zenith-what happened?

[Jeffhs]

I have a Zenith Sentry 2 19" TV that still works every bit as well as the day I got it, as a birthday present in 1995. Still has its original CRT and hasn't had the back off even once; has a great picture. This set was my daily watcher the first four years I had it, then I got a new RCA in 1999 and put the Zenith in my bedroom. The latter doesn't get much use these days except to cross-check when I have trouble with my cable service (and once for about two weeks while the RCA was in for repairs), but I do turn it on every now and then just to make sure it works.

Has anyone else here had (or still have) a Sentry 2, and if so, how well has it worked for you? Judging by all the postings I've seen here regarding the seemingly endless problems with 1990s-vintage Zenith TVs in general, I almost get the feeling I was downright lucky to have gotten a set that has been trouble-free almost 13 years (knock on wood). I also had two Zenith 13" portables that lasted over 20 years, and a small 12" Zenith b&w set that went 22 years with no chassis troubles; the only thing that ever went wrong with the 12" b&w Zenith (and my first 13" Zenith color portable as well) was that the detent mechanism on the UHF tuner broke, jamming the tuner on one channel (as [bad] luck would have it, it jammed on a blank channel in my area.) Other than that, the sets worked perfectly all those years.