Dos ANYONE here feel that our old "goodies" were REALLY meant to last 40-80 years??

[peverett]

I agree with Chad on the electrolytics. In fact, I was at a presentation about the design of micro-inverters(one per panel) for solar cells. As these are being designed to last as long as the panels(25 years), the design is completely avoiding electrolytic caps! They are a reliability issue even now!

[radiotvnut]

I know I've mentioned this somewhere before; but, I have a '48 Decca children's 78 rpm record player that has one side of the AC line connected directly to the chassis. The ground shield of the cartridge cable, which (of course) runs through the metal tonearm, is natuarlly connected to the chassis; thus, making the metal tonearm "hot". And, of course, the volume control shaft is hot. The only thing protecting the user is the knob. All it would take would be for the AC plug to be inserted the wrong way in the socket and for someone to have one hand on the metal tonearm and another body part to be in contact with a ground point and that would be all she wrote.

Something like this would never pass UL inspection today; and, I don't know how it passed back then, either. Especially since this item was marketed to children. To make it safer, I installed a line isolation transformer inside the case.

[zenith2134]

That was a wise thing to do. Some of these stories amaze me...unsafe products are an unfortunate reality.

I told this story on the A.K. site but I'll tell it again here. Growing up, my father had a fair amount of stereo gear set up around the house. 2 systems. Anyway, the garage/workshop system was based around a Carver 'The Receiver' (the one with sonic holography or something). Well, his unit must've had a fault somewhere because I was barefoot in the shed and the volume knob gave me quite a jolt. All metal knobs, which explains it...and why I should wear shoes out there .! I was like 13 at the time BTW.

Re: Our goodies lasting 40-80 yrs.: The way I see it, vintage color TVs are still around because their big-ticket item, the CRT, is often of high quality & can endure countless hours of operation. IMO, the reason why N.O.S. audio tubes(USA) are worth big$$ is because they were/are mostly a high quality product.

From experience, I have 'fixed' many many sets by replacing about 10 bucks worth of parts and putting in the labor. They usually stay good after that

[Electronic M]

Kiwick, there was insulation in some (very few, but some) american radios, they called it asbestos. I've only had two sets out of the approximatly 100+ radios I've owned that had this insulation(needles to say the sets don't have insulation any more). With all the hazmat I've been in contact with I would not be surprized if I start glowing in the dark Before I hit 25.

Tom C.

[Kamakiri]

It's interesting to think about it in reverse, and consider what people will be restoring in years to come, or what will be considered made very well now, that in the future will be made cheaply.

Think about the year 2040. Will people remember those well-made iPods, yearn for the days of Windows 2000, or do a ground-up restoration on a Hyundai Elantra?

When talking about the collectibles of the future, I predict two things will become very desirable: sneakers and import hatchbacks. Cars like the Acura Integra and Subaru Impreza are destined to become the next '57 Chevys, and if you want to have some cash onhand for retirement, buy a pair of purple leather Jordans and stash them in a box in your closet. I came across a rare pair of UK market orange suede Puma California sneakers at a thrift recently, in great shape. I always keep my eyes out for mint and unusual sneakers when I go thrifting.

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

It's interesting to think about it in reverse, and consider what people will be restoring in years to come

Probably the cheap garbage thats been made since the 90s!!

Quite sad.........

[old_coot88]

In the TV Sales&Service business in the 60s, 5 years was considered nominal service life for a color set, once it's nursed past the warranty.

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by old_coot88

In the TV Sales&Service business in the 60s, 5 years was considered nominal service life for a color set, once it's nursed past the warranty.

We had very few sales on 5 year and under color TVs. In the mid 70s when I took over the bench work for our business, I was working on a lot of early 60s TVs routinely.

But, we were in a decidedly middle class city so that could have a lot to do with it. There was guy who set up a TV sales/repair shop in a large exclusive retirement community in a wealthy low population suburb and those people would buy a new TV if their 3 year old TV conked out.

John

[old_tv_nut]

If I recall correctly, the major manufacturers aimed for 10 years service at 2000 hours per year, with "normal" maintenance. Much of the passive component life depends on time and temperature. Higher rated capacitors and resistors would price a maker out of the market. Of course, competition for selling price prejudices component choice against considering total lifetime cost of operation/maintenance. Contrasted to this, the telephone monopoly expected equipment to last 25 years with essentially zero failures.

There's also a peculiar effect of component manufacturing tolerance. Carbon composition resistors cannot be manufactured to a tolerance of 5%, so 5% tolerance resistors have to be selected at the end of the process. This means that 10% resistors used by the smaller TV makers tend to be toward either the high or low end of the tolerance, so that individual TV sets are closer to drifting out of design tolerance as they age.

Big manufacturers like Zenith could get a reasonable price for the tighter tolerance components due to large volume purchases, while smaller makers like Motorola used 10% parts unless it was determined that it would result in too many rejects at the end of the production line.