What's the most reliable TV ever made in history?
 

Just curious, what's the most reliable TV ever made in history? Name a brand, model, and year.

A pre-75 Zenith chromacolor II is by far the best looking and most reliable set IMHO.

Any 74' 25" Zenith set with 25EC58 chassis.

Here's 1000 words for ya...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...romacolor2.jpg

Ok, I am curious now. What makes those Zeniths so good? Was it reliability only, or was the picture that good too?

yes.

What about RCA, or was Zenith the best at that time?

ABSOLUTELY a Zenith. Mine is a '72 with a 25DC56 chassis. Been through a house fire, 2 severe earthquakes, been dropped, and it still is used every day, 7 days a week.

Chassis is bronze-plated steel, and the cabinet is also steel. Even the back is steel! And the parts inside as much as the people who assembled the set in Chicago are all USA-made.

Charles

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...en25EC58z1.jpg

Charles,

After all that we've heard about this set, nice to see a picture! :thmbsp:

...An' what a GREAT picture it is, too ! <grin>

Spoke with a TV repairman, and he thinks Sony Trinitrons from the 80s were the most reliable TVs ever made in history. Who second that? He said Zenith Chromocolors from the 70s were okay, but not great.

no nope you all are wrong . the most reliable sets ever made are the ones.











that were hardley ever used . sorry i couldnt help this one

I hate to be the guy who craps on the birthday cake, but after looking at your post history, it seems like they're all related to "who did x best", which tends to be flame bait... That; and it would seem you have unreal knowledge of Orion sets!?! You've also said:

By your history, this is the ONLY forum you've ever posted in.

Is there a point behind this question, or did you just wait for a few replies to disagree?

Pioneer SDP5053 projection 1991
if it wasn't for C177 leaking, these sets would never need repairs.

I know everyone jumped on the "Zenith Chromacolor!!!" bandwagon, but frankly, there's no possible one answer to this question, or even a manufacturer name. I tend to agree with Carmine that this type of question tends to lead to "religious wars," though I really don't think that was the original poster's intent.

As for a semi-serious answer to the question, it'd probably be any number of mass-produced 12" B&W solid-state portables from the 1970's and 80's. I mean, have you ever encountered a *non-working* 12" solid-state B&W set? (aside from physical damage, of course) Those things were so "commoditized" and such a mature technology by the late-1970's that it was getting pretty hard for an established manufacturer to screw up one of those, and the designs were so conservative that they couldn't help but be reasonably reliable. [One exception I can think of though were those wacky high-end Zenith B&W portables from the 80's that had pushbutton digital tuning; seems like a good percentage of the ones I've seen appeared to have some sort of tuner problem.]

Then again, by the 1980's, 12" B&W sets were quickly becoming "disposable" TVs, so if one had developed any kind of serious defect it'd probably have been tossed in the trash, thus removing it from the "available pool" of TV sets today.

The only real problem I have seen on the 12" b/w's is weak CRT's on some. Some like early-mid 80's Magnavox seemed to have short lived CRT's, although the chassis would work fine.
The Zenith Chromacolors seem to have among the best performance and CRT's but I have seen a fair amount of problems in the modules and in the single knob varactor tuners.

I would imigaine that there would be as many opinions as there are AK'ers. I never cared much for Zenith, and didn't find them any more reliable than any other brand overall. I never liked the orange red of the picture. That being said I think you could find some good sets in any major brand. I have wondered what the set would be if you could combine the best of all manufactures designs. Use only the highest quality parts and build it with the highest craftsmanship. ( no it wouldn't be a Zenith, or any other known brand for that mater) :)

Bill R.

This thread brings to mind the Zenith ad campaign from the seventies (check most any National Geographic from that era). They surveyed TV repairmen and asked questions like which was most reliable, easiest to service, etc. Aside from the winner (always Zenith, of course) the others were unnamed. By looking at the chart you could guess that some guys, probably GE dealers, were answering GE, same with the Sears repairman saying Silvertone, & all the others.

From my experience the solid state Zeniths do very well, as do later seventies solid state RCA's. They were the market leaders for a reason.

Well, to a certian extent you have to define tube-era vs. SS. As far as I'm concerned, tubes and PC boards should never be in the same cabinet, let alone next to each other.

So this pretty much rules out everything in the tube era, EXCEPT Zenith and a few smaller brands like Setchel-Carlson. The very fact that Zenith would stay with point-to-point construction and heavy steel chassis, even into the SS era says (to me at least) that they did not consider their products "throw away". In the pre-television era, even Zenith radios stand out as the most sought-after and valuable. I can only assume they felt that customers would remain loyal and "trade-up" as new styles and features were added (like Space Command), whereas other brands were literally "toast" after a few years of daily service, and not worth repairing.

