to unplug or not to unplug
 

Since my crosley had a flyback fire it leads me to a question. I was given a 1978 Wards color tv, it runs well, am I wrong in unplugging the set when I am done with it? The set sits in my finished basement and if it would catch fire it could do serious damage before anyone knew about it. Thanks, Doug.

Any equipment I have that I'm leaving off for any duration longer than a couple of days I unplug. That goes for modern equipment as well as the old stuff. The reason for the modern equipment is that it tends to be wasteful of power, with indicator lights and all sorts of weird power sucking behavior. Older equipment (especially tube based) is unplugged for fire safety, etc or the power sucking of "instant start" equipment.

David

I only have my vintage radios, TV's and stereo's plugged in during use. Once turned off, I promptly unplug them. Always have and always will do it that way.
Dan

Probably wouldn't be a bad idea.

Get an outlet strip with a switch on it. They're nice and cheap, and the switch cuts off the juice to the plugs.

Yeah, I have several outlet strips and just switch them off when I leave the room. Or when done, very easy.
Dan

I vote for unpluging or using a power strip with on / off switch.

...

Installing a network of powerline operated smoke alarms would be a good idea as well.

In any old equipment I like to make sure I put a fuse between the power line and any thing else in the circuit (if one is not already there), that way if there is any kind of short, even like in the power switch or something, you're protected.

I use the outlet strip mentioned by MRX37. However, this is mainly to save the mechanical on/off switch in the set, not to prevent fires. I turn the set switch on, then turn the outlet strip on. This way, hopefully, there will be no arcing in the sets on/off switch as contact is already made.

I also install fuses as mentioned by Chad.

Here's another vote for unplugging or using an outlet strip.

I plug everything into those strips and switch them off whenever I go out.

My restored daily use sets remain plugged in as they did when new without any problems. My display shelf with working radios and TVs get turned off by the power strip switch when not in use.

All of my stuff is on power strips since a 21" Admiral nearly caught fire in my living room a few years ago.

If the equipment has a 2 pole power switch as the first connection point for the power cord, i leave it plugged in.

i leave my 2000's stuff plugged in, even my 80's stuff i leave pluged in, good thing my 90's stuff dosnt have those blinking red leds or they wouls suck power

I always plug my things into a switched power strip and turn the strip off when i am done watching listening etc, i've had several things which the power zip cord is decaying or has nicks in it and a zip cord can cause a fire too.

I unplug. When I was younger, we had a lightening strike close to the home. The computer, which was plugged into a power strip, took a hit. The lightening arced across the switch in the power strip and went kablooey.

MK

My boatanchor rigs get powered down with a plugstrip, too. And for the same reason as peverett does. The only time the strip gets pulled from the wall is when we have lightning storms (a very common event here in FL.)

It's like I tell people, the best lightning protection is to pull the AC plug and disconnect the antenna/cable.

The only time I'll leave a vintage piece of equipment plugged in is if it has been gone over (i.e., new capacitors, good AC cord, etc). I will unplug my vintage equipment if I leave home for an extended period or if there's bad weather. I usually don't leave any vintage equipment in operation unattended. This is especially true of TV's. I've known people to go on vacation for a week or two and they would leave their modern TV's on. Even though modern TV's are newer and are supposed to be safer, I don't advise leaving them on, unattended, fot days or weeks at a time.

This TV was left on and "unattended" for awhile.

I never could find out what brand the TV was. Whatever brand/model it was, it was built very well...

The problem is modern sets are dangerous too in my opinion some modern sets are more of a fire hazard than vintage sets,as a tv serviceman that works on modern and old equipment recently I saw a philips cd/tape/tuner/amp combo that had a standby power supply that was un-fused that went up in smoke due to a shorted FET and due to it being un-fused it melted the input inductor on the board so bad that two pins came unsoldered from the board,thank god for that otherwise it would have caught on fire,I will post pictures of the board if I can find it.Also I have seen power supplies in modern sets notably wally world specials built by orion self destruct violenltly due to poor design or faulty chinese electrolytics.Also I have noticed that sets more prone to this are newer than 1999 not saying it can't happen with any set but that is when they really started to cheapen designs.

I guess it might depend on the law of diminishing returns. you could completely unplug everything in your house, when you go on vacation. but there is the possibility that the house wiring itself, might arc and create a fire "which happened to my dad's house in 1996" At least with a potential faulty power strip there is the possibility for a lawsuit against the manufacturer.:nutz: Logan