Stop appliance genocide

[holmesuser01]

I talked to a friend last night on the phone... He just bought a new flatscreen from the big Wal*Murt.

It's a whopping 42" plasma screen, and he bought it because it was cheap enough to suit him.

I've seen 42" sets around here. I like my 32" CRT set better.

I wonder if any of the manufacturers make a set with high-quality electronics that are backed with a real warranty?

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

I talked to a friend last night on the phone... He just bought a new flatscreen from the big Wal*Murt.

It's a whopping 42" plasma screen, and he bought it because it was cheap enough to suit him.

I've seen 42" sets around here. I like my 32" CRT set better.

I wonder if any of the manufacturers make a set with high-quality electronics that are backed with a real warranty?

I think the only way to get a decent warranty is to pay for it. Otherwise, you're stuck with the standard 90-days for parts and labor and parts-only starting at 91 days and ending at the one year mark. Before flat screens took off, someone I know bought a 27" Apex CRT TV from china-mart. It crapped out under warranty; but, the local china-mart told him that he'd have to ship the TV to an authorized service center, at his expense, to have it repaired. Shipping alone would have cost more than what he paid for the set and he ended up paying me to fix the set; which, had a shorted diode on the secondary side of the switching power supply. Once upon a time, stores stood behind what they sold and all one had to do was contact the store in which the TV was purchased and the problem would be corrected. Now, most stores, and companies, couldn't care less. They got your money and that's all they care about. If there was a legal way around it, they probably wouldn't even offer a warranty.

Now, it seems like everyone wants the biggest screen out there. For most of my growing up years, we had nothing bigger than 19" color TV's and we made out just fine. Back then, a 23" or 25" console was considered a big TV. Then, 27" TV's came out, followed by 32's", and they just kept getting larger. We didn't get a bigger TV until we got my Uncle's 25" Zenith console when he died in '94. Now, people ask how I can watch a TV that small when I tell them that the biggest TV in the house is a 27".

[CoogarXR]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

I wonder if any of the manufacturers make a set with high-quality electronics that are backed with a real warranty?

Unfortunately, there just isn't a demand for that sort of thing anymore.

Pioneer used to make very expensive high-quality plasma displays. I am not sure about their warranty, but most of them never needed it. There was so little demand for a high-end TV that they couldn't make any money doing it. Here's an article about it- http://www.businessweek.com/globalbi...212_424440.htm

Yeah Pioneer had a few dud models, but for the most part, every old Pioneer plasma I come across is still running. I have two, a 1998, and a 2006, both still running with no problems. I bought them both used, I could have never paid what they cost new. People are so scared of plasma TVs, you can pick up the old Pioneers pretty cheap now and have yourself a nice TV.

[Kamakiri]

Now the question becomes, if you could buy a TV, brand new, that was built like a 1960 RCA....genuine wood, direct wired, made in America, would you spend $3,700 for it?

[holmesuser01]

Personally, TV programming is going to have to move away from zillions of commercials every 4-5 minutes to make me even think about buying another TV, ever.

I'm on the satellite, and have 3 channels that I watch with some regularity.

It's so hard watching I Love Lucy sped up, edited, and added commercial breaks every 3-4 minutes. No wonder alot of younger people I work with dont like Lucy.
Uncut, the shows flow and seem longer than a half-hour... actually 25-26 minutes... I timed a Lucy show on Hallmark one day, and it ran just over 17 minutes. Awful.

Back to topic: I've seen 2 Pioneer plasma sets recently that are old, and heavy, but still have a very nice picture.

My main home sets are both CRT... 27" and 32". One is 15 years old, and the other is 21 years. The 21 year old has only had some soldering done as repairs in its entire time with me, and that was almost 16 years ago. The 32" came to me with bad soldering, and it looks lovely today.

As for the satellite, if they drop 2 of the 3 channels I watch, I'll drop the satellite.

[RobtWB]

appliance genocide :-(

I almost feel guilty ... I am about to commit such a crime

when I moved into this residence there was and still remains a '75 GE freestanding electric range in avocado green ... works as it should, even the clock timer is still functioning, looks almost new it does with the only visible flaw being corrosion on the spacer between the oven door glass
... but after all these years the oven insulation has absorbed enough odors from baking that it really smells when the oven is operating ... time for an "upgrade"...

but what / which brand to purchase ... looked at all the usual places I have and it appears all electric ranges available today are essentialy the same ... only the names silk screened on the front are different ...

does anyone have thoughts on Premier brand ranges ??? ... expensive they are ... made here in the USA ... must be American labor driving up the price ... but I do like the 40" wide models

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

I've seen 42" sets around here. I like my 32" CRT set better.

I dont blame you at all!!!!!! -- MUCH NICER

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I just saw an ad on TV, from one of the local TV/appliance dealers, advertising a 32" TV for $229. I'm sure these idiots around here will flock down there to buy one of those stellar TV's. They don't think about the fact that it will likely be in the dump in two years (or less).