Bridging the tube-hybrid era, (1969) you have the Chromacolor black matrix tube, which some could argue rivals the brightness/contrast and black-level of a modern-era set.

The SS chassis used in the early/mid 70s aren't a whole lot different than what was used for tube sets, making them quite overbuilt for cooler-running SS modules. This; combined with a black matrix tube, gold-plated tuner contacts, large power transformers, sharpness & black-level controls, and hand-assembly made for one hell of a TV set.

Granted, cost-cutting required for survival in a market full of "dumped" Japanese sets meant they began to lose their quality edge as the 70s wore on, but their products reached their "zenith" just as the television market hit a dry spell of innovation (1975-2000-ish).

Sony is the only real rival to Zenith in my opinion, but only in a timeframe after Zenith's "golden era" in television, 1949-1975, and it should be noted that some of that early Trinitron picture quality owed to their smaller size.

I have an issue of Consumer Reports from '77 (I think) comparing TV sets. It's the usual opinionated drivel about how "you don't need" certain features, or "we don't like the styling" so the article is unremarkable... However there is a side article called "Why nobody is mad at Sony." This article gives some detail on the dumping by Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic, etc. But also talks about how Sony has carved out a niche based on offering a premium product, not cheaper price.

Naturally, the opinion of Consumer Reports is basically "Dumping is great!" It means lower prices, etc.; damage to R&D, manufacturing ability, etc. be damned. So now you can consume more, but your actual income is lower.
Sounds like what our politicans keep telling us, or a page from the Wal-Mart handbook.

FU-CU!!! :finger:

RCA (Thomson) is slowly but surely catching and eliminating the bugs in their TVs; witness that they finally (!) beat the on-board tuner problem by mounting the tuner separately from the main chassis in their newest sets. My 1999 CTC185 has had only one repair (RF port broke off the OB tuner PCB) in seven years; the picture is excellent on cable. This set has a dark-tint CRT and inline phosphors, which both contribute to the TV's excellent picture; I would say it's even better, from a contrast standpoint, than my 11-year-old Zenith Sentry 2, which also has inline phosphors but a gray-faceplate CRT. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that the Zenith actually makes a better picture; I had it on recently to check out a cable problem and could notice the difference between it and my CTC185 instantly. I would guess this could well be because the Zenith has only had four years of active usage at my former residence; I put it in my bedroom and bought the RCA when I moved here seven years ago, so the Zenith has only been used to cross-check when there is a problem with my cable, and only once for about two weeks when the RCA was in for repairs. I turn it on every couple of weeks just to test it, but most of the time it just sits at the end of my dresser, awaiting the day when it replaces the CTC185.

RCA has periodically been sending me letters asking me to renew the service contract on the CTC185 (I just got one in my mail a week or so ago), but I don't feel I want to do it. The set has seven years on it now; I wonder just how wise it would be to take out, say, a three-year service contract on it. By then the TV will have a decade of wear on it and will have been superseded many times over by newer models, most of which, by the time this set reaches the decade mark, will likely have better pictures and so on than this one ever made--even when it was new. Besides, as long as I still have the CTC185 and it works as well as it does now, I won't be in the market for a new FP or SDTV any time soon. Doesn't this bother RCA--that as long as they keep renewing service contracts on aging sets, the TVs' owners will not want to replace them with newer technology such as flat-panel? :scratch2:

I had a Zenith 12" solid-state b&w portable, bought new in 1978, that was still going strong after 22 years; even the CRT was still as bright as when it was new, and that set saw a lot of use when I had it. The only reason I got rid of it was I had no room for three TVs in my small apartment (I brought one color set with me when I moved here and bought a new RCA for the living room). The CRT in the Zenith portable was as strong as ever when I finally pitched the set in 2000; I have a feeling someone must have picked it up when I put it out for the trash, as it was gone the next day. Who knows, maybe someone else in this apartment building is still using it in a bedroom, etc.

As far as weak CRTs in 12" b&w televisions of any make are concerned, I have never seen the tube go weak in any 12" portable I have ever owned in my life, and I've had several. I guess it depends (or depended, years ago) on the make of TV involved and how much the set is used. (I had two Zenith 13" color portables that still made excellent pictures after 20 years of daily use.) Every 12" set I've ever had (except the Zenith SS b&w) has eventually gone bad from defects having nothing to do with the CRT, but then again you are in the repair business and more than likely see more TV sets in one day, many of which may have weak or outright defective CRTs, than I see in six months or more.

It's a darn shame that TVs, especially small portables, are put out for the trash simply due to weak CRTs, when the rest of the set still has lots of life in it, as you said often happens with today's Magnavox (Philips) table models. But it's probably done for reasons of economics. If the repair is going to cost more than the set owner paid originally for the TV, it's really not worth repairing; that is, if the set sold for, say, $60 when new and later (after the manufacturer's warranty expires) develops a service problem such as, for sake of argument, a bad CRT, flyback or other large component, that's going to cost more than that to repair, the set owner will be much better off just to pitch the set and get a new one.

