Afraid to ask but how bout zenith hybrid 1976 25" Early American Got one with 100 hrs on it since bought new by me and in storage 20 yr. I am going to use it in family room. At 61 I am going backwards. Seriously, are these sets safe to power up normally? It has varactor tuning ultrasonic space command. Remember this chassis had modular design. Am I going to go nuts getting this set to work?

I wouldn't be afraid to power up a 76 model normally. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if it works fine as is. However, if you have a Variac or some other similar device, it never hurts to bring them up slow. A lot depends on how long it has been dormant.

Some of the 70's Zenith sets had special constant voltage transformer/motor run capacitor setups in side them and can NOT be brought up slowly on a variac. I don't know if any of the hybrids had that transformer, but SS Chromacolor II sets did. I think Zenith dropped hybrid color sets between 72' and '74.
Rule of thumb if your Zenith says CCII(Chromacolor II) or System 3 then it is SS, but if it is just Chromacolor or has no fancy second name then it is tube or hybrid. Zeniths from the 70's tend to be quite reliable...They usually don't die, and instead they develop annoying intermitents that make you wish they would die so you can properly troubleshoot them...

My grandparents got a new Zenith 23V in 1974 to replace the 1966 23" color set they wore out. It had a chassis 23EC15 and that was the last hybrid tube Zenith. I think the Florida humidity killed the 66's flyback and I got a report of my Grampa gutting it, placing the chassis/CRT in the trash, then re-purposing the Italian Provincial cabinet, not funny when I would have gladly taken it for parts.

The 23EC15 was sent to my Aunt who had it a few more years, I did little more than test the 4 tubes and clean the tuner on 1 or 2 visits down to see everyone. The 23EC15 was the lower-priced alternative to a CCII, but this one was fairly trouble-resistant.:thmbsp: making a picture pretty much like a CCII
A few years later I fixed one with the same chassis and sold it, ending up exchanging it for an XL100 because it kept developing issues. I wrote it off as one of Zeniths few dogs.:thumbsdn:But, of course the CRT was strong.

I doubt its a hybrid, even the 13" set was SS that year (G-line).
It will have the regulating transformer/cap. IIRC as you crank it up
it will pulsate then sudently work at abt 85 V at full power.
I would just plug it in. As far as other problems go its the easiest
old color TV to deal with & parts still abound. It only takes the
slightest knowledge to walk through any problem.

73 Zeno:smoke:

For what it's worth, I just powered up a 1978 RCA directly without hurting it.

I generally plug in anything that was built after 1960. :thmbsp: