TVs in storage; and "It Worked 15 years ago!"

[zenith2134]

Hey all

I was wondering how many of you have many un-used, idle sets in storage. I'm at a point where I have a lot just sitting in a heated attic in my mom's place. In the past I've ran 'em all every 1 to 3 months (at least) but now it looks like most will sit for longer....and most have.

Regarding electrolytic cans, mechanical tuners, speaker cones, and other " time-sensitive " parts, what is the bare mimimum I should be doing with my tv's? I realize crt's and other tubes are in a vacuum (obviously) and should be fine for many, many years but: Is yearly OK to run tube-chassis tv's and monitors? What about more modern sets?

Of course I was as smart as could be when putting em away. No moisture, rain, extreme temperature swings.....BUT in the summers, ambient humidity can go as high as 90%. Out of options, is this alright for a few summers?

Thanks, guys.

[Zenith26kc20]

I try and rotate the pieces. If they have been off a year I do variac them up and watch for electrolytics in distress. I have a pair of Allen Webster 90 amplifiers that sat about two years and it took about 12 hours of careful monitoring before the electrolyics were reformed.
I let my VT71 motorola sit waaaaay too long and the vertical couplings failed a few minutes after I turned it on.
I would try to keep TV's running as moisture and flybacks can be bad news

[jshorva65]

Originally Posted by zenith2134

Hey all

I was wondering how many of you have many un-used, idle sets in storage. I'm at a point where I have a lot just sitting in a heated attic in my mom's place. In the past I've ran 'em all every 1 to 3 months (at least) but now it looks like most will sit for longer....and most have.

Regarding electrolytic cans, mechanical tuners, speaker cones, and other " time-sensitive " parts, what is the bare mimimum I should be doing with my tv's? I realize crt's and other tubes are in a vacuum (obviously) and should be fine for many, many years but: Is yearly OK to run tube-chassis tv's and monitors? What about more modern sets?

Of course I was as smart as could be when putting em away. No moisture, rain, extreme temperature swings.....BUT in the summers, ambient humidity can go as high as 90%. Out of options, is this alright for a few summers?

Thanks, guys.

My recapped sets are all displayed in my heated house, but I don't always have enough spare time to give each of them the recommended minimum of 30 minutes operating time per seven-day rolling period. About 30 days of idle time is tolerable; but remove the Hor. Out. tube (or its plate cap if it's a series-heaters chassis), do the standard Soft Start procedure, and check for distressed electrolytics if the set has been idle much more than 30 days.

As for sets at the un-recapped staged that worked when put in storage years ago, these will need to be disassembled and thoroughly inspected as a prerequisite to soft-starting. This is especially true if the storage location is not climate-controlled. Many working-when-stored sets, barring those in which mice may have had the opportunity to nest, will pass a soft-start nicely. Jamie's Zenith Bug-Eye, scored on eBay, produced sound at the end of its soft-start and actually worked when I replaced a gassy 1X2 and re-connected the sweep plate cap. Recapping on that one was purely preventive work.

Repeated exposure to extremely-cold temperatures, as when storing sets in unheated buildings for several consecutive winters, can cause tube cathodes (mainly CRT's) to go dormant and require re-activation by connecting to a CRT Tester and raising the heater voltage about 25% above normal while watching the meter for a sharp increase in Emission. This "slow-cooking" process re-activates most dormant CRT cathodes within 15 to 60 minutes. Once the Emission peaks and levels off at its highest value, reduce the heater voltage to normal. The Emission at normal heater voltage should read well into the "Good" range on the tester and hold nicely during a Life Test (tester function which briefly reduces heater voltage) after the procedure.