I have a RCA CTC-44A Chassis TV - from 1970 - french provincial cabinet - how many of you use your vintage solid state tvs regularly? Would like to use more, but am afraid that something will go out that is a proprietary part, and it will no longer work. Is this belief founded or should I use it as much as I want? Thoughts/ideas? Many thanks.

I would say it depends on what you want the old set for. If you just want it as a display piece, it wouldn´t really matter as long as it looks good. If you want to have it as a historical item, i think it does best in working condition. Personally, i would turn it on for a couple of hours at least every second week. If you want to use it as your main set? Well, why not? If so, it might be a good idea to keep a little stock of spare parts, like flybacks, power supplys and tubes (if any). It is also a good idea to replace all electrolytic caps and the resistors that has visible "wear" (heat damage, the outside coating flakes off), and to check all soldering joints, specially on the hot places (big resistors, output stages, flyback etc.).
I have some old Philips sets in almost daily use, and i rarely have problems. However, some electronics knowledge, some test equipment and last, but not least, the schematics/wiring diagrams for your TV(s) is always nice to have.

When our vintage sets were new, they were used everyday. A console TV was likely the main set in the house an probably got the most use. Many smaller sets got fewer hours in bedroom or portable use.

I have found when properly restored, these sets are about as reliable as they were when new, maybe even more so when failure prone components like paper capacitors and selenium rectifiers are replaced. I fix up all my sets with the intent on using them. I generally prefer to collect common models as they are easier to get parts for. Having a junker chassis as spares for your favorite vintage set is not a bad idea either.

Use and enjoy them. If it breaks, then you get the fun of fixing it up again. Try to acquire spares like CRTs, flybacks, etc. before you need them.

I have a pile of sets; there are some in the collection that work fine but haven't been turned on in years. I know that's not good for them, but there aren't enough things on TV worth watching.

This set should be fairly durable. Am I right that it is an updated CTC-40? I know of a couple solid state RCA consoles from that era that were still in regular (and reliable) use earlier this decade, and may still be for all I know.

Unless it's something of historical significance, there's nothing to lose apart from time and money if something does fail. Most of these TVs will last as long as someone is willing to maintain them, but we've got a limited life span. We might as well enjoy them. I can't recall having a single major failure with any of my vintage sets. The way we baby them, they will probably last forever. Before we got them, they were usually run until they died. Even then, most of the TVs I find still have good CRTs, and flybacks.

I watch vintage sets for daily use. I dont own a "new" TV. Im watching CATV here and its good enough.

From experience, Ive had very few major breakdowns since Ive been using these sets. As mentioned, when we (tv collectors) obtain them, they are gone over and recapped as necessary. I do not recap lytics if the ESR is good. Ive never had one go bad on me as a daily watcher. Thats not to say that it wont happen, but if they test good they seem to hold up well for years. I automatically change non-mylar type caps. You dont really see wax caps too much after about 1960-62 vintage TVs.

I watch a zenith 12A12C52 chassis color set every day. Its from 1970 and has been holding up well. Before I put that set into everyday use, it was a 1969 zenith 16Z7C50 chassis color. That was used for about 3 consistent years.
I only took it out of service to change things up a bit.

Ive only had one trouble in 3 years with that set, the remote control failed to operate one day. Turns out to have been an open rectifier diode in the space command chassis power supply. Not too bad for 3 years. I guess I had to expect something to fail. The space command chassis is always live if the set is plugged. otherwise the set was trouble free and always powered up with a great picture.

Ive had many other sets used as daily watchers before the two mentioned above. All of the sets Ive used in the past to present have been good reliable sets for long periods of time, even tube faults were a rare occurance.

In my opinion, the CTC-44 should be a set you can turn on and watch right off the bat without touching a thing. Component quality is very good in that chassis. IF the CRT is good, the set will last for years.

When I finished restoring my 1965 Zenith Roundie (Chassis 25MC33), I was reluctant to use it for more than an hour or so at a time. This is my first color roundie and I wasn't sure what to expect. In the almost five months since its restoration, It has been working great and is steadily gaining my trust. When new these sets were run almost all day, every day. We forget that as we meticulously restore and care for these vintage treasures. Fix them well, treat them well and enjoy every minute of it.

I would say it depends on what you want the old set for. If you just want it as a display piece, it wouldn´t really matter as long as it looks good. If you want to have it as a historical item, i think it does best in working condition. Personally, i would turn it on for a couple of hours at least every second week. If you want to use it as your main set? Well, why not? If so, it might be a good idea to keep a little stock of spare parts, like flybacks, power supplys and tubes (if any). It is also a good idea to replace all electrolytic caps and the resistors that has visible "wear" (heat damage, the outside coating flakes off), and to check all soldering joints, specially on the hot places (big resistors, output stages, flyback etc.).
I have some old Philips sets in almost daily use, and i rarely have problems. However, some electronics knowledge, some test equipment and last, but not least, the schematics/wiring diagrams for your TV(s) is always nice to have.

I have a 1976 Philips K11 color set as a daily watcher since 1995 and the only problem i had with it was a sudden loss of convergence in early 2003, due to a few broken solder joints

I also have some other 70s Philips color sets, with K11, K9, KT1, KT2, KT3 and KM2 chassis, and they are all very reliable, i have yet to see an original early 70s to mid 80s Philips CRT with a weak gun... the ones used in arcade games or railway monitors may have severe phosphor burns but strong guns...

Instead, their K12 modular chassis did have severe reliability problems due to the placement of high power circuits like E-W correction on plug in modules, their slots would fail and fry over time... but they're easy to fix... just hard wire the fried connections from the power modules to the motherboard...

Another mod i'd like do advise on a digitally tuned K12 chassis is the replacement of the memory backup battery with a 5.5v 0,47F supercapacitor, to avoid corrosion damage to the control module due to the backup battery getting leaky.

I'd say at least 10 minutes every couple months to keep the electrolytics good. If the set has been totally recapped, including electrolytics, in the last 20 years, then once a year is fine at a minimum. Every day is fine too, but then you're putting time on the flyback, and other stuff that doesn't get problematic with nonuse. So it's a happy balance if you use them once in awhile but not all the time. Just my opinion...

Charles