TVs that never got turned off.

[dieseljeep]

Menards was using Zenith 25A11 color table models as displays showing department personel names. As we all well know after 2 years of 18 hours per day, you can imagine what they looked like. Totally sick.

[PioneerGuy75]

Originally Posted by freakaftr8

Another few sets werew those Funai "Magnavox" 19" TV/VCR/DVD combo sets that were made in the mid 2000's. Pieces of crap!!! The loaders would go south rendering the whole set useless as it went to shutdown after the click,click,click a million times. Those were placed in a special needs home that I used to work at. The guys there used them all day and night. There were 4 of these sets and one still works. The others rendered the ill fated doom of the vcr loader failure.

I have one of those seeing daily use and still going strong 10 years later!!

[stevensmtih1]

it's always been pretty amazing how much use some tv's got and still kept going. We had a neighbor that took a used TV from me and ran it 24-7 for a few years

[bgadow]

We were in a Ruby Tuesday the other day and while they have LCD's above the bar, around the sides are still banks of Panasonic CRT sets. The pictures are definately looking a little washed out, and most of them have pincushion issues. A few minutes worth of adjustments could have all of them looking a lot better, I'm sure.

[old_coot88]

At this moment I'm watching a 9" B&W monitor that's been in use 24/7 since Oct. 1993, nearly eighteen years. It was bought from Radio Shack as their very first surveillance system offering, under 'Safe House' brand. The camera is vidicon based and the tube is still good, and the CRT in the monitor is still healthy. I've only had to replace the power diodes and a few electrolytics over the years. Quite a track record for a RS item.
Bill(oc)

[TerrySmith]

I just turned down a late '90's Mitsubishi big screen. And, their standard CRT sets of the '90's had the same cap trouble. In fact, I will no longer fool with any late '80's or newer Mitsubishi TV.

In January 2010 we got a new Mitsubishi 60" DLP TV. It has a stunning picture! When it was about a week or so out of warranty it would power up to the welcome screen and shut down. I opened it up and found out that there's hardly anything in there! Pulled the power supply board and you can see another victim of lead-free solder, a bad joint at the inverter board connector. I redid a bunch of dodgy solder joints, reinstalled and same thing. The fix ended up being a programming error so a re-flash from the Mitsu web site. And all electrolytic caps I could see were Nichicon, so maybe I won't have any cap problems!

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by freakaftr8

Another few sets werew those Funai "Magnavox" 19" TV/VCR/DVD combo sets that were made in the mid 2000's. Pieces of crap!!! The loaders would go south rendering the whole set useless as it went to shutdown after the click,click,click a million times..

Actually pretty easy fixes. I've done a ton of them, many still in warranty too, and I had to guarantee "my" work that it wouldn't break again within a reasonable time. Surprizingly few ever came back to haunt me.

[zenith2134]

Remember this thread?!
continuing on, I've been running a couple of sets heavily since this past june or july. Mainly the Philco 19" portable b&w s.s. This set dates from 1978 and I'm not sure who built it. says GTE. I basically play it to death as an experiment. garage attic, 14awg extension cord, snow. has gotta be six months of 24-7 by now..factor in the extreme temp's and this is kind of impressive. Note-this t.v. uses vacuum-type diodes on the crt socketboard. odd. for '78 from what I've seen.

also, my 'shop' tv which consists of an ATSC converter box and an '83 G.E. chassis type A.C. 13" ... crt looks like it was just installed.

[old_coot88]

The 9" monitor mentioned in post# 20 is still going, but the camera's vidicon tube is getting weak and will no longer do low light. So it's only good for daylight hours now. If the system lasts till October, it'll be nineteen years. I have a new all-SS wireless system alongside it now. Wonder how long it will last.
Kinda sad to see the old soldier fading.

[wa2ise]

back in 1979 I used to work for a stupid little company that built "cameras" intended to transfer video images from CAT scanners to Xray film. We used mostly 9 inch B&W monitors inside a box that also had a lens and Xray film holder. The monitor CRTs were usually blanked off, but likely ran 24/7. I wasn't there long enough to know how long they lasted.

[zenith2134]

How does the lifespan of a CRT change under blanking anyway? What if you took two identical sets and had one on a fully white scene for maximum beam current & one totally blanked. It would seem the crt ran at full white would lose cathode emission sooner but what about the rest of the set?(let's assume solid state)

[ctc17]

I have a feeling most of the cathode degradation is burnoff from the heater. The old round crts were almost white hot where the newer crts were a dull orange.
The later BW crts seemed to last for ever. Im sure they have a hour life rating...30-50k hours??
I would be suprised if a round color crt was good for even 10k hours.

Once they start going they go fast. I have worked on monitors on equiptment that start getting dim so i turn the screen up ever month and they fade out and go fast. Thats what the life test is all about on the tube tester

[old_coot88]

The CRT in my 19 year old monitor is still nice and bright. All the issues are with the camera, which has also developed ringing "jailhouse bars' halfway across the image due to drying-up electrolytics. It'd be worth fixing if it weren't for the vidicon going weak. But it's still good in daylight because the 'bars' are blanked out.

[andy]

...

[zenith2134]

hey Andy. Sadly this data is hard to find(specific c.r.t. lifespan estimates) Furthermore, I'd never 'torture' valuable or collectible sets in this fashion, so it's always the cheapies...Which always have oddball crt numbers.
I was in the shed today and that b/w set is still chugging along. The picture still looks great with a converter box...
I have another set here that gets heavy use although not 24-7...the 13" color 'Xam' with Toshiba Blackstripe crt #370AUB22 from 1976. The brightness and color fidelity suggest that it was hardly ever used when I obtained it.
Use it for various 'video experiments' including UHF DX(which is lackluster these days) and I.T.C. with a Sony Handycam hi-8 and a vhs deck acting as an rf modulator.
That xam set, if I intend to use it again in the same day, is put on channel 4 (where 3 is the nominal channel) so as to blank the raster completely. It gets rather warm in blanking which is why I asked about the behaviour of H.V. in this state. I maintain line voltage at 117VAC with a Bendix isolation tx.