I have to wonder about companies like RCA/Thomson, though. They seem to have beaten the on-board tuner problem in their newest TVs (by mounting the tuner separately from the chassis), but some of their older (1990-98) CRT sets have extremely short-lived tubes. I have a friend whose parents bought an RCA Guide Plus 25" TV in the early 1990s. The CRT in this set went bad after only two years. They bought another 25" Guide Plus set after that, and it still works--some years later--even after falling off a table a couple of years ago. The RCA sets replaced a Zenith System 3 console that lasted some 15 years (the Zenith was made long before GS took over) before it went bad.

Hi all,

My choices for reliability are Zenith roundie era through Chromacolor II. I like early 1970's-early 1980's small screen Sony Trinitron sets. We have a early 1980's Sanyo which hasn't had a service call yet. It's used daily and still has a strong CRT to boot.

I dont know how much weight this will carry but from what I remember and dragged home as a kid through my teen years from the local TV shops the vast majority of junked sets were RCA CTC series with a sprinkle of Admirals, jap sets and some of the then "newer" CM sets. I found a few Zenith sets ranging from early space commands to chromacolor-2s but these were often shadowed by the dumped RCA XL sets and smothered with broken down cabinets from the dead Sylvanias.
At the time I was rather intimidated by the Zenith sets and the hundreds of zapping points sticking up so I stuck with the RCAs, the CTCs were easy for me to drag home in my wagon and I didnt bust off any of the controls like the Zeniths.
Of all the shops I made myself a pest at the majority of sets on the bench or test jig were again the RCA CTC series with a few Mags and Zeniths, the best selling used sets of the early 80s at least around here were RCAs and Zeniths playing a level sales field. I know this because I got paid a buck a set to clean them up from top to bottom, tubes included.

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i always liked the zeniths-great pictures and reasonably easy to fix. they were built like tanks! partial to sylvanias of the hybrid and early solid state era. cut my teeth on those old D chassis s. rca xl 100 s are also very reliable sets and here in columbus, there are still many in use. my job is in basements and a good amount of them have an old rca,zenith, or sylvania.i personally like the d-16 sylvania as my favorite,but the chromacolor zeniths of 72-74 are THE Best sets of all time in my opinion.

My opinion: 1970's- 80's RCA. Especally the RCA consoles.

A 70's- 80's RCA console is big, bulky, heavy, and some of them are rather ugly. However, they just go on and on and on.

Even into the 90's when Zenith TV's took a huge dip in quality, RCA still made some great TV's. I had a Colortrak 2000 TV from 1991, and it had such a good picture that I ran my S video output from the computer to the TV, and I could read even the tiny text. I'd still have it if the screen hadn't gotten gouged.

Right now I have an RCA CTC 187CM3 36 inch TV. It needed some minor repair, but for being 10 years old, it still has an excellant picture!

I worked for a Zenith dealer from 1963 to 1971. The first two years of Zenith Color sets (roundies) get my vote. I had a 63 or 64
(seems like a 27*** chasis) that I got when it was traded in for a 25" and it ran for over 25 years. Never needed any service on the chasis, other than 5 or 6 small tubes. Never changed the picture tube. We serviced all makes. For B&W you could not beat the 21" RCA's built around 1953. As for 60's models of color sets, the early RCA's with pc boards had some that just couldn't take the heat. In my opinion the first Zeniths were overbuilt. Almost like a studio monitor. We had customers that bought those sets and they were rarely serviced in the first 5 or 6 years of ownership. I have a
Z1310 manufactured January 1984 that has never been serviced and is still used for about 1 hour per day.

My RCA CTC 185A7 I mentioned in an earlier post has almost eight years on it; it still makes a very good picture. Only had it repaired once, for a problem with the antenna/cable connector (snapped off the tuner PC board). Other than that, the set hasn't been serviced, and is as stable as anything as far as color settings go (I haven't had to adjust the on-screen color controls for years--the auto-color system in this set is great). I have had absolutely no problems whatsoever with the on-board tuner, probably because the technician who repaired the RF port also resoldered the ground points around the tuner while he was at it. The only other problem with this TV, if you can call it a problem (I don't, because the picture is still as good as the day I bought the set), is that the jungle IC has some kind of defect, as the technician who last serviced the set told me. I don't know if it's in the color control section of the chip or what :dunno: but whatever and wherever it is, it doesn't seem to have much effect on the picture--perhaps because I have used the TV exclusively on cable since it was new (rabbit ears don't work very well in my area, a small town over 30 miles east of Cleveland). The cable signal is probably so strong that the TV's AGC circuitry might be compensating for the fault in the jungle IC.

