[drh4683]

Ive always been curious about this myself. I go to estate sales on saterday mornings for about the last 5 years. About 90% of the sets I find have been tucked away in a basement untouched. Its very rare that I run across a tube set that still plugged in, still attached to the outdoor antenna and in the livingroom with no other TVs around it. Those sets were never used though. Ive found a number of sets like this and when I pull the back off to check things out, almost all of the original tube are in place and the sets were hardly ever if not at all serviced. I suspected either a different room was used for TV viewing, or the people just didnt watch that much.
I have seen some zenith b/w portable sets that appeared to have heavy use and still in the kitchen yet they still work. As for color sets, Id say all of them have been retired. Ive never seen a color set with tons of hours and capable of producing an acceptable picture on the spot.
I see many homes with chomacolor II's still in daily use, hooked upto a VCR etc. in the living room, same for a system 3's from the early 80's. but not tube or hybrid sets. Ive talked to a few guys in the TV repair business for a profession and they all have told me that they havn't seen a tube set in for service since the early 90's. Id say that time was the VERY end of tube sets in daily use. You talk to most guys in the TV business and you hear about tube color sets being junked by the dozen at TV shops back in the mid 80's. I talked to one TV guy and he told me the only tube type color TV that he would service back in the late 80's were zenith sets, but it had to alteast have the solid state IF. Solid state IF's in zeniths took place starting in '69 for all chassis. If it was a tube type IF, the set was considered too old and suggested that the set be replaced.
When I was a kid, I found many tube type color sets at the curb and at the resale shop back in the early to mid 90's. This atleast tells me the set were *probably* being used up until that time when I found them. Most had high hours and had somekind of problems that needed attention.