TVs that never got turned off.

[wkand]

The old Kingdome in Seattle had a bunch of old Conrac B/W monitors in the aisles for viewing game highlights, etc. Many of them were in use from 1976 through the 'domes demise in 1999. Not 24 X 7 but heavy use nonetheless. The concession stands had Zenith color TV's, 1976 vintage, to view games while in line for a Kingbeer. They were in pretty sad shape (out of focus images, convergrence gone forever) when the dome closed, but they still worked. Likewise Sea-Tac airport had B/W monitors for flight info from 1973 through a major remodel in the main terminal in the early 2000's. Those WERE on 24 X 7. No idea how much service any of those sets received over their lifespans, but a pretty amazing service record.

[eberts]

I was on a service call in a nursing home, the main tv in the 'recreation" room needed a vertical height adjustment. The room was packed with residents. An old guy sitting next to the tv told me the set had been playing for 8 years 24 hours a day since he has been there.
I unplugged the TV, there was a gasp from every one in the room, then 12 elderly members slumped to the floor and died.

[sampson159]

sylvania d 16 console.played for over 12 years,24-7.great set that never failed.the crt still looked like new when it was finally put in storage.my brother pulled it out a couple years ago and gave it a try.no high voltage.the dreaded ho tube socket.he cleaned it with de-oxit and siliconed the tube into place.bammmm!set came on with just as good of a picture that it ever had.this was a set was purchased new from sun tv by my dad in 1972.another one of his excursions after working 2 shifts and no sleep.my dad would decide he wanted something new and he would go saturday morning after coming home from work.he walked in,told the sales rep,"this will be easy.show me the best set you have".when it was delivered,it was turned on and never turned off.never beed repaired,but i have cleaned the tuner more than a few times.

[jstout66]

One set I remember being on ALL day was the CTC-31 tabletop 23" in my grandparents liquor store. They had a back-room with a recliner and couch, and grandma's sewing machine. That set got turned on Monday thru Saturday 7am-Midninght form 1967-1968 to 1981. It went thru 2 picture tubes and 2 flybacks. (my Uncle was a TV repairman) and when grandpa got a used 23" Chromacolor 2 to replace the CTC-31, that set stayed on the same time till the late 90's. The RCA even got sold used in my Uncles store when they got the Zenith as it was stilll working. I think grandpa got sick of putting in the 8 zillion 6GH8A's that sucker would go thru.

[ChrisW6ATV]

I work in the ultimate location for TVs that never get turned off: An airport!

Black-and-white CRTs last much longer than color ones in this job. There are a number of B&W monitors that were installed in 1979 that are still in use, though most of their CRTs are not nearly as sharp as when new. Of course, image burn-in is epidemic on CRTs that display fixed-position white characters on a black background.

Sony Trinitrons have been widely used in airports, and their biggest problem is/was loss of one color before the others. Early Sony sets needed regular gray-scale setup to keep proper colors (or for B&W display use); later models had auto-tracking circuits that worked well until the CRTs themselves went bad as described above. Some non-Sony sets actually have held their colors much better going on 10 years.

I know of one B&W monitor that was still in use as of less than a year ago, that is from probably the mid-1970's, and its CRT is in pretty nice shape (other than burns).

[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.

[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!

[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.

[zenith2134]

...Also.. wa2ise,,, i recall you mentioning that job before..And I must ask, do you think there exists today any firm which makes x-ray prints from crt like you describe? Seems like a novel way to do it...i'd love to see an operation like that in real life.!