Philips K11 and K9 chassis sets from the mid 70s are incredibly durable, and many are still working today,

i have yet to see a weak 70s to mid 80s Philips color CRT, even the ones used in railway station monitors and video games will have badly burned screens but strong guns...

Although Im a Zenith man, I grew up in a household of RCA products. We had only one zenith, and it was dads zenith wedge receiver with the stand he bought new back in '75. My parents received a 1974 RCA XL-100 19" mural TV as a wedding gift. It was used until they bought a 1981 RCA Colortrak in an early american console from Polk Brothers here in Chicago. (we bought everything from Polk Bros. untill they went out of business). However, They were cheap and didnt get a remote controlled set.
I might be the last of the generations who had to get up and change the TV channel for mom and dad.

The XL-100 was always being used by my brother until 1997 when he moved out. It only failed once, the circuit breaker failed and would not reset.

The colortrak was used EVERY DAY from 1981-2001 and NEVER had been serviced! My parents friends would talk about new TVs from time to time or it would come up in some other conversation. mom and dad were always proud to claim they had a 20 year old TV with an excellent picture (and it was excellent). Sometimes we'd watch a movie and dad would say "thats one hell of a picture for an 18 year old TV isnt it" That was our family TV and never let us down.

That all changed in the christmas of 2001 when my brother bought an RCA DVD player for my parents. This is when DVD players were really becomming a popular must have item. This move persuaded mom and dad to get a newer and bigger TV. They bought a mitsubishi 50" projection from Douglas TV in Downers Grove.
The mitsu is doing well. Surprisingly the convergence rectifiers havn't failed yet.

Mom and dad gave up on the RCA after that and never mentioned it again. Ive got both of our RCA's. I'll always have those. Great reliable USA made sets!

When I was very small, my parents had a 19" single knob varactor tuner RCA color trak. I think it was a '77 model. It was the one with the MDR regulator module. I remember our old TV man coming out to the house more than once to rujuvenate the CRT. Dad finally had a new CRT installed (this was around '82 or '83). I'ts hard to imagine having the CRT replaced in a 19" non remote TV. That just shows how things have changed over the past 25 years. In around '84, Dad bought a slightly used 19" Magnavox remote set from our TV man for $150. It had either a 19C1 or C2 chassis in it and it lasted until around '96 when the CRT got too weak to watch. I was messing with TV's by that time but didn't have a rejuvenator so the set got tossed. The old RCA that the Magnavox replaced got moved to a bedroom and still worked when we got rid of it in the mid '90's. Out of all the TV's I brought home as a teenager; the Zenith's made during the '70's and earlier seemed to be the best. Even the tube type Zenith's were usually easy to fix and had a good picture when repaired. I also had good luck with the Solid State RCA's from the '70's and '80's. I think my most hated brand of TV was Mitsubishi. I've seen too many of them with MANY leaking capacitors! I guess it's really hard to say what really was most reliable. I think all brands had their share of troubles over the years. Currently, I have a mid '80's 13" KTV (yeah, cheap set) in my bedroom complete with rotary VHF and UHF tuners. That set was a dumpster find and just needed the tuner cleaned. The set looks to have not been previously worked on.

Here's the 13" KTV set and a mid '80's 19" Sony. I've had the Sony 5 or 6 years and all it needed was a rectifier diode, fuse, and resistor replaced in the power supply when I got it. It looked to have been untouched before I worked on it. The KTV was a dumpster find and all it needed was a tuner cleaning. Of course, most people would not want either set because of their age and because one has a rotary tuner. So, that means I'll keep them for my entertainment.

...

Zenith b/w sets from the 60s - mid 70s.

And Sometimes the transistor blows to protect the fuse! :lmao:

that's very true...

what is a jungle IC?

There was justt about the jungle ic... http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=129302

I know :lol:

I read this thread in its entirety before seeing the jungle thread

We say the same thing on our 1982 Zenith, "man, that's still one great picture, as good as the day when we got it." She's showing her age a little but still is a real trooper. We figured by this time, she would have been replaced at least twice over.

For what it's worth, I worked for a TV dealer / repair shop when I was in high school around 1969 or 1970. They were a Zenith shop and were proud of the quality of Zenith sets, but... They also carried Andrea as their "upsell" and they marketed the Andrea sets and genuinely believed as service technicians that the Andreas were the "gold standard" for quality. I do recall carrying many Zeniths back to the shop for service but never an Andrea.

--Dave

Wasn't Andrea descended from F.A.D. Andrea, or "Fada"? My Dad told me he remembered as a boy, using the family's radio that had FADA on the front panel. There was some confusion about what this radio set was. We found the cabinet, having been stored since about the 40s in my aunt's attic. After some research, I determined the cabinet was from a Radiola Super VIII (1924 Superheterodyne) which I am now rebuilding. Now, to figure out what happened to the FAD Andrea...