RCA cataract removal
 

I'm doing an experiment on RCA cataract removal. I took the 25XP22 out of my CTC-40 tonight and replaced it with a Sylvania 23VAJP22 rebuilt tube. It looks really good in the set. I put the cataracted tube in the bathtub with water. I've seen videos where people put them in water, and after a while, the cataract fell right off. I'll report back with my findings.

YMMV...Mine sure did! I had the same tube out of a CTC-25 it sat in water for about 2-3 months. All that happened was the mounting hardware rusted.

I have no idea what YMMV means. I had to use the mounting hardware to mount the Sylvania CRT, so no problem there.

YMMV=Your Mileage May Vary.....Google is good for acronyms and text message style gibberish.

The water never did a thing to loosen the glue on mine....All it did was invade where the glue had always been bad...

Interesting. In the video I watched, the entire piece of PVA came off in a big sheet even where it had not delaminated yet. Maybe you didn't let it sit long enough. It was an RCA tube identical to mine.

How did you get a 23" picture tube to fit into a 25" TV? :scratch2:

25XP22 is a 23" tube.

I thought the first two digits of the picture tube number indicated the size of the tube? e.g. 25xxxxx meant it was a 25" picture tube and 23xxxxx meant it was a 23" picture tube and 19xxxxxx meant it was a 19" picture tube.

That's correct. Before ~1970, manufacturers lied about the size. The government made them tell the truth.

In about 1970 or so the Federal Trade Commission came up with a ruling that said the advertised size must match the VIEWABLE part of the picture tube and not the overall diagonal measurement of the face. This cut down the size of a 25" to 23". After the change 25xxxx became 23Vxxx. Later, bigger tubes came out that were 25Vxxx. The "V" is the key!

TUD1, you type quicker than I do!

The PVA (adhesive) seamed to vary a lot, and I guess it's condition after all these years matters, too. I first discovered water would work when I dug out an old RCA round tube that I'd left sitting out in the woods for a number of years. The PVA had turned to jelly. I did one in a kiddie pool and it worked after 2-3 weeks, though still took some prodding. Others haven't responded nearly so well, especially the green type used by Zenith and others.

23V=25" tube. You have a 23VAJP22, never seen a 23AJP22, just the 23VAJP22 and a 25AJP22.....

23VAL/VATP22 were standard tubes in the 80s to replace the 25AP/XP22 CRTs.

By current FTC standards a 25XP22 is a 23 inch crt as in 23VAJP22. The "V" is to show current standard of viewable area. All the best, Tom.J

IIRC the government put the viewable area law in place in 1968.

I've put that tube in for the longest time I'd heard used. It belonged to a client so I could only wait so long.

Zenith CRTs can be done cool, safe, and reliably by cutting the soft glue with a guitar string....I'll take a dozen Zenith cat removal jobs over one RCA any day.

Is the screen cover usually glass or plastic on these sets? I've honestly never seen one in person. I know they're bonded with clear... adhesive or whatever, but that's it lol