Any truth to fire risk with XBR Trinitrons?
 

I just got myself a Sony Trinitron KV-20XBR, a very lucky find. The person I got it from told me some story about how these XBR Trinitrons have a high fire risk because of the cord or something? Is there any truth to this? Seems pretty far-fetched to me...

Never heard of that, if it was true there would have been a recall.

I had an XBR from 1990 till 2005, excellent picture. The CRT was getting a little soft towards the end.

Ran my KV25XBR from '85-ish? to 2002, and still on occasion. No issues of heat, etc. either.

Never heard it & we were a Sony dealer. One thing on some older XBR's
was they got cold joints around the AC input & would cause the board to
burn but not a full scale fire. Sorry I dont know the model ##.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

I thought it was total nonsense.

This KV-20XBR dates from 1985 and works, though I haven't fed an actual picture into it yet.

I had a 25" XBR, paid out the Wazoo for it, got it IIRC in '85-86. it didn't last too long. Tube started "Blinking Out", turned black-or almost so, & would come back on for a little while, & then start doin' that again. Kept the speakers, never could get them to "Gee 'n' Haw" just right w/the set. Gave it to a veterinarian bud of mine-Think he may still have it. Was NOT impressed w/it. Think Sony's legendary CRT build quality had SERIOUSLY slipped by then.

I haven't handled an extensive amount of Trinitrons yet but the only one I felt was genuinely shoddy was a 1990 13 inch set where the plastic was worryingly thin in spots. But that 13 inch set was probably also the cheapest Trinitron Sony was selling at the time that wasn't a portable.

Never heard of this either. Now, a certain 42 inch Samsung plasma I had in my possession once... That's a different story. Y sustain went in smoke and did catch fire.

My experience was different than yours. I bought a floor model that had been there for 1.5 years, and was on all day every day during retail hours, and adjusted way hot on everything. It gave about 2 decades of service with one failure in the 'turn on' circuit, which was a $60 service at the time. Had lots of friends who used them in the 'pro-adjacent' market -- like monitors for conference rooms, etc. Picked up one from them for spares, if I ever need it.

Non-flammable?... Challenge accepted! :D

Shango66 has probably lit one of them up at some point.

Soviet era...
 

I remember reading that in the '70s Russian color TVs would burst into flames with people throwing them out windows...

I was quite dismayed w/my 25"XBR. Every other Sony product I'd had up to that point had been EXEMPLARY, no exceptions. Don't remember what it cost, but it WAS rather high, IIRC. Now, we have a 55" Sony wall mount set, & ITS on 18 hrs a day, nary a peep, except the volume control. But I kinda think my wife bollixed it up somehow, & managed to lose the OEM Sony phaser. So THAT'S not really the TV's-Or Sony's fault..

There was a memo floating around allegedly from Sony that seem to point at the HSTAT as being the problem. Had something to the effect of "stop using them immediately to avoid hazard"...

HSTAT pot is usually in the HV block. The casing can split and then they cause arcing or worse complete failure of the HV block. Most HV blocks had 2 adjustments in them. The HSTAT (horizontal static) which adjusted the voltage to the convergence plates internally in the tube and focus was usually the other adjustment. If you do have a hairline crack in the casing of the HV block I have had success covering it with epoxy and fixing an arcing issue that I had with one in a Sony KV-5200