I had two Heathkit tube color TVs, a GR-295 and a GR-180. Both were very very reliable.
The GR-180 did develop a CRT heater-cathode short the morning
of the first moon landing but I got it replaced in a couple of hours. But after that it
lasted about 6 years with no other problems at all. I'm very sorry I got rid of it
during a move and would love to have another one.

Nope, that was a chuck of carbon on a B+ trace to ground, found it using a variac (more like a sparkler than a fire cracker :D) Cleaned it off and been good ever since. It sure was exciting though when it went off the 1st couple of times I tried it at full line voltage.

[QUOTE=Kamakiri;3082162]My wife is amazing.

I will say that she never complains about anything I do or buy. We realize in each other that life is all about doing the things that make you come alive.....and this stuff makes me come alive. For her, it's road trips, good restaurants, and family....so we do that stuff too :)

Best thing I ever did was get hitched...But the WORST thing my wife ever did was get hitched-After all, she got stuck w/Moi....(grin) In all seriousness, Lauriann says I gave her something she never had-a HOME. She was an Army brat, lived a pretty nomadic existence. The stuff I've grown up w/& have had all my life-Going into shops, & they know you, knowing people on the street, not being concerned about talking to strangers, she never had that. I never thought much about it, but I guess if you never knew that, it IS a big deal.

Funny, I never watched any sports on tv, until..... they invented

W I P E O U T ! !


And the wife loves it too ! ! !

Um, YUP.

On my CTC-36, replaced 4 5GH8s on the first go round. After testing the rest of the tubes, it needs one more. Along with the 24LQ6 (nearly dead), 5AQ5, 3KT6 (weak and shorted), and 6HL8.

By the time I get done sourcing and buying these tubes (everything I have is too old, I spent an hour rummaging through my loose tube boxes), I will have replaced every tube in the set, aside from the 3A3....including the picture tube.

This is the way these sets were when new? Holy hell, it's a wonder anyone that owned one ever bought another RCA! :yes:

In my household, after the RCA CTC-22 it was all Sony Trinitron solid state sets... never looked back! Don't get me wrong, I love collecting and repairing the older sets, but they are not used for daily watching.

jr

Kamakiri's corollary to Murphy's Law:

In any color television receiver using n 5GH8s, n+1 will be bad.

:D

Cheers

My parents were poor, both emigrants from large families and both taken out of grade school to help their parents through the depression. So my farther managed to buy us a 17 inch black and white Travler set around 1956. I was 9 then and remember the endless problems we had with it. Put a bad taste in my mouth for reliability. As I grew up the Sony's appeared, first the 8 1/2 inch, then the tummy TV and so on. They were very reliable never broke down. When the first Trinitron's came along, snapped them right up. Like the other member said, never looked back, it was always going to be a Sony Trinitron until the flat screens came along.

The memory of that horrible Travler TV steered me away from American sets. I know that won't sit well with the members here, but I have no technical background to repair sets. I just wanted a television that would last and last and the Sony's never disappointed.

Having said that, I appreciated the romance of early color television and would love to find a RCA CT 101 and such other sets to add to my collection.

:lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

Back in the dark times, 1967, we bought our first 25" color TV: An RCA. It ran for 3 weeks, before it had a fire that burned the wall behind the set. Under warranty, of course. When the dealer called to tell us that it had been fixed, my mom informed the dealer that the set was coming back into this house over her dead body.

THEN, we bought a 23" Motorola. It got 3 CRT's in just over 2 years, but NOTHING was ever done to the chassis, ever. No tubes, nothing. Then, it moved to MY bedroom, where It ran perfectly for years. Then, the folks bought a new Magnavox console... their first fully solid state set. It had a few issues, but once the known problems were addressed, it ran fine from 1973-74 until 1980, when it got hit by lightning. They bought their first remote TV, a Maggie, in 1980, and it ran with zero repairs until 2003, when I gave them the 46" Mitsubishi, and a 32" Philips set.

So, our tube sets were the RCA and the Motorola. Even though our RCA nearly set the house on fire, the RCA sets were my favorite sets to repair when I started doing repairs for a living. Like some of you, I would buy a case of 6GH8's about once a year for stock.

Rarely even saw a Zenith anything in my shop, but I did start buying cases of Zenith 6GH8's when they started offering them over the RCA's. I've still got around 15 of these tubes on hand, and a big box full of 5GH8's.

I sure do miss the days of tube TV's. They were a class all their own.

When they got a few years on them most of them were like that.
Just like compactron sets ( GE, Admiral) you could replace most
of the low level tubes one at a time & see improvement step by step.
Problem was it got pricy & made the customer suspicious.
Actually had them come down & see on a few high tube count
jobs why.
After we pretty much stopped doing tube jobs the owner
took in a CTC36 charity case. He told me to use up all the tubes I
wanted for free since we would never sell them. Damn near
replaced all the tubes & it had one of the best pixs I have seen.

My only other major gripe with '36's & later hybrid RCA's was the rear
control assy,s were crap & they were awkward to do real work on.
We got the jig cables for them & just pulled the chassii to get
them right, saved time in the end.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Well, my name is zenithfan1, and I do love Zenith, they are very well made. I mean c'mon, we still are able to use them, and other brands 50 years after they were made. BUT, I have had the best luck with the CTC-9. My anniversary model has had around 450+ hours put on it since I recapped it and checked it out. Not one problem so far. The convergence has stayed spot on as well..and yes, I run it with a fan pointed at the back. I don't like to alter sets by installing one inside. I use a very quiet running Japanese made 1968 Sears oscillating fan on low. As far as my luck with Zenith, my unrestored 25MC33 "constantine" model combo is still working fine, after 100's of hours that I have put on it, I have no idea how much it was used in the past. The only repair tag it has is dated 1969...... :) My restored CTC11, blew a new cap that I have to replace. New parts suck....... :P Other than that, and a weird glowing 6BK4 issue that I have to track down, it has been a good set too.....My vote goes to the CTC9! Best so far in my experience. Not much of a fan of RCA after the CTC16XL. The later tube sets just suck in my opinion. Newer stuff, has to be a Zenith. (mid 60's to late 70's)

The OEM tubes had white printing, instead of red. IIRC, some were GE and Westinghouse, as well.

Oddly enough when they were popular I detested Magnavox colors. Hard to work on and always had tuner and vertical problems. Now, my T-933 is a workhorse (and my avatar). It has wonderful color and, once straightened out, very reliable. Original flyback and yoke and electrolytics! The vertical was recapped a while back and the picture tube was replaced a good while back.
Now, the GE KEII chassis was a good one to make a tech go nuts!

Tube Set Reliability
 

So, Kamakiri, did you original question ever get answered?

I would submit that reliability of consumer electronics has to be considered in relative terms. Can tube sets be made to work reliably? Yes, as long as one considers that these devices were relatively expensive, and unreliable compared with modern sets. I heard stories that 2-3 years was a common lifespan of early color sets (1950's and 1960's). That from a former professional repairer! it was not uncommon for a color set to go less than a year between repairs. When the frequency of repairs got to 1-2 months, or CRT replacement was necessary, many customers considered that unacceptable.

Of course, customers and repair professionals were all over the map in terms of acceptability of repair cost, and recommendations for set replacement.

Solid state electronics brought some improvement, but not to the degree that was promised. I heard and saw early SS adverts and science articles that suggested that SS sets would NEVER fail. Yeah, right! It appears that improvemnts in design, manufacturing techniques, and materials science produced the remainder of the gains, until low cost became the prime objective, bringing us to the time of the 2 year flat panel, where we are today. if that's the basis for comparison for reliability, then yes tube sets can compete... :D