Expected lifetime of new TV sets

[zenith2134]

I had a '96 RCA 13 inch tv with a ChungWa crt in it. Agreed, it looked very vivid and sharp.

[Jeffhs]

I had two Zenith 13" portable color TVs, one from 1979 and the other from the early eighties, that lasted well over ten years with no service whatsoever (except to repair the detent UHF channel selector on the '79 Zenith L1310C) and were still working when I got rid of them before I moved in 1999. I also had a Zenith 12" b&w solid-state portable TV I bought new in 1978. That set worked, again with no service whatsoever done on it, for 22 years and was still working like new (except for the detented UHF channel selector breaking and jamming the tuner on one station--just my luck, a blank channel in my area [!]) when I got rid of it in 2000. I still have a Zenith SMS1917SG Sentry 2 19" color TV with 13 years on it, absolutely great picture (I swear it's better than the RCA CTC185 in the living room), original CRT, and no service work ever being done on it.

To the poster who mentioned "Chungwa" branded CRTs: If I were a betting man (I'm not), I'd bet those tubes were rebadged and actually were Zenith, Moto (Motorola), RCA, or some other well-known brand. Whatever they were, it seems to me as if the one in your TV was made to perform extremely well and to last. Just goes to show that not all products from Japan, China, Korea, et al. are junk.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

To the poster who mentioned "Chungwa" branded CRTs: If I were a betting man (I'm not), I'd bet those tubes were rebadged and actually were Zenith, Moto (Motorola), RCA, or some other well-known brand. Whatever they were, it seems to me as if the one in your TV was made to perform extremely well and to last. Just goes to show that not all products from Japan, China, Korea, et al. are junk.

Chungwa is a Taiwanese manufacturer and has made all of their CRT picture tubes. They are not rebadged.

[Kiwick]

Orion also made good 13" CRTs

the most unreliable set i have EVER worked on is a 1989 Loewe 32 inch console, it first came with a bad flyback, then i think it bounced back like 10 times in a year, everytime with a different, nasty fault, then the CRT developed a short and the whole thing went to the landfill.

another dog was a 1988 36 inch Grundig console, but this one had a lot of problems due to previous bad repairs.

some mid 80s Philips sets with FST tubes had a very reliable chassis (the System4) but the CRTs got poor focusing early in their life.

[Phil Nelson]

Yesterday our town held its semiannual recycling event. It's illegal here to throw TVs, computers, or other electronics in the garbage, so you have to pay a fee to recycle them. I brought an SUV load of stuff, including an old computer and a trashed Sears color TV.

At the TV area, there were an amazing number of late-model TVs. They stacked them about five high and three wide on a pallet, shrink-wrapped it, and loaded the pallets into a semi trailer with a forklift. There must have been a couple of hundred TVs in that trailer, and this was only halfway through the day. There were several ginormous projection TVs waiting to be loaded, too.

Phil Nelson

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

There must have been a couple of hundred TVs in that trailer,

Probably all that will be shipped to one of those recycling sites in India or China. Where they don't worry about toxic waste getting into their environment or their kids...

[superdeez]

Agreed that the late 70s and 80s sets are some of the best in terms of reliability.

I am still amazed at my old RCA 12" B&W portable. The set was manufactured in December, 1983, was used in my nursery, it became "mine" when I was about 7 or 8 and of course, I used to like to play with it (turning it on-off-on-off, etc.) it's been dropped at least once (a light fall from my bed when my mother was moving furnature, I think she might have wanted to break it...), moved around all over the place, blah, blah, blah and it still works like a charm...with no service whatsoever ever having been performed during its entire 23 year lifespan. Plus too, it was my daily watcher from...when I began watching TV until about a year ago.

Unfortunately, the old beast is beginning to show its age. That picture tube is dying an ugly death. It's still fully functional though. I see no reason why, with a new tube it wouldn't work another 20+ years.

[radotvguy]

most 80s tvs are pretty reliable actually . As far as old tube sets , well they are nice to tinker with and watch a old movie on now and then but i dont use them as daily watchers . Modern tvs are built cheap however the prices on flat screens have come down a lot and you do get several years out of them before they break down , then there is a newer set out there and the average consumer just throws the old set up and buys the newest thing on the market. Except for warrenty work i dont see much of anyone getting tvs fixed . My friend out in Greensburg PA has been a tv repairman for 45 years and he rairly gets a set in for repair unless its a warrenty repair .

[Adam]

Well it finally happened, I saw one of them new flat TVs on the curb. It was an Akai LCD set, not a small one either. I have no interest in these sets so I just walked past it. But it didn't stay there for long, after I got only about a block away I looked back and saw a couple of guys picking it up.

Currently my sets range from 1946-1970, and I just have no interest in sets from the 90s and up, I like some sets from the 70s and 80s but the cheaper cabinets from that era tend to put me off of those sets. With already 25 or so sets in a 1 bedroom apt., I decided to lay off the later model sets just to conserve space for the earlier stuff I like better. But someday if I get more space I might get back into the 70s sets, or if I ever find one of those 4-tube Zeniths with SC in a nice classy real wood console. With all us old tv guys saving them, I bet in 10-20 years from now there will be more sets left around from the 40s, 50s, and 60s than the 70s-today.

[sgtrob]

Yeah, I also went to the local dump here, to dispose of an old fridge, when I decided to snoop around the TV area. Most of the sets were of the 1992-01 era for some reason. I was amazed, because they didn't look that old. I did see something that caught my eye, it was an early 1970's 25" Motorola Quasar hybrid console. After talking to the attendant at the landfill, I convinced him to let me have the tubes out of it, since they were gonna crush it anyway. So, I got a free 6LF6, and two other tubes out of it. this tv appeared to have only 3 tubes, wierd.

[mbates14]

I just tossed out a wooden table top 1980s hitachi. had the removable saftey glass in the front, and the remote popped out from the front panel board.

It worked up until the CRT got so weak it wasnt watchable.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by mbates14

It worked up until the CRT got so weak it wasnt watchable.

Not that it would matter, but I've upped the heater voltage to brighten the CRT when it got weak. Many sets of that vintage use a couple of turns of wire around the flyback transformer core to get heater power, and I added an extra turn or 2 to get more voltage to drive the heater. That might get you another 6 months out of a daily watcher.

[MRX37]

Modern day Magnavox TV's are junk.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by MRX37

Modern day Magnavox TV's are junk.

You got that right. Very cheap made. The only modern one's that I've had much luck with were the LO1.1U chassis sets. Those had some electrolytic caps in the horiz. driver circuit that would fail and take out the HOT. There are also a couple of other transistors in the horiz. drive circuit that fail. In fact, you can buy a kit with all of these parts in it.

I had recent 27" Magnavox flat screen that blew fuses due to a shorted degaussing coil. I just salvaged a coil from a junk set.

I believe many of the later model Magnavox sets are rebranded Funai, especially the smaller screen sets.

[andy]

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