Is that a hard and fast rule, or just something that was said once and repeated so often that it is now darn nearly universally believed as fact? I've seen the prices on 50-inch-plus flat screens, and it does not seem right to me in the least that these sets will fail in two years or so -- after the owner has paid such a high price; same for smaller TVs. Plus, I'm not crazy about the fact that my own Insignia 19" flat screen, bought new in August 2011, may and likely will fail the day after the warranty expires. Are these sets intentionally made to fail after only two years? Do the manufacturers put some kind of timer in the set that causes the unit to become unusable after 730 days or after the warranty runs out? (I don't believe so, since Best Buy does offer an optional four-year warranty extension which goes into effect the moment the original warranty expires; I didn't buy the extended warranty for my flat screen, but I did get it for my Blu-ray player and my flat-screen computer monitor. Go figure. )

What is so darned special about this two-year failure estimate for flat screens, and who came up with that figure in the first place? As I said in a post to Insignia's flat-screen TV forum some time ago, if the makers of flat screens don't start turning out sets that last longer, a lot longer, than the warranty or two years (!), whichever comes first, a lot of these offshore manufacturers and the retailers that sell their TVs are going to find themselves out of business before too long. Insignia is a house brand for televisions and audio/video gear sold by Best Buy, and as such the longevity of these products reflects directly on BB's reputation. Again, if many more of these Insignia TVs are returned to the stores with chassis problems or broken panels, etc., Best Buy may well find itself out of business entirely before too much longer. I am not actually expecting my set to go up in smoke the next time I watch it (or any time soon, for that matter), of course, but this business of almost any flat screen developing problems within a short (sometimes very short) period of time makes me wonder just how long my TV will last before it develops a serious repair problem and will have to be replaced. I will use my 12-year-old RCA CTC185 19" table set with a cable box if this happens, so I won't be without TV, but still I am very disappointed that flat screens -- especially the big 60-70" sets that carry $1k+ price tags -- are made to be discarded after they fail within two years (!), if the failure occurs after the warranty. Don't these stores or the offshore manufacturers of the TVs realize or care that most people cannot afford to buy a new television every two years or less? I have read on other FP TV makers' message boards that some people are now without television since their flat screens went bad, and these people discarded or otherwise got rid of the old CRT set when the FP set arrived. This cannot be good (in fact, it could be disastrous) for TV networks and their affiliates, either, since every lost viewer works out to so many lost ratings points; if a station or network loses enough of its viewers, the programs' ratings will suffer, and in the case of local TV stations, particularly those in smaller cities, the stations' very existence could be in jeopardy as well.

[Kamakiri]

I don't know about that. They'd probably just go to another brand, or have a spare CRT set around. Why? Sports. Take a football-filled Sunday away from most of the male population in the US, and they react like a crack addict jonesing for a fix

[holmesuser01]

I dont think that business cares anymore about their product lasting beyond the warranty. Have a problem? Buy another one.

They are building this garbage as cheap as possible, with cheap labor, and selling it to unsuspecting buyers under the tradenames that we grew up with, back when these brands ment quality.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

Personally, TV programming is going to have to move away from zillions of commercials every 4-5 minutes to make me even think about buying another TV, ever.

I'm on the satellite, and have 3 channels that I watch with some regularity.

It's so hard watching I Love Lucy sped up, edited, and added commercial breaks every 3-4 minutes. No wonder alot of younger people I work with dont like Lucy.
Uncut, the shows flow and seem longer than a half-hour... actually 25-26 minutes... I timed a Lucy show on Hallmark one day, and it ran just over 17 minutes. Awful.





As for the satellite, if they drop 2 of the 3 channels I watch, I'll drop the satellite.

Is all that compressing causing the distortion in all the old repeats that are shown on the various channels, such as METV, etc?

[DavGoodlin]

Is this what economists mean by the term "durable goods"?

There is a "trophy-class" Appliance store down the road that sells LG, Fisher-Paykel, Bosch, Amana, ASKO, Thermador, SubZero....... Ec

When I bought a Maytag dryer there, I got the "attitude" because I resisted the fashion upsell. They dont sell Maytag anymore. I often scope out their junkyard and surprised at how new some of the take-aways look.

I have a 2001 Maytag Dryer and 2004 Maytag Washer, both made in Newton Iowa.
These two replaced a posessed Kenmore propane dryer and ornery Kenmore Washer from 1993, bought then left by the previous homeowner.
These Maytags might be the last units i ever buy after reading some previous posts.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Is all that compressing causing the distortion in all the old repeats that are shown on the various channels, such as METV, etc?

I know what Holmesuser1 means when he speaks of shortened programs. One of my favorites, on MeTV weeknights, is "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", which was on CBS-TV in the 1970s. This program has been shortened as well, and I think much of that shortening was at the end of the show. I remember how most of those programs ended, and that part of the show was cut out. (I bet those MTM shows, once close to 30 minutes in length less commercials, are now no more than perhaps half that or less.) Takes almost all the fun out of watching these old shows, which were real comedy -- not like a lot of what passes for comedy and humor on TV nowadays. At least they didn't fiddle much with the DVD releases of these programs. The DVD versions may not be totally uncut, but at least there are no commercials, which is why I now have a collection of many of my favorite 1970s TV series on DVD and VHS.

I believe those shows are shortened for one and only one reason: so the network can squeeze in more commercials. I remember when there actually was a limit on commercial time in any given hour; I don't remember exactly what the limit was, but it certainly was less than two minutes an hour. (Well, at least cigarette commercials were banned in the early 1970s.) Now, TV stations and networks cram as many commercials as they think they can get away with (!) into an hour of programming -- and radio is even worse. I've all but given up on terrestrial OTA radio for that reason.

[Kamakiri]

Welp, gonna rescue another one

Picking up this GE on Saturday, I believe it's a 1941 or so. Looks VERY similar to my 1938 GE. It's been sitting under a covered carport for years, and still works fine. Best of all, it's free

[tvtimeisfun]

Hello very cool looking fridge good luck on your deal.. keep us posted...Timothy