What's the best way to store an old color TV ?
 

Currently, I have had to store my prized RCA CTC 5 and CT 100 color TV's in a climate controlled storage unit. They have not been used in years. Do I need to apply some voltage to them, through a variac, to maintain them or just leave them alone?:scratch2:

Robert

I would bring them up slowly on the variac at least once a year to keep the electrolytic caps formed. How many years have they been sitting? You may be lucky being as they have been stored in a climate controlled space.

They have not been plugged in for about 8 to 10 years. Both sets were in my condo up until the last two years.

Robert

I would check the ESR on those 'lytics before powering up. It would be a shame to damage those sets.

Absolutely THE most important thing to do when you store anything is not to forget to retrieve them in a timely manner. I "lost" a Motorola 19CK1, an RCA CTC-5 Special table model, and an RCA CTC-7B Sanford, all with good CRT's, by not getting them out of a building where they were stored before the building was sold. I would visit them, if I knew which landfill they are in. I hate myself for this.:tears:
Kevin

Send 'em to me. I'll love 'em, pet 'em, play w/'em, 'n' call 'em "George'...(grin)

I'd cry too:tears: Especially that Motorola. Oh, man.

Quoted for truth...Those Motorolas are like in "Hen's Teeth" category...

It's the opinion of several collectors with engineering background that the 15GP22 does well with a constant 3 volts applied while in storage. I believe in that, since my best CT-100 had a modification whereby when the power was off, a DPDT relay would swap the power from the TV to a small 3 volt filament transformer, which backfed the CRT filaments. Sadly, that's the set that was lost in the 1988 fire. But the tube was the best emission I've ever seen, and others have said they've been very successful at preserving 15GP22s that way.

Otherwise, definitely Variac stored TVs up once a year at least, and preferably every 6 months. If once a month, you can probably get away with firing them up directly (no Variac), but it's still wise to use a Variac, or at least connect through an AC ammeter, and watch to see that the current draw doesn't start climbing after the set is warmed up (leaking filters or other problems will start drawing more current).

Charles

I buy that too, kx250rider, since a lot of old sets which have been in storage seem to brighten up after a few hours of running, as if the CRT starts to die without seeing voltage for so long.

I think humidity is one of the most important weather-related things to avoid when storing old electronics. The attic in my garage isn't temperature controlled and gets damp in the summer, and weird things have happened to gear I stored up there. :thumbsdn:

Thanks for the great advice. Both TV's are really nice sets and want to take good care of them.

Thanks,
Robert

OK, gently powering up good, working sets occasionally seems to be a given. What about the environment in which they're being stored. And for unrestored sets? This could be a really important discussion. Perhaps there's already a consensus, but frankly I've never given it much thought. Most of this stuff used to be such low-value items it wasn't a big deal. Now maybe I'm beginning to worry a bit.

I used to have many of my sets on display in my office and in my house, but right now most of them are stashed away. Some are in the garage, some are in climate controlled storage and many are in storage being exposed to the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter. I've always kept sets in the garage or similar environment going back over twenty years now and they never did seem to suffer much if at all. I can't say I've noticed any ill effects to anything other than once some direct water damage due to a leaky roof and one time a mouse infestation.

Any "war stories" on the subject?

Thanks,
--Dave


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Okay, I would NEVER do this today :nono:, but back when my first CT-100 found me, circa 1963, I built myself a 12 X 12-ft. 'cube' inside a small unheated, uninsulated attic in the family's summer home at Barnegat, NJ. With only one window allowed in the cube, and insulation on all four sides and the ceiling, my cube was easy to electrically heat and cool, winter or summer, on a single 15A circuit. Apparently with nothing better to do, I dismantled my CT-100 and built it into one wall of my cube, complete with a hinged wall below the CRT bezel to access setup controls.

That put the chassis and 15GP22 out in the unheated part of the attic. In the summer it could hit over 100 deg F and well below freezing in the winter. :nono: Ouch.

I had a fan blowing on the CTC2 chassis in the summer, but in the winter there were three distinct temperature gradients on that 15GP22: ROOM temperature on the faceplate (there was no safety glass), FRIGID-unheated attic air on the funnel, and red-hot FILAMENT in the neck. That had to be some serious stress on that old, soft, lead glass, that Harold Law never designed for!

Other than 1X2B focus-rectifier and 6BC7 DC-restorer filament burnouts, that set kept on chucking for two years in that wall. But sometime during the year after reassembling the set in its cabinet, the 15G started some 4th-of-July sparkling in the neck when I tried to power it up :tears:. There's no rot on the phosphor, so that tube will be my candidate for rebuild someday... :thmbsp:

And just for old times sake, today my restored CTC2 chassis is populated with those two 'new' tubes :D.

Pete

A TV set will stand up to a remarkable amount of abuse. A few years ago I was given a couple pickup loads of sets, all hybrid-era stuff. I was told they were stored in a shed and pictured a typical building with a 4 walls, a roof and a floor. The actual building was an old farm shed with no front and a dirt floor. Most have rust on the chassis, many quite heavy. Plastic cabinets are faded, as is the aluminum trim. Many are crusted with dirt from sinking into the 'floor'. Most of the sets work, at least to some degree, though none will ever be anywhere near mint again.

I have often told the story of the crt in my CTC-15; it sat outside, in the woods, face down for about 10 years or more. Aside from losing the aquadag and some minor pin corrosion, the crt is fine...beautiful picture.

I think the biggest issue would be humidity control. Moisture, besides causing rust, accelerates the deterioration of capacitors, coils, etc., finishes of course, and seems to be one of the contributors to cataracts on bonded tubes.

I remember touring a CRT rebuilding operation in Carteret NJ years ago. I was surprised (and amused) by the fellow's method of "inventory storage" for rebuildable color tubes: face down on the lawn! There they sat until he needed one.

--Dave