[radiotvnut]

Not a roundie, not a 4 tube hybrid, not a CCII, not even an early system 3, but a stinking lower end Zenith 25" console from '85. It actually belonged to someone who knows my neighbor who watched it from '85 until 2008 without a single service call. I'd say he was lucky, since this set uses the dreaded 9-181 main module and 9-186 sweep module. If there are any '80's/'90's TV repairmen reading this; you know exactly the chassis I'm talking about.

The owner claimed that the set got to the point where it took a long time to fire up. Maybe 2 minutes, maybe 2 hours, then it finally died completely. When I turned it on, it came up instantly with a lousy picture and lines at the top of the screen. I replaced a 100 uf cap in the vertical circuit and rejuvenated the CRT. I also resoldered the two big stand up power resistors on the 9-181 module. It now has a decent picture; but, who knows for how long? IMHO, the best picture Zenith's were the chromacolors, the early system 3's (9-160 and 9-153 based sets), and the very early 9-181/186 sets with the tri-focus tube.

Let me know if you want to see a picture of this TV. It's nothing special. Just a remote set with a green LED channel display and a lot of empty space inside it's particleboard and plastic cabinet.

Oh, I saved the best for last. The guy got 23 years out of this set without trouble. The 40something inch Magnavox LCD that he paid over a grand for only lasted 10 months before it started showing it's true colors. He still had to pay labor charges to get it fixed as the labor portion of the warranty expired after 90 days. Isn't that some crap? He told me that he bought a Magnavox because it was such an old company and he thought he'd get good service out of the set. I explained to him that names didn't mean anything anymore and the original Magnavox company has not been around in decades.