Trash Picked a 60" Vizio LED Smart TV
 

Hello Everyone, the other day I was at the local recycling center taking my recycling out and what to my surprise do I find sitting next to the last cardboard recycling container but a LCD TV someone tossed out, so I picked it up took it home with me, cleaned it up (it was covered with cat hair) and brought it in and plugged it in and turned it on, and low and behold it worked!

The TV Turned out to be a Vizio Model E601i-A3 60" Edge-Lit LED Smart TV from probably around 2015 or 2016 or so (there was no date of manufacture on the set, So I'm guessing about the age).

The picture quality is outstanding and it looks like its a low hours set (my thinking is that it may have been in someone's parent's house and they were put into a nursing home recently and they didn't want to deal with the TV so they dumped it at the Recycling center, either that or it was someone who had bought a new TV and they didn't want to deal with the TV so they just dumped it off at the recycling center), and I got a really nice TV for free and didn't pay a dime for it (except $8 and some change for a new remote for the TV on eBay).

What do you guys think? Did I score on this one?

Of course that's a huge score! 2015 model, 2016 went to the chicken feet instead of the stand.

That's good, I was thinking It was a decent unit.

I was looking at the the TV info, and from what I could see (although I'm not sure what I'm looking for) it looks like it's a low hours set, possibly less than 10,000 hours.

Here's a screenshot of the TV running.

Sometimes these things have a counter that tells you how many hours of usage it has. Check in the settings menu and look for an info section. My 2013 LG 32 inch 1080p set had around 1,900 hours last time I got bored and checked so your set here is probably well below 10,000.

I did find an information section in the TV's Help Menu but most of the information had abbreviations for their labels that told what each readout was supposed to be, so I had no idea what I was looking at. :sigh:

We've seen a few of these with bad displays, sometimes intermittent. Sharp made the display for the 60 and 70 inch versions of the i-A3 series (the 70 far more trouble). If the picture does weird things like get dark on one side or show persistence of the image, try grabbing the TV frame around the screen and twisting it a bit. That often gets them back in the 60s. In the 70s, the problem usually takes out the TCON.

John

Ok, that's good to know, but so far the tv is working fine, and I've used it several times over the past three days that I've had it.

It's probably fine, but it does happen.

About 8 years ago a guy brought in a Philips 46 LCD with intermittent image issues. I packed some soft foam between one of the touchy flex ribbons at the display and replaced the metal outer frame to keep pressure on it. It lasted a few days and repeated so I credited the guy and used the TV as a loaner. I showed the customers how to flex it if the image started sticking and used it that way for a year. Meanwhile, my CRT NEC 32" TV blew a hole in the flyback so I brought home the Philips to use temporarily. Eight years later it's still in my bedroom and hasn't acted up since. Odd.

John

What I've found is that the recycle center stuff is a notch above the RSF (road side finds) stuff. Most likely they tried to sell it on Craigslist and there were no takers. Or maybe they had trouble navigating the menus.
Once I picked up a very nice VGA projector from there. Now I'm looking for a dc to ac power inverter.

This wasn't found at an electronics recycling center it was found at a regular recycling center like where you recycle your bottles, jugs, cans, newspapers, and cardboard at.
And as far as them trying to sell on marketplace or craigslist goes and not getting any bites that's likely as well. But more than likely it was a case of someone buying a new tv and not wanting to deal with it so they dumped it at the recycling center, because believe it or not I live in a richer part of town by a bunch of half million dollar riverfront properties (the neighborhood I live in is a lower dollar neighborhood across the street from the river.)

Thanks for rescuing it nonetheless. I hate to see technology go in the trash.
Some of those recycling centers CHARGE for dropping off stuff. UNBELIEVABLE!!!
Congratulations.

Thanks, and yes I used to work at a sheltered workshop that had an electronics recycling program and they charged you when you dropped of old CRT computer monitors or TVs LCD computer monitors and TVs, computers, and radios/stereos they didn't charge you for. :sigh:

New Sign
 

Went by the unattended recycling bin and there's a new sign charging $35 for anything CRT. Yikes. BUT there was no one there to collect the $35.
There were two small portable colors in there that were anonymously dumped.
Guess there will be more on the roadside finds since no one is going to pay $35 to dispose of one.

Last Saturday, my wife dropped off 3 (working) 19" and 20" CRT tvs, and there was no charge. Broke my heart to see a 1981 Colortrak 2000 digital tuner in perfect condition go. I wasn't there to see it put down...

John

Went by the recycling bins last weekend and there were no TV's in there. Just digital telephones, keyboards and printers. BUT on the way there I discovered 2 Flat Screen RSF's (road side finds). Both were 32's. One a Vizio E320VL and the other was a Sharp LC32D50U. When I picked up the Sharp, I thought it was a plasma as it weighs about 50 lbs. So, people are just setting them on the road.