it open to make sure it's not full of mouse nests and corrosion before taking it home.

Generally Speaking the larger sets (mostly consoles 20"+) were Warwick, and the table and portables 17" and under were Japanese, there were some gray areas, and I would not be surprised by exceptions.

I Have 2 working Sears Japanese sets, so I'll say they are not terrible. Both came to me working, but the lytics were going south, and some of the 'paper' caps were getting lousy. One performs well aside from gray-scale drift due to a gun that is getting tired. The other is a bit soft, but decent. Japanese sets seem to have slightly different looking color to their picture (it is like Zenith vs RCA, but more so). Till saturday those were my only 2 Japanese color sets...I just got ~3-5 more Japanese tube color sets in a BIG lot of sets last sat that I plan to play with.

IMHO
In the tube days the Toshibas were best, Warwick second
& Sanyo a close third. None were that great.
SS years the sets improved a LOT but Toshiba best till the 80's.
Sanyo caught up in the 80's. Warwick SS sets were dogs
& everyone hated them, most wouldnt work on them.

So clean out the rat doot & try it. Nothing to loose.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

Generally Speaking the larger sets (mostly consoles 20"+) were Warwick, and the table and portables 17" and under were Japanese, there were some gray areas, and I would not be surprised by exceptions.

I Have 2 working Sears Japanese sets, so I'll say they are not terrible. Both came to me working, but the lytics were going south, and some of the 'paper' caps were getting lousy. One performs well aside from gray-scale drift due to a gun that is getting tired. The other is a bit soft, but decent. Japanese sets seem to have slightly different looking color to their picture (it is like Zenith vs RCA, but more so). Till saturday those were my only 2 Japanese color sets...I just got ~3-5 more Japanese tube color sets in a BIG lot of sets last sat that I plan to play with.

I'll see you guys this Sunday, the 18th. It should be interesting! :thmbsp:

My grandparents had an early '70s sears 25" set that was good. It said silvetone on it. If I remember right they got it around 1972. It had a bright picture with strong color. It lasted about 10 years without any issue. With the exception it would give you an electrical shock sometimes when you touched it at the wrong time. They gave it up because of a tuner issue that would be expensive to fix. The picture became very blurry with lines around the objects on the screen, like it wasn't tuned in.
Before the tuner issue a sears repair man came out to check the set out for adjustments. He took the back off and I could see it had tubes.
Not sure who made this set, On the control side of the set, it had 3 horizontal slider controls at the top. Top was volume, second and third was color and tint. Then the two tuners. just below that were two push buttons side by side. Left one was AFC , Then On/Off.

Thanks for the info guys.My late father had a Sears 25 inch TV from around 1974 that he got alot of time out of it like 12 year before the CRT went on it and he got a Zenith 25 inch Stereo TV in 1986. I got the Sears chassis somewhere here from it.I wish I grab the Zenith before he had the box store cart it away when he got the JVC set in the 1990's.I have a Sears 19 inch hybrid here that I fixed in electronics class in high school.It had a burned out power supp diode and gave it a fresh horizontal output tube . As I remember .I got an A on that for extra credit.As I remember .I think these set were not Japanese made sets as I remember the semiconductors were those idiot USA house numbers and not the common JEDEC 2SA,2SB,2SC and 2SD part numbers.

Thanks for the info guys.My late father had a Sears 25 inch TV from around 1974 that he got alot of time out of it like 12 year before the CRT went on it and he got a Zenith 25 inch Stereo TV in 1986. I got the Sears chassis somewhere here from it.I wish I grab the Zenith before he had the box store cart it away when he got the JVC set in the 1990's.I have a Sears 19 inch hybrid here that I fixed in electronics class in high school.It had a burned out power supp diode and gave it a fresh horizontal output tube . As I remember .I got an A on that for extra credit.As I remember .I think these set were not Japanese made sets as I remember the semiconductors were those idiot USA house numbers and not the common JEDEC 2SA,2SB,2SC and 2SD part numbers.
I think, I have one of those!
It's a Warwick-built set using a slightly different color demod circuit using a 5MK8 and a 12MD8. Also used a 11AF9, video out. Going by memory!
I rather liked those sets.
I bought it from Mark, "Zenithfan" who got it from Doug, so it stayed in the family, so to speak! :D

I think, I have one of those!
It's a Warwick-built set using a slightly different color demod circuit using a 5MK8 and a 12MD8. Also used a 11AF9, video out. Going by memory!
I rather liked those sets.
I bought it from Mark, "Zenithfan" who got it from Doug, so it stayed in the family, so to speak! :D

OK thanks.I cant recall what the tube lineup in the hybrid but it looked like a rats nest in there along with the BS house number transistors in them.

OK thanks.I cant recall what the tube lineup in the hybrid but it looked like a rats nest in there along with the BS house number transistors in them.

It's a well-known that they all did it that way!
RCA, Zenith, Motorola and the rest of them, all had their own private numbered semiconductors used. You had to look up the numbers in the ECG or TCG cross reference manuals, or consult the Sams for the replacement.
Some of the firms used selected devices, like Sony. If a generic replacement was used, the repair wouldn't last. Guess who had to make good on the rework. :sigh:

It's a well-known that they all did it that way!
RCA, Zenith, Motorola and the rest of them, all had their own private numbered semiconductors used. You had to look up the numbers in the ECG or TCG cross reference manuals, or consult the Sams for the replacement.
Some of the firms used selected devices, like Sony. If a generic replacement was used, the repair wouldn't last. Guess who had to make good on the rework. :sigh:

Yes .I know.I'd dealt with those nightmare repairs back in the 1980's and 90's in the shop.Atlease Zenith,RCA ,Sylvania and Magnavox were alittle better.Not to sound anti American but I rather service a Sony,Panasonic,JVC ETC Japanese set or any other set that uses the JEDEC